Tips and Tricks to Motivate Your Child to Learn

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - February 12th, 2018

Welcome guest author, Max Panych, the community and content manager at USA Test Prep, who is sharing from his wealth of wisdom on the important topic of motivating your child to learn.

Sometimes the hardest part about parenting is balancing education and life experience. We don’t want our children to miss out on family events or memories. However, we feel like our kids need to spend countless hours studying to ensure good grades, decent test scores, and future opportunities. The truth is that kids who are motivated to learn will do so faster, leaving more time for life lessons

You may wonder, how can I motivate my kids to learn? Maybe your child struggles with math, science or reading. Perhaps they have a short attention span or get frustrated quickly. Regardless of your individual situation, there are a few tricks you can employ to motivate any child to learn.

How to Motivate Any Child to Learn

Cultivate a Love of Books

Reading often and from a young age encourages curiosity in children. Develop a love of reading as a foundation for motivated learning. When children learn, they quench curiosity. So, creating inherently curious children will ensure they want to continually expand their worlds.

Read to Your Children

From a young age, expose your kids to a variety of books. Read age-appropriate stories to them each day. Reading together is also a great bonding experience.

Encourage Daily Reading

Schedule time for your child to read each day. Allow them the freedom to choose the book, comic or magazine they wish to read. Giving children the reins ensures they will read texts that interest them. Here are resources for free books and magazines.

Relinquish Control

Learning needs to be a choice for children. Allow them to choose their own extracurricular activities, projects and study methods. Lend your child experience and guidance in all things education related, but do so in a non-controlling manner. Schedule homework and study time with your child’s input. For example, ask them how much time they think they need for each subject. Then, implement a reward system they can use to track their progress.

Reward Positive Behavior

Rewarding good study habits and effort versus grades is a smart approach to motivation. The goal of school should be to learn and expand our minds. If you encourage your children to put in the effort, the results will eventually follow. However, focusing only on results makes children feel powerless and small when they don’t achieve the success parents want.

Tailor The Learning Environment

Every child learns best in their own way. Is your child an auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner? Have open conversations with your children as they grow to determine what type of lessons appeal to them. Then, help them learn how to adapt study methods that will work for them. Some students need music to help them learn or should read aloud while others need visual cues and representations to absorb information. Still, others require a hands-on, real-world example to understand abstract ideas.

If your child feels like their personal needs are recognized, they will have more motivation to learn. Communication and personal adjustment can achieve this result with any kid. Try incorporating these few simple tricks and tips with your children to help them become interactive learners. Remember, children who actively participate in their education will retain more and want to continue learning through life. After all, isn’t it the goal of parents to help their children succeed in life, not just school?

What methods have you tried to motivate your kids to learn? What have your experiences been? I want to hear from you!