How To Motivate Your Children To Learn
How To Motivate Your Children To Learn
Learning can be stressful for children, especially when feeling pressured to achieve high marks. Kids often lack the motivation to study when they become easily distracted, bored, or embarrassed to make mistakes. This eventually leads to a feeling helplessness with an ‘I give up’ mentality when studying gets even the slightest bit tough. However, there are easy ways that you can help overcome these barriers where your child can actively engage and participate in class or homework. Here are some strategies that will help motivate your children to learn to the best of their ability.
- Provide them with the best resources
Offer your children with the best resources to support their studies. Enrol your child in tutoring sessions to ensure that they are being understood and catered to their individual learning needs. Your child will feel less pressured in class by receiving the additional support outside of school times where they can excel and work confidently in class. They will feel like their learning is being valued and will note its importance. An efficient alternative to traditional tutoring is Cluey Learning, which provides online tutoring lessons without requiring to travel to the physical location of your tutor. Through an interactive learning platform, your tutoring sessions are conducted face-to-face in real-time face-to-face and around your own schedule.
- Shift motivation incentives
Rather than looking into tangible rewards, you should encourage your child to be motivated by intangible rewards that can be based on recognition, achievement and praise. Intrinsic motivators will allow your child to be self-motivated rather than requiring treats or physical rewards. They will also work towards improving personal goals as a guideline to their success, rather than competition against others to ‘win’ a trophy or prize. Using positive words of encouragement can help foster a positive and supportive learning environment whilst motivated by emotional rewards.
- Create the right atmosphere
If your child is studying in an environment where they can be easily distracted, they will more likely to go off topic and be invested in other activities. Ensure that environment they are studying or learning in allows your child to be engaged in their classwork. Use interesting means such as creating games, cue cards, whiteboards or even technology to pique the interest of your kid to learn through inventive and creative ways.
- Integrate learning in everyday life
Learning shouldn’t only be limited in the classroom but should be continued throughout your child’s everyday life. Incorporate a ‘word of the day’ activity where your child can learn a new word every day and will have to use that word as much as possible throughout the day when the opportunity arises. Similarly, allow your children to learn about things they already love, like the history of their favourite pet.
You can also encourage your child to join a sport or activities where their cognitive processes are highly essential. Strategic games such as chess, scrabble or even rock climbing are fun ways where your child can learn and figure out situations on their own. This gives a chance for continuous learning even outside the classroom and allows your child to remain independent.
- Provide choice
Give your child choice in their studies to make studying fun and personal. Go stationary shopping with your child and allow them to pick out a favourite pen, pencil and pencil case. Your kid can even help select what colour smart tablet cover or laptop case when you are purchasing educational technology for your children. They can also be given the choice of what homework they wish to do complete first and help plan out their studying schedule. Being in control of their own learning will allow your kid to hold accountable for their actions and responsible to remain committed to studying.
- Make reading enjoyable
Whether it is reading the menu at a restaurant, instructions in a toy manual or even kids’ karaoke, give plenty of opportunities for your child to read. Take your child to the library to pick out their favourite fiction book to take home to read in their spare time. You child can also explore the non-fiction section and select a topic that they are interested in and read up on that particular topic. Whether it be about dinosaurs, magic tricks, space, hamsters or even cooking, your child has a chance to discover new interests or improve on existing ones.
The motivation to learn won’t only be altered from a single strategy, but rather a range of ones that aligns to your child’s personality and needs. All children have the potential to learn, they just need to be given the right support to start. Which methods will you use to motivate your child to learn?
