I wonder if anyone has any suggestions in general about how to teach the value of working hard at something. I noticed lately with DS that he loves playing math games that are easy for him, but if he has to think then he switches off. It's as if he's scared to think. I don't believe that he's scared to fail, since that doesn't seem to be a general trait of his. He just seems unhappy that the answer hasn't immediately popped into his head, and so he starts trying anything that occurs to him. The problem doesn't require much thinking, and it's thinking he knows how to do, but somehow he'll do anything to avoid it. I suppose the equivalent in music is playing the pieces you already know well instead of the pieces that need work. Any tricks for encouraging the latter?
I will tell you what works here as far as math is concerned. Competition with dad!
Example = I spend a lot of time with my DS, a math oriented kid, in a car, driving him places. This spring he was working on some tough math problems. I suggested he uses his "car time", and he was trying to. He was solving those math problems until he got stuck on one and then started saying that it is way too difficult for him and how he needs dad to actually help him. Well, he calls dad on his cell and says that he is absolutely stuck on question so and so and that this is the area of math he never had any exposure to. DH, who happened to have those questions in front of him (a well organized family working towards a common goal
says "let me think". DH calls DS ten minutes later and says "I've got the answer". DS screams "DON'T TELL ME" and starts writing vigourously in his notebook. Two minutes later he screams "I GOT IT" and calls DH to check the answer with him. It is correct.
I stress the fact that it took him only 2 (two) minutes to solve a problem he thought he had no idea how to even approach.
So my answer is COMPETITION, be it with dad, be it with age mates.
