So, scenario on this child. He's the oldest of 3, 10 yrs old, no learning disabilities that I know of, although he does tend to have some odd quirks (covers have to be just so at night, along with his door), can carry on quite a conversation with adults, is able to safely shoot guns with his father (not foolish acting, unless he's around his buddies
), and seems to be an average learner. My problem is I think he's smarter than what any of his work shows. He says he is easily distracted. I sent him off this morning to read through and do 3 pages of Bob Jones 4th grade English. I thought this would be fairly easily done. He comes back after a long time in his room (approx 45 minutes) with a little over 1 page finished, and on that page that he had finished he didn't read the directions very well so we had to go back through everything. This is typical, so most of the time I stay sitting by his side while he does his work. Sometimes, though, I have actually seen him be able to do some things quickly and without help....just on the odd occasion. I feel like I'm babysitting him and that at some point he has to learn to deal with his own work and get it done in a timely manner. I'm just wondering if this is typical boy stuff, or if there are other kids out there that are like this? Does this sound like ADD? If it does, are there any non-prescription ways of helping him out?Things do go much better when I'm sitting right next to him, but how long can this go on? Is this something that kids slowly outgrow? In a way some of the things he does is funny, but most of the time I just want to scream about it. I won't even let him have a drink at the table because he will not leave the drink alone. My husband says he's just a boy and because he isn't interested in English or math he's just tuning things out. What do you think?
Alison
Another good thing to do is to keep his work area uncluttered with very little around him to distract him - i.e. a quiet work place with no music, etc. on, probably no snacks/juice either during work time, but maybe later as a separate time for just a break, since that is what he'd be doing anyway during that time. My middle ds is somewhat this way. His snack time is completely unproductive and has become just a nice and needed break for him. 
One thing that helped my distractible middle ds is to do my teacher part with him in a block of time, then write on a marker board the independent things he had to finish, so he could check them off (or erase them) as he finished them. This seemed to help him stay more on track as he realized what he had to do and what came next. I do have to check on him often, but it is worth it as he finishes in a more timely fashion then. You probably will want to make a mental note of a halfway point to check on ds for his independent work. For example, if he is to do his grammar independently and you think it should take him about half an hour, check on him in 15 minutes and let him know he should be halfway done. This gives him some independence but helps you keep tabs on him somewhat so an entire hour is not gone with work not being finished. I'd encourage you to check out R & S English and do a good portion of it orally with him as this can be done efficiently and quickly, but if you've already firmly decided on the other grammar, perhaps portions of that can be done orally instead too. 
Hope something here helps! 
His English subject seem to drag on and on. I'm switching up our usual math right now just to give me a little break with him. I caught him staring out the window twice w/i ten minutes of my sneaking in to check on him...this was all while he was supposed to be doing his math. And yet he's my class clown, my infuriating adorable class clown who is almost as tall as I am, but very much still a little kid. 