How to motivate child who cannot be arsed?

[brimfull]

ds is only 8 but does bare minimum work at home and at school
does what he has to do but absolutely no extra effort put in at all.
if he's like this now god help him when he's a teenager

how can I kick him up the arse

ideas welcome

What about trying to find out what DOES really interest him? by trying enough different things, could you find something where he himself is intrinsically motivated?
Or is there something about a situation in which he is motivated? one-to-one? in a science museum with attractive hands-on experiments where he can choose the activity himself? with a particular teacher?
At least by finding what does motivate him and in which situations he is motivated, you could learn things about him, which might allow you to help him in general???
Or is there something stopping him from putting in the effort (friends who make clear it is not cool? a teacher who belittles him or makes him feel stupid?).

he is quite bright , well top sets at school but only in yr 3
but isn't interested in school work
times tables/reading etc
he's meant to practice at home
he can't be bothered
but does do ok when tested
but he could do so much better if he just out a bit of effort into practicing

as for what motivates him
sports and playstation basically
he's very enthusiastic about school things other than the stuff he needs to knuckle down and just learn like times tables etc
loves school
he's classic 'could do better' kid

train him like a dog. with chocolate buttons instead of markies. it's the only thing that works with my ds.

Yup prob the only thing that will work.

I HATED learning times tables at school ... I just found it so boring. I went on to get a grade A in A level maths and a very good physics degree ... and nowadays it doesn´t matter greatly that I take a while to remember 7 X 8!
Very often, people who get first class degrees, didn´t get straight A´s at A level. People´s ability does change very much depending upon what they are doing and how interested they are in it. And some people are good at exam technique while others are so clever they realise that they don´t even need to do that well in those exams, but they´ll save their energy for the really important ones later down the line.
He sounds like he is a classic "will do better" kid ... just wait and see!

Having said that, if he´s not interested in reading, I would try to shop around to find books he is interested in... I really believe that EVERY kid can love books - it´s just a case of finding the stories which really catch their imagination and open a new world to them.

Competition - is there a homework club he could join or could you set one up.

Or make it a 'as soon as you finished this dull thing you can do this exciting thing game.

But yes maybe all it needs is a bit of time.

I have a four year old who refuses point blank to get dressed or do anything other than maths - wanna trade? She's mostly naked though

I could of written you op a couple of yrs ago, my dd was the same very bright but just not that bothered, was more interested in cartoons and playstation, she is 14 and yr 9 now, straight A* student, no problems at all at school ( still can't be that bothered with homework etc), but never the less does what is necessary and obviously more ! don't worry he will be fine.

That is good to hear Sanesometimes1 because my dc is just like the op and he is a year or so older.

OP I do sympathise with you. Have no idea how to change it myself either though.

My ds is like this too. He isn't very motivated by bribery or by poor grades either (he gets very upset about them, admits it's mostly because he doesn't work very hard, says he will try harder and then it slips again). If he is interested in something it is a different matter. One of his teachers said that he will do better as he gets to chose his subjects more. He is dyslexic though so there are some good reasons for doing the minimum as it is quite hard work for him to write, but he quite happily admits he only does enough to get by.

Thanks for your replies
good to know about your dd sanesometimes..hope for ds yet then
think I'll restrict the playstation until some work is done,

My DD2 was the same as your DS, until this year. She just could not be bothered with school/homework etc. I knew she could do better than the slightly above average results she was getting. She really underperformed in her GSSEs.

She is now in Sixth from and is at last putting effort in and really enjoying her subjects. She is doing English lit and Englis lang, somedays she does English all day and she loves it. She is predicted 2 As and a B for her AS levels, which I am really pleased about, and should get her into a good uni.

Just keep "encouraging" him, until he finds something he loves.

I think any child will work hard at what they love. So what does your son spend his time doing?

My teenager spends every spare moment on the computer, he's bored with playing games mainly now so is writing his own. If he can stay in the top sets at school without hours of homework then that is great.
For reading to become enjoyable their reading age needs to be greater than 11 really, so you may need to work at it for a bit, but do also let him read whatever books he wants (not just stories).

My ds2 was like this throughout school. Scraped through GCSES and didn't even get top quality A levels. I was in despair of him ever achieving anything worthwhile but he's is now doing a PhD