My 8 year old is very smart and catches on quickly with his schoolwork after it is explained well, and he understands. I need help on how to teach him to make himself stay focused and listen to his teacher, without constant reminders, a teacher of 25 kids can't remind him to listen constantly like i can when i'm working with him. please help.

Try an all natural and or organic diet. Eliminating processed food, artificial colors and flavors does wonders for attention spans and behaviors.

There is a good chance that he is zoning out because he does catch on so quickly and he gets bored listening to the teacher explain it so all the other kids understand. My husband had the same problem with my stepdaughter in first grade and the teacher recommended having her tested to see if she would be better off in the advanced class. She scored very high and so in second grade she started in the enrichment program. That solved the problem. The schoolwork was more advanced and provided more of a challenge which helped keep her focused and more involved. Unfortunatly her mother (who has residential custody) moved to a different school district which did not have an enrichment program so now we are having that same problem again. I just sat her down and explained that, while its wonderful that she catches on so quickly, other students don't and need more instruction. I told her that when her teacher has to stop the lesson to ask her to pay attention to what was she was teaching it took away from other children and made it harder for them to learn. She would also finish her independent classwork quickly and then would try to talk to the other students. I met with the teacher and explained that she may need additional busy work to keep her occupied when she finishes her assignments. I just told my stepdaughter that if she could not follow the rules and if I heard from the teacher that she was not paying attention or was being disruptive during lessons that she would have to lose privleges at home as well. I would look into whether your son's school offers some sort of advanced or enrichment program, if they don't then you will need to explain to him why his behavior is disruptive and unfair to the other students and set up some sort of consequence system at home like no tv that weekend or no video games. Keep in contact with the teacher to see if you can come up with a plan that would keep your son challenged and therefore more focused.