Often my youngest (5 yrs old) just refuses to read or do some maths. This quickly becomes a battle of wills which I mostly lose. I have a couple of things that I try and find work more often than not - nothing works 100%

READING: I make a deal to read 1 page for every page he reads, if this fails I offer 2 pages for every 1 page he reads. Sometimes he just will not budge, then I resort to a game of reading football. In this game there is no ball, I do all the reading, he has to spot my deliberate reading mistakes he scores a goal everytime he spots one BUT if I make a mistake and he misses it then I score a goal. We usually play first to 10 goals. I make mistakes on words that he has difficulties with as well as more familiar words. Generally, I make sure he loses 25% of the time as I find it stops him getting big headed. I find that these games keep him motivated and improve both his concentration and reading skills. Note it also keeps my sanity and more importantly we spend time having fun one way or the other.

MATHS: When he just will not do maths we go out and play football in the garden or the park. He likes to go in goal and make saves; the rules are that I take a shot for each maths question he gets right. The questions can be simple addition and/or subtraction. I find that this motivates him to concentrate and practice.