What is the importance of tips to help you motivate your child to study? Well, in this era of cutthroat competition, parents constantly hammer their young ones to excel in academics. Young kids do not want to study, as they are unaware of the importance of studies.
As parents, we may rant that it’s important to be successful in life and attain a job. But at this young age, they do not understand this and are rather more fascinated by playing games.
When your kid voraciously plays video games to cross a certain level s/he is self-motivated. i.e., s/he is internally driven to succeed at the level. This internal force towards studying is missing and this is where the parents enter into the picture.
20 Tips To Help You Motivate Your Child To Study
Like video games, we wish the motivation to study should also come from within. If you will observe in detail, your kid works hard for their favorite activities because s/he feels good and it is important for them.
Most of the time, kids are motivated, but not in the way you think they should be. So the key is to help them identify their interests, encourage and reward appropriately.
Below are 20 tips to help you motivate your child to study:
1. Ask About What S/He is Learning – Not About Scores
Instead of lashing out at your child for B’s and C’s, ask them what they learned at school and have them teach you. Correct them if s/he is wrong somewhere– which will help them retain better.
2. Staying on Your Kids’ Team is a Great Motivation
Have a relationship with your child that is positive and respectful. The need is to make your child feel responsible towards studies, and any reaction to your feelings of frustrations and fears will only make your child relent and defy you. Play from your kids’ side, not against them.
3. Working Together Will Motivate Child
Alternatively, you may both sit at the dining table and s/he may study whilst you can continue your office/ housework. But avoid using laptops and mobile during this.
4. Establish a Study Routine
Remember, doing homework is not studying. Studying should involve actively repeating the lessons, reading loud aloud, understanding the context, any hard words, and orally or writing the answers.
5. Talk About Studies
Discuss the subjects with your kid. Ask them what s/he studied today, whether s/he found something interesting? Try to arrange the lab experiments at home too. You may discuss your school stories too.
6. Pool the Teacher
You can speak to the teachers – specifically in the subjects you feel s/he is lacking and can do much, much better. Devise a strategy with the teachers so that your child can better their time and subjects.
7. Create a Conducive Environment for Study
No sound of TV or music! Tell family members to talk softly and avoid any distractions during study hours. Children’s attention span is very short and they are easily distracted.
8. Involve Children
You may want to take your kid along to buy their study table and chair. Also seek their advice and suggestions over day-to-day matters. This is a good way to involve them rather than lead them to the study haven.
9. Let Him Study in Peace
Check out whether s/he likes to study in his room away from the family and is happier to be around the living room. Once you figure this out, make a peaceful arrangement with other family members.
Make sure s/he is not interrupted during study time. Constant interruptions may break the chain and dwindle interest and focus.
10. Incorporate the Study Lessons in Daily Life
And also point out how s/he already know the underlying mechanisms since they have already studied those.
11. Stop Giving Any Long Lectures
Preaching, threatening, manipulation have no place when it comes to effective parenting. Be specific. Give clear, precise, and short instructions. Refrain from punishing too much as well. Read here to know some creative punishment ideas for your kids.
12. Appreciating is Motivation
Acknowledge if your child fares well in an exam or gets good remarks over a project. Take them for an ice cream treat or movie in a month. Clearly say, “Well done! I know you worked hard for this project”.
13. Goal-Setting Motivate Child
Help your kid realize goals. you could put up a whiteboard in the room. Now break bigger assignments into smaller sections, which are driven on dates and times. Enter it on the board.
They will have a sense of achievement with each passing day and you will have a sign of relief as s/he is sure to make progress this way. Make them follow their idol. Explain their life journey, how they studied and excelled.
14. Inculcate the Habit of Reading
Most kids are unable to concentrate on the study as they dislike reading. Gift them autobiographies or whatever interests him. Read here to know tips to encourage early reading habits in your kid.
15. Be Firm
Yes, manipulating your child does not yield any positive results, but being firm in disciplining does. For even one negative interaction or negative experience with your child, try to create ten positive ones and reinforce motivation.
16. Use the ‘When You’ Rule
Instead of threatening and blackmailing your child with statements like ‘do this or else..’ use statements like ‘when you complete the lesson, we can go to the playground for that game of volleyball.’ You get the reward after you do the work – life’s biggest lesson!
17. Help Them
If your kid finds a particular subject boring, devise ways to increase their interest in it. You may buy educational CDs on that subject and incorporate audio-video interaction during playtime.
18. Storytelling is a Motivation
It’s hard to grab your child’s attention for long. So you may want to pass the valuable messages through moral stories at night. You can even buy story-themed games for your kid.
These stories should easily explain the importance and benefits of studies. To know the importance of storytelling for kids click here.
19. Bribery is Not a Motivation
Avoid bartering with your child. Discard promising to give gifts to your child when s/he gets an ‘A’ in school approach. Where is the child’s motivation in this?
In this way, you may temporarily get them to study, but then you are creating a problem for yourself. Your child is going to throw a stubborn tantrum if you don’t fulfill the wishes and s/he won’t study.
So don’t create this habit. Read here to know how to deal with a stubborn child.
20. Segregate Study Time and Participate
Set aside special study time for your kid. Assist them in the study. If you eat popcorn and have a gala time watching Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge whilst s/he huffs and puffs with mathematics, you are not giving them any reason to continue their struggle.
Instead, sit with them, check their notebooks and homework. Ask if they need help. In this way, they will realize that this is important and therefore the parents are also participating.
Finally, don’t let your kid feel stressed with studies. Otherwise, s/he would develop aversion towards studies and frown upon it. Encourage your child to accept challenges and develop their trust in you that no matter how hard, you are always with them. Your love and support is unconditional and that you are always there to help them.
Read Also: Discipline Without Spanking – It Is Not ‘Okay’ To Hit Your Child
