How to motivate DS?

[AbbyR1973]

DS1 is approaching the end of reception. He is quite a bright boy doing rather well and ahead of all of his classmates in both reading and numeracy.
I am increasingly getting the impression though that at school he is racing through small task he is given (bearing in mind they are only in reception which naturally is mostly play based) so that he can rush off and qplay. It appears that he is generally putting in minimal effort for work based tasks. The result is that whilst the school are clearly aware he is working ahead of the class in many areas they do not have an accurate idea of what he can actually do because he isn't doing it at school.
An example would be reading- at home it is early chapter books read with fluency and some expression in a clear voice. He is able to recount what he has read, predict what will happen next and would for example be able to talk about whether a character was good or bad and give examples to back up his answer. At school he has been on books around Level 8-9 ORT for some time, hence I asked if he was ready for the next level given the discrepancy with what he reads at home. It then came out that when he reads at school he rushes, mumbles or reads quietly, skips words and when asked about the story simply says " I don't know" or " I can't remember"
In writing he will take himself off with scrap paper at home and write little stories with lovely handwriting for his age but I have seen his writing book at school and it is very clearly 1 sentence written in haste and sloppy looking.
He is at a lovely school and his teacher is really supportive of him but I'm sure this minimum effort attitude will not wash in year 1 where it is more work and less play based and I'm a bit worried as to how to motivate him. He gets lots of praise whenever he comes home with an award or merit from school. Any other ideas??

I personally wouldn?t worry at the moment. It sounds like he is doing well. He is still very young and obviously prefers the play based to the more formal learning ? which I really don?t think is a problem at this age.
In Y1 the day will be more structured, he won?t have the feeling that he is having to read/write rather than playing as the tasks become compulsory. If it?s still a problem by Christmas then you can start to worry, but I suspect he will respond positively to the more formal environment. 

Thanks red sky. That's reassuring, hopefully he will see it that way. :-)

Was just about to put the same as Redsky.

I would not worry either. In reception they can be called to read 121 with their teacher and can see their best friend playing a game and want to join in.

This won't happen in yr1 so you may find he is not so distracted.

DD is in reception and can be the same (with her writing) but at the same time she is more than ready for yr1.

I would say the same. my daughter is in reception too. She loves doing her work though. I had to raise it at the last parents evening that she was upset she didn't get the chance to do the tasks the way she wanted to (it seemed to be you do your work then go and play so she wanted to play but she also wanted to write her story in more detail than they expected etc) but it seems to have settled down now. Once he gets into Yr1 and realises he needs to do more then he will no doubt just get on with it.

similar with the reading - chapter books at home but level 8 at school, they kept sending home books though that had been reevaluated as level 10 but were still in box 8 so I queried it and they tried her with box 10 and that is where she is now.

Yes, same as redsky! DD mucked about in Reception and coasted. In Y1 there was a major change - Reception is a lot about settling them in and learning through play. In Y1 they are introduced to a much more formalised style of learning and tasks. DD's teacher well and truly got her to knuckle down!