We're dealing with this right now with DS9. He does just enough to get by (and his 'getting by' is usually pretty good with little to no effort) and I haven't figured out what truly motivates him. We're planning for homeschooling next year and are hoping that will refresh his desire to learn and that we might see some of the spark come back.
I don't know that it's a perfectionism issue, but DS isn't interested in improving on anything that he doesn't do well...he would rather gripe than work to improve his typing skills, say "I don't care" rather than practice TKD, etc. Is it simply that if he doesn't do something well, he just won't care to do it? I get that with some things, but how do I motivate him to try to improve on the necessary things?
I've seen suggestions on getting kids started in something that they're interested in, but not great at, so that they'll have to put some effort into it. However, I've yet to find something like that for my kid - not that he's great at everything, just that he's not interested enough in something he's not great at to try and develop it.
Could this be a maturity thing? Any BTDT/advice/suggestions?
My DS8 is similar. One method I have found to get him interested in something is to use the good ole Tom Sawyer trick. I will start doing *whatever* and get totally into it without saying anything. Sooner rather than later the kids want to know what Mom is up to and then they want to try but I say "Noooooooo, hmmmmmmmm not right now I am really getting into this." Then they REALLY want to try. "Mom, come on, you had a turn let us try!" And I say "Give me a minute. I'm not done." By this point I could be deboning chicken for gosh sake and they would want desperately to try it.
I have used this to interest them in certain books, educational software, puzzles, games, workbooks etc.
Note: To keep them interested is trickier and I will often check in with them to ask questions and show my continued interest or I will challenge them if it is a game etc.
