Getting a pre-teen to FOCUS

[jackbanta]

I thought I'd post about this here since it seems a lot of members of this forum homeschool their children... or at the very least, definitely know a thing or two about concentration.

My stepdaughter is 12 and in the seventh grade. Her grades have been slipping the last several years and it seems to be really hitting rock bottom lately. She's not a stupid girl by any means, but I know that when I'm working with her, getting her to pay attention to anything school-related is almost impossible. When I actually can grasp her attention for a few moments, she picks up very quickly, but she rather sit there and pretend that she's dumb a lot of times than listen to what I'm saying.

I know this isn't unusual behavior for a child, but I'd love to know if anyone here has a good ideas on how to increase attention span, any sort of program perhaps or something that not incredibly tedious that she might actually enjoy doing. I've been getting her to read books a lot more lately, which I think helps a little bit, but I'd like to see what else anyone has done that they've found to be effective!

Thanks in advance!