Kids seem a lot more willing to push the boundaries with a parent than with a "real" teacher. Drives me nuts.
I think of it like playing a fish that you're reeling in (not that I fish) -- you have to sense when to reel in a bit, when to let it go slack a bit, but always trending towards your goal. (Which is, ultimately, them doing the work promptly and with good grace.)
One thing I do is call her out when she uses excuses that I know are just excuses, like she just CAN'T find a comfortable position to do her read-aloud. If I let her know that I know it's a delaying tactic, she will deny it furiously, but then she is much less likely to do it again in the future.
If she's being REALLY resistant, I will use the same system I use for getting her to do chores or get out the door on time, which is three-strikes-and-then-consequence system. (Some people drop a marble in a jar or some other noticable sensory event for the warnings, but since I don't always have marbles handy I use finger snaps. I always have my fingers with me.)
I try not to use overbearing authority too much with this kid, because she HATES knuckling under and it's bad for our relationship, but there are a few things where I draw a hard line and she knows it, and that helps.
Because she's smart and self-aware, I find that talking about the issue explicitly helps. I note to her how much time we wasted, and give her my estimate of how fast she could have been done if she'd just done it. I know that some parents can repeat this till they're blue in the face and the kid doesn't care, but mine does seem to get it to a certain extent.
I also limit the subjects that I insist on. Reading and math, and that's it. Everything else is "fun learning," and I sometimes have to nudge gently that we're going to read some history now instead of more Pippi, but generally she's into it.
I don't care that she's resenting the math at this early age. I keep telling her that she's working on learning the tools right now (four functions, fractions, decimals), and after that she'll be ready for "real" math, which will be a lot more interesting.
I do try to mix it up with math, doing different iPad games or board games to practice certain topics. But it's a fine line, because too much "gamification" leads to a sense of entitlement, where she complains about the game because it has some math in it and isn't pure game!
I started out feeling like we had to progress through a math book, but the longer I do this, the more of a sense I get of what she understands and what she doesn't, and what she needs to work on next. The workbooks were just a proxy for that.
Whew, that was a lot! I hope at least some of that was helpful!
