Motivation is hard to come by. Even adults experience extreme bouts of demotivation every day; that’s why it’s no wonder if children experience them as well. With a lot of school work on their shoulders, coupled with other extracurricular activities they might have, it can be pretty hard for them to stay motivated all the time.
The balance between school and life also plays a huge role. We must keep in mind that they are still children, and children still need time to play or relax. When this balance between their time for themselves and schoolwork is disturbed, it can negatively affect their motivation.
But now that we know the importance of motivation and its role in making or breaking your child’s momentum, how can we keep our children motivated? It’s already a given that most of the battle is mental, but what are the specific things parents can do to have their children win this battle? Read the article to find out.
Causes for Demotivation in Children
Before we dive into how to address demotivation, let us first talk about what causes them. While it’s easy to chalk it up to a wide variety of distractions such as gadgets and video games, digging even deeper will allow us to get to the root cause of the problem.
There is always a deeper cause for everything we do, and whenever someone is demotivated, it can usually point to a much bigger problem. While the issues our children face are unique to them, they can all be classified within these general reasons:
1. Children Fail to See the Purpose of Studying
While children are always expected to perform well in school, the reason behind them doing so might be lost on them. Children still want to enjoy other things in life outside of school, and when they are forced to look for the meaning in what they are doing, as opposed to them discovering it themselves, then it might be hard to keep them going.
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2. The Teaching Method Doesn’t Appeal to Them
As we have previously discussed in our article about the 4 Common Barriers to Learning and How to Conquer Them, there are four different types of learners. Sadly, because of the number of students a classroom might have and because of the different teaching styles of the teachers, it can be pretty hard to make all of the students grasp the lessons.
3. The Subject is Too Complex
Different subjects have varying levels of complexity. Some topics are intrinsically easy because of their lessons, while some subjects’ nature is complex. Subjects like maths, physics or chemistry carry some degree of difficulty. These are usually the subjects children might see as enormous challenges and will cause them to be demotivated.
4. The Subject isn’t Challenging Enough
On the other side of the spectrum, if children might find a particular subject too easy for them, they might lose the motivation to study the lessons of that subject. It is human nature to seek just the right amount of challenge in everything we do. When something is easy for us, we tend to underestimate it, and when we underestimate something, we don’t put forth the effort required to finish it.
5. External Pressure
While cheering your children on is generally a good idea, this can sometimes turn into unnecessary pressure on their part. Sometimes, cautionary tales about what might happen should they not get a passing grade on a particular subject does more harm than good. Unusually high expectations can turn into stress, and stress can turn into demotivation if not managed correctly.
5 Amazingly Effective Tips on How to Keep Your Children Motivated
Now that we have addressed the causes for demotivation, let us discuss ways to keep your children motivated in school. Studying is a relatively long journey, and even the thought of how much time they will spend studying is enough to make children stressed.
But if the parents and the children can work together and follow these tips, you will see gradual improvements in your children. These tips are:
1. Cater to their Learning Style
There are four different learning styles, and identifying which one is your child’s is vital to get them excited to learn. It is the parents’ role to get to know their children better to help them succeed in whatever they are doing. Identifying their learning style and focusing on their strengths will undoubtedly help them gain confidence and motivation.
Teaching your children in ways that they will immediately understand the lessons is the best thing parents can do to bolster their motivation. Perhaps you can use visual aids for visual learners, discuss the lessons with auditory learners, demonstrate the lessons to kinesthetic learners, or provide books to reading/writing learners.
When you identify your children’s strengths, it can be easy to get them motivated.
2. Celebrate Small Milestones
Studying is more akin to war than a battle in that it takes a long time to finish it; that’s why it is important to celebrate milestones, however small they might be. Children still need to get validation from their parents, so these validations go a long way as far as your children are concerned.
Perhaps they got an impressive score on their tests, or they have managed to fully grasp a complex concept. However small they might seem, these things boost your children’s confidence, and when you reinforce their confidence by praising them, it will have a considerable impact on their confidence.
3. Talk to Your Children
Having deep conversations with your children outside of asking them how school was, also helps build rapport and trust between you and them. Encouraging your children to tell you how they truly feel regarding school or life, in general, will enable them to let go of whatever stress they might have.
We have to understand that stress might be new to them at a young age, and allowing them to communicate and describe in detail what they are feeling will relieve their stress and teach them how to be more open to their parents.
4. Be Creative When Teaching Your Children
While relying on the teachers is the easy thing to do, supervising your children’s learning will yield the best results. While you might think that you are not trained for such a role, you have the advantage of knowing your children’s strengths and weaknesses.
Knowing their strengths and weaknesses can make you think of creative ways to teach your children. Perhaps they are fond of their toys, and you are studying maths, you can use these toys to demonstrate basic mathematical functions.
Just be creative and allow your imagination and your knowledge of your children’s tendencies to guide you, and you’ll be able to conjure up lessons that your children will enjoy. If they find something enjoyable, this will motivate them to learn more, and when they do that, you’ve already hit your goal.
5. Give Your Children Room to Grow
It is also a good idea to give your children some breathing space. When you allow them to discover things for themselves and just be there to offer support and encouragement, this will teach them how to pick themselves back up again.
Failure is a part of life, and the sooner they realise that life isn’t always success after success, the better it will be for their resiliency. As their parents, you can correct their course from time to time but leave enough room for them to have control of their lives for the most part.
The feeling of having control or freedom does wonders for children’s motivation, which will teach them how to be independent. Think of this as taking their training wheels off and allowing them to ride the bike by themselves, and you get the picture.
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Conclusion
Motivation can be elusive for adults and children alike. A little spark of inspiration can be challenging for those making an effort to find them, let alone for those who aren’t. In this situation, the best thing to do is to condition your children’s minds to constantly find ways to kickstart their systems into being highly motivated, and you do this by following these tips.
If you are looking for that much needed extra motivation, our more than capable tutors in Path Finder Tuition can help your children achieve just that. We are dedicated to bringing your children high-quality and personalised lessons guaranteed to motivate them to learn in school.
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