practicing a musical instrument, how to get him to do it?

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The problem with my kid was (apparently) that the stuff was too easy. He picks up some of the hardest stuff in the piano literature and works it out himself (sometimes 9 hours at a time). We have a friend who is a professional, who will listen to him occasionally, but she'll say, well, I don't think Ravel would have done it that way....I think he would have done it more like this....and she plays it.....doesn't make a point of it, and lets him go on. She has also told him on more than one occasion, "what you're doing with that is very good. I don't agree with you, but you're playing it very well." At least he will think about her suggestions and try them a few times her way, and then decide. She was educated in Moscow, so the very fact that he can keep up with her (well, sort of) is a source of satisfaction to us.

This is what you have to look forward to if he sticks with it. My kid is 18, and like I say, we bought him the piano (and the drums, and the keyboard, and the synthesizer, and the clairinet...we drew the line at tympani....but he plays those too), and that's in his spare time.

Your kid will be okay.

Sit back and enjoy.

BTDT

On the attention thing, do his lessons need to be that long? It is a widely quoted figure that the attention span of a fully grown adult is little more than 45 minutes. I used to have half an hour piano lessons.
If he can play the pieces without practise I doubt he needs to practise them, does he have chords, scales and sight reading to do though. Whilst possibly the latter 2 are more piano orientated, they really develop your finger positioning, finger dexterity and ability to read the music quickly.