Let’s face it, school can be a challenging space for your children. From navigating difficult schoolwork to establishing social status, many factors from school can easily cause them to feel overwhelmed. In several cases, these may affect your child’s ability to perform better in school. On the other hand, some children struggle to reach their full potential in school, causing them to perform below average. Understandably, you may be worried about your child and their academic well-being. Sometimes, all it takes for your child to do better is to provide them with much-needed motivation. Here are some effective ways to motivate your child to improve in school.
Teach them to be organized
As mentioned earlier, your child is trying to juggle several aspects of school life. This often leaves them overwhelmed or prioritizing less important activities over studying. When this happens, your child easily becomes frustrated with learning, leading to lower grades. You can offer encouragement by teaching them to be organized.
When teaching them organizational skills, highlight various areas, such as the importance of making to-do lists, using a calendar, or preparing themselves for an upcoming activity. It is also important to be patient when teaching them such skills, as it takes some time to hone. However, once your child sees the benefits of such skills, such as improving their grades, they will be more motivated and continue to use and develop their organizational skills.
Stay positive
Understandably, you are worried about your child’s performance in school. This may cause you to be frustrated and think negatively about their future. However, this does more harm than good. Punishing, reprimanding, threatening, or putting your frustrations on your child to do better only increases your frustration and does little to encourage them to do better. And where there may be improvements, it would be short-lived. In fact, it may make them defiant, further worsening their performance at school.
The best way to get results is to remain positive. Encourage your child to have open conversations about their weaknesses and struggles in school and how it affects their performance. Once you have this information, it is vital to stay positive by letting yourself and your child know that these are problems that can be fixed.
Focus on the process, not the results
Your child’s ability to achieve the desired results is based on the process they undergo. Therefore, it is vital to focus on the processes being employed rather than the results. For example, assuming your child follows all the prescribed factors that should encourage better performance at school, such as being attentive in class or completing their homework, but their grades don’t get higher. If you’re focusing on the results, you may become frustrated and give up on trying to help your child. This, in turn, discourages your child from making much effort.
However, if you are focused on the process, you ensure that your child has gained actual knowledge and ensure their eventual academic success. It also shows your child that you care about them more than the grades they bring home, which would motivate them to be and do better.
Introduce and explore different styles of learning
There are different learning styles, and your child has a dominant style that makes it easier for them to grasp various concepts. Therefore, if this style is not used in school, they have a more difficult time understanding what is taught, causing them to underperform. As a parent, you have the responsibility of providing them with extra assistance outside the classroom.
To do this effectively, you must identify your child’s learning style by introducing them to and exploring the various learning styles. For example, if you’re helping your child with Math, a visual learner may find these multiplication worksheets helpful due to their visual appeals, such as the images and colors. On the other hand, an auditory learner would prefer to listen to you explain the concept to them. Once you have identified your child’s predominant learning style, you must make such methods available, especially if they won’t get that from school. As this is their preferred learning method, your child would be motivated to hit the books, ensuring that they improve their grades.
Develop study routines
Developing an effective routine is important, especially for children. A consistent routine makes your child more confident and secure as it allows for predictability. Routines also create a structure for your child. Therefore, it is advisable to consider this when motivating your child to do better. Sometimes, speaking to a child about what they are meant to do can bring about disagreements and strife between you and them. However, under a structured routine, your child already knows what to expect and does not need to argue over it.
For the study routine to be effective for your child, you must consider allocating the exact times of the week for studying. You also set study outcomes and remove all distractions. You also set rules concerning following the routine to assist your child in following the routine. Due to the predictability and security of such a routine, your child would be motivated to do better in school.
Create a conducive study area
Another practical and effective strategy to motivate your child to learn and perform better is by giving them a study area. A dedicated area in the home for your child to finish homework, read, or study is a great form of motivation. However, ensuring that the space is conducive to studying is vital. The last thing you want is for your child to become distracted and lose focus from studying, which is a demotivating factor.
Instead, you should ensure that the study spot is free of distractions from other siblings, TV, and other factors. The spot should also be conducive to learning. This means it should have comfortable furniture, be well organized, and have good lighting. A conducive study spot of this nature would motivate your child to learn whenever they are in it, further improving their grades.
Make learning fun
School can make the whole learning process quite a boring one with little to no fun at all. It is no wonder your child may be reluctant to learn or decrease their morale to learn. Fortunately, you can change that by making learning fun for your child. For instance, you can explore using games. Game-based education or learning allows your child to learn while having fun!
It helps improve your child’s creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking abilities. Furthermore, such games also provide in-depth knowledge on various subjects, making it easier for your child to gain this information easily. Additionally, games offer healthy competition with either other users of the game or even with themselves.
Focus on their strengths
When your child isn’t doing too well at school, the first thing you will do is focus on their weakness, which would not bring about the desired results. Focusing on their weaknesses does little but discourage them. Additionally, they would feel hurt for disappointing you, which may not mean their results would improve.
By highlighting and focusing on their strengths, you give your child an array of hope. It is another form of positive reinforcement as it encourages the belief that your child can improve. So, if your child should underperform in Biology class, it would be better to remain cool, offer some words of encouragement, and remind them of their strengths in English or Science. This goes a long way to motivate them to do better, knowing that if they can do it in such areas, they can do it in others.
Recognize and celebrate achievements
No matter how small, it is vital to recognize and celebrate the achievements your child acquires. Like every other child, your child wants to make you proud of them. Seeing that they have done so encourages them to do more! Therefore, it is vital to recognize their efforts and celebrate their wins. If your child improved their grade from a D to a D+, that should be a cause to celebrate their efforts.
Feeling recognized and celebrated helps increase your child’s confidence and motivates them to do better. You show them how proud you are of them by giving them certain perks, such as their favorite treats and extra screen time.
Get extra help
Although you care about your child’s success in school, you cannot do it all. You may have difficulty motivating your children to ensure the desired results. This often leads to frustration on your part, which in turn can result in conflict between you and your child. To avoid this, you should get some extra help.
Don’t hesitate to hire the services of a tutor who can assist your child in areas you cannot. Your child would still be motivated by this action as it shows them that you are prepared to take the necessary steps to help them accomplish their academic goals. You should also assist them in finding a mentor for your child who would offer them advice and give them a fresh perspective on improving their performance at school.
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