I'm not sure how to overcome this problem.
Don't tell them it's educational?
I remember that one Christmas long ago my parents gave my brother and I the Children's Britannica. I only vaguely remember my age then, perhaps 7 or 8, and my brother two years older. I spent many hours over the years reading it avidly. It is only now, having googled it, that I discover that its contents were deliberately related to the school curriculum of the time.
I'd definitely avoid making a big deal out of it being educational or related to school. (Unless their educational experience is very unusual.) This is cool, interesting stuff you're giving them! Obviously, this relies on you being able to sell that idea to the child.
If the direct sales approach seems unlikely to work, you can make it available without much fanfare but give just enough of a hook for their curiosity. (If they're incurious, that's probably the place that'll yield most benefit,)
My parents - I now realise - did a lot of this, "happening&...
I'm finally getting around to reading "Thinking, Fast and Slow". Much of it I had already learned on LW and elsewhere. Maybe that's why my strongest impression from the book is how accessible it is. Simple sentences, clear and vivid examples, easy-to-follow exercises, a remarkable lack of references to topics not explained right away.
I caught myself thinking "This is a book I should have read as a kid". In my first language, I think I could have managed it as early as 11 years old. Since measured IQ is strongly influenced by habits of thinking and cognitive returns can be reinvested, I'm sure I would be smarter now if I had.
So I have decided to buy a stack of these books and give them to kids on their, say, 12th birthdays. Then maybe Dan Dennett's "Intuition Pumps" a year later - and HPMOR a year after that? I would like to see more suggestions from you guys.
It should be obviously better to start even earlier. So how do you teach rationality to a nine-year-old? Or a seven-year-old? Has anybody done something like that? Please name books, videos or web sites.
If such media are not available, creating them should be low-hanging fruit in the quest to raise the global IQ and sanity waterline. ELI5 writing is very learnable, after all, and ELI5 type interpretations of, say, the sequences, might be helpful for adults too.