It’s not uncommon for children to view school as a place where they have to sit through dull classes and learn stuff they don’t care about or can’t relate to.
In fact, if you were to ask young school students, they would name a whole list of fun activities for kids they would rather do to have an enjoyable and productive time, rather than do their homework or sit through school classes.
When children aren’t interested in school
The first thing you should know, is that just because your child isn’t interested in the school materials doesn’t imply they won’t succeed in life.
Simply said, traditional classrooms and schools are not ideal for all students. As a result, it’s critical to enroll your child in a school that values individuality and adapts instruction to meet their requirements.
Now, with this set, you don’t have much say in what your kid finds interesting and listens to in school because personality plays a huge role in a kid’s willingness to learn; but what you can do is encourage them to learn when they’re at home, and make the process as engaging and fun as it can be.
Remember, not every child is thrilled when it comes to studying and thriving in school. Still, with the right encouragement and a healthy attitude towards studying, anyone can be an excellent learner.
Here are 7 ways you can encourage children and help them keep motivated to study better and more productively.
1. Set up a designated space for learning
You may believe that as long as your child completes their schoolwork, it doesn’t matter where they do it: on their bed or the plush living room couch.
However, that may not be the best environment for a young kid to learn in.
Your child’s creativity, focus, and motivation can all benefit from a dedicated study area at home. When you designate a room for your child to spend their study time, you eliminate distractions, allowing them to concentrate on the task at hand: studying.
Now, if you’re thinking, “Well, we don’t have the luxury to dedicate a whole room for studying,” then that’s absolutely okay. However, not everyone can allocate space and budget to an Instagram-worthy study room.
Our tip to you is to worry less about square footage and the actual space and focus more on creating consistency.
Make your space adaptable. For example, set aside a certain object for studying, such as a lap desk or a folding chair, and when it’s time to learn, simply bring out that desk or chair and place it in the corner of the room.
In this manner, regardless of square footage or pricey equipment, your child may learn about regular consistency and develop the habit of staying focused anytime they are in that location.
In addition, we don’t recommend using the bed as a study space. Doing chores other than sleeping in bed can make it harder to fall and stay asleep at night.
2. Develop a plan together
When you introduce a structured plan to children, they find it easier to stay on track and do what they’re supposed to be doing.
Sit down with your child and make a homework schedule for each night. Including your child in the process helps keep them encouraged and involved and more likely to follow through with the plan!
You don’t need to micromanage the plan (more on that on tip #3). Just make a plan that will include when and how much time your child should be spending each day doing their homework, break and exercise times, and what tasks should be prioritized each day.
Having a structured plan also helps the parents stay on top of the material they want to help them with. For example, looking at the plan, you may feel the need to read up on specific science lessons or tips for teaching vocabulary for the study sessions of the upcoming week.
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3. Be the guide, not the backseat driver
It’s difficult to watch your child not reach their full potential, and in the process of mitigating that, you may be tempted to over-function for your children and do the work they’re supposed to be doing yourself.
When you start to feel like you want to micromanage everything your kid does and control everything in your power, remember: children have a better chance of thriving in school if they have a say in what and how they study.
It’s essential to lead children through the learning process, but it’s also critical to give them authority over their own learning experience.
Provide children with the opportunity to have direct involvement in their learning choices, whether at home or in the classroom. For instance, you can present them with various options to choose from when learning from home and let them pick what they would like to learn about that week, such as choosing their own writing topics.
4. Have a reward system
Humans thrive best when they’re motivated to get a certain thing or reach a specific goal when they’re doing something difficult. All of us are like this, and children aren’t an exception.
Create a reward system with your child to have something to look forward to after study time is over. Simple rewards like watching TV after doing schoolwork are great. Or you can set up a more interesting system where your kid can collect ‘points’ after each study session to redeem for something special.
5. Stick to the homework rules
After you’ve established a plan for studying, make sure you and your child stick to them.
You want to show your youngster that you care by being cheerful and helpful. You must, however, be firm at the same time. The guidelines you create must be regularly followed.
Understanding and letting them watch a cartoon a bit longer for a day is one thing, but you need to be firm with the rules you’ve established together and keep the plan’s structure.
If your child refuses to study and breaks the clearly defined and agreed-upon rules, they should face the consequences. This may entail grounding them or limiting their access to television and social media.
6. Focus on learning, not performance
While performance is important, focusing on your child’s learning experience has a lot more advantages than one might realize. By doing so, you will:
1) learning something thoroughly is more important than getting the highest grade
2) stress and anxiety over test results aren’t necessary
3) you care more about them than what grade they come home with
4) you’ll provide him the opportunity to put his lesson into his own words and consolidate what he’s learned by focusing on his learning experience that day
So next time, instead of rushing to ask about a certain grade as soon as children return from school, ask about what they’ve learned that day and their studying experience.
7. Support and celebrate achievements
No matter the size of the achievement, children deserve to be praised and celebrated for the good work they’ve done.
This is especially critical for primary school students, who need continual positive reinforcement to stay motivated to learn and improve.
This doesn’t mean that you should reward anything and everything regardless of the result; rather, you should acknowledge and celebrate your child’s accomplishments when you know they’ve worked hard for them.
Conclusion
Keep lines of communication open with your child and offer aid as needed. Making preparations to meet with your child’s teacher, seeking more assistance for your child, or simply listening to your child when they are overwhelmed are all examples of this. Knowing that help is accessible might give your child the courage to confront any obstacles that may arise and keep themselves motivated.
