How to motivate your kids - Most kids can achieve just about anything they want when they are motivated.
Some children are internally motivated. They are hardwired to try their best. The drive to succeed comes from within. Their self-esteem is dependent on being successful, so if they know they have a reasonable chance to achieve, they will generally persevere at most things they put their minds to. It's in their nature to try their best.
Self-motivated kids are easy for parents to work with. A combination of good teaching strategies, parental recognition and encouragement generally works wonders with these children. But many children are not so highly self-motivated and need more than good teaching to get them learning, particularly if they don't achieve immediate success, or if extra hard work is needed.
Feeling successful is not enough to motivate these kids to extend themselves. You need a range of strategies to motivate externally motivated kids to extend themselves. Here are some ideas:
Help make learning fun
Look for ways to make learning enjoyable for externally motivated kids so that their interest is maintained. Capture their attention through computer learning, games and fun activities. Get some game-based learning materials relevant to your child's age and interest levels. Make sure you get guidance from your child's teacher about suitability and interest level.
Set personal bests
Encourage kids to set learning goals and strive for personal bests. Boys, in particular, respond to competition. They generally love to compete with their classmates in school, but competition is not always about beating someone else. Challenge them to set personal bests in a whole range of activities. "What's the most number of spelling words you can learn in a week?" "What's your highest score in maths this term?"
Link learning to their lives
Look for as many ways as possible to link school learning to a child's personal interests. Many teenagers are motivated when a learning activity has an immediate, positive impact on their lives. For instance, budding sports stars will often devour non-fiction books about their chosen sport if they think it will contribute to their sporting development.
Rewards and incentives
A pat on the head from a mum or dad can be a huge motivator for children who strive hard for parental approval. However, some kids require something a little stronger, such as a reward to motivate them to work harder. If you use external rewards to motivate children then my advice is that they should be given in small doses so that kids don't always look for rewards to make them try their best.
Reward kids with extra privileges such as a later bedtime, extra time spent with friends or more television time, rather than tangible rewards such as extra pocket money. You need deep pockets once you go down this track. Be guided by your kids' interests when using rewards and incentives.
Encourage effort and improvement
Some kids will avoid learning tasks when they know that success isn't guaranteed or when failure is an option. Avoidance is one way that some kids protect their self-esteem. If you suspect your child fits this picture then focus your positive comments on effort, improvement, contribution and enjoyment rather than on the results of their learning. This releases the pressure to succeed and makes them less likely to avoid activities where failure is an option.
Sometimes just one factor will really help, but usually it takes a combination of many strategies to motivate children to really try. Research suggests that purpose and relevance are essential for many kids to learn. The great challenge for many parents is to keep children interested in learning until its relevance becomes apparent. ( bodyandsoul.com.au )
Some children are internally motivated. They are hardwired to try their best. The drive to succeed comes from within. Their self-esteem is dependent on being successful, so if they know they have a reasonable chance to achieve, they will generally persevere at most things they put their minds to. It's in their nature to try their best.
Self-motivated kids are easy for parents to work with. A combination of good teaching strategies, parental recognition and encouragement generally works wonders with these children. But many children are not so highly self-motivated and need more than good teaching to get them learning, particularly if they don't achieve immediate success, or if extra hard work is needed.
Feeling successful is not enough to motivate these kids to extend themselves. You need a range of strategies to motivate externally motivated kids to extend themselves. Here are some ideas:
Help make learning fun
Look for ways to make learning enjoyable for externally motivated kids so that their interest is maintained. Capture their attention through computer learning, games and fun activities. Get some game-based learning materials relevant to your child's age and interest levels. Make sure you get guidance from your child's teacher about suitability and interest level.
Set personal bests
Encourage kids to set learning goals and strive for personal bests. Boys, in particular, respond to competition. They generally love to compete with their classmates in school, but competition is not always about beating someone else. Challenge them to set personal bests in a whole range of activities. "What's the most number of spelling words you can learn in a week?" "What's your highest score in maths this term?"
Link learning to their lives
Look for as many ways as possible to link school learning to a child's personal interests. Many teenagers are motivated when a learning activity has an immediate, positive impact on their lives. For instance, budding sports stars will often devour non-fiction books about their chosen sport if they think it will contribute to their sporting development.
Rewards and incentives
A pat on the head from a mum or dad can be a huge motivator for children who strive hard for parental approval. However, some kids require something a little stronger, such as a reward to motivate them to work harder. If you use external rewards to motivate children then my advice is that they should be given in small doses so that kids don't always look for rewards to make them try their best.
Reward kids with extra privileges such as a later bedtime, extra time spent with friends or more television time, rather than tangible rewards such as extra pocket money. You need deep pockets once you go down this track. Be guided by your kids' interests when using rewards and incentives.
Encourage effort and improvement
Some kids will avoid learning tasks when they know that success isn't guaranteed or when failure is an option. Avoidance is one way that some kids protect their self-esteem. If you suspect your child fits this picture then focus your positive comments on effort, improvement, contribution and enjoyment rather than on the results of their learning. This releases the pressure to succeed and makes them less likely to avoid activities where failure is an option.
Sometimes just one factor will really help, but usually it takes a combination of many strategies to motivate children to really try. Research suggests that purpose and relevance are essential for many kids to learn. The great challenge for many parents is to keep children interested in learning until its relevance becomes apparent. ( bodyandsoul.com.au )
Blog : There Is Always A Light | There Is Always A Light: How to motivate your kids
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIf you want to motivate your kids, then what are you trying to motivate them to do. Make whatever they are doing fun. It will make them keep wanting to do it. Always being encouraging and helpful are just a couple of ways for you to be involved. When it comes to sports don’t push them to do it if they don’t want to, this can make it harder for you to get them to go to practice or games, and then they won’t even want to try. Thanks...