Motivate and Guide your Kids.......

Aiming at the Cheerio was fun and motivated him to work on a specific task.

Hitting the Cheerio gave my son a great sense of accomplishment because he did it all by himself and we made a really big deal about it. As homeschooling parents, we can motivate our children to learn in much the same way. Not by rewarding them but by allowing them to feel a sense of accomplishment and to seek out learning opportunities independently.

Encouraging your child to read, ask questions, stay curious and be creative will help foster a lifetime of knowledge gathering.

Raising a smart child has a lot to do with cultivating emotional intelligence and empathy. Smart, successful leaders possess these qualities as well as listening and interpersonal skills, but today’s parents are challenged by having a wide range of technological tools, information and simulated experiences so that anything that piques a child’s curiosity can be retrieved literally in seconds thanks to the technological capabilities of our world.
1

   Know your child

Be observant, pay attention to the things that motivate and what squelches motivation. Just as we use different approaches to teach different children, in the same way what motivates one child might not motivate another. If you know the learning style that best suits your child, learning comes much more easily when the lesson makes sense. If your child doesn't want to read or is having problems with comprehension, read to your child and encourage your child to read aloud to you. You will be amazed at how much more your child will grasp when he reads aloud to you. This is especially true for children unmotivated to read independently.

 2 

    Set expectations

Expect your child to succeed, and chances are he will. Work with your child to set expectations, create goals and make a plan for the child to accomplish those goals. Give your child some choices and control of his learning. This will allow your child to do things independently and will challenge him and give him a sense of accomplishment.

3

   Keep calm

We need to keep our emotions in check when teaching our children. I have tried to get my point across or "motivate" while frustrated or feeling anxiety with no success. Feeding our children negative emotions is counterproductive and will only make the child focus on our emotions and not on the task at hand. Unfortunately, our attitudes do rub off on our children. So stay positive and speak kindly but honestly.

4

   Take baby steps

Break challenges down into smaller tasks. Your child will be proud of his work each step of the way without feeling overwhelmed or discouraged. Don't forget to praise your child for each successful step he achieves too.

5

  Focus on strengths

An easy way to motivate a child is to focus on his strengths. Encourage developing talents; if your child has a particular strength in math, find ways to nurture and expose him to more math.

6

   Communicate

Communicate and keep an open dialogue. Allowing your child to express his feelings and thoughts is necessary and beneficial. Ask your child questions. In order to figure out how to best motivate your child, ask him if a particular lesson is relevant, boring, challenging, difficult or easy.

Most importantly, turn everyday events into learning opportunities, a lifestyle of learning. Encourage your child to explore and ask questions. Motivated homeschoolers know that learning takes place everywhere. Always praise and encourage the child's effort, determination and persistence as well as the actual accomplishment.

Positive Parenting Tips :

Following are some things you, as a parent, can do to help your preschooler during this time: 

• Positive Parenting Tips for Healthy Child Development Continue to read to your child. Nurture her love for books by taking her to the library or bookstore. 
• Let your child help with simple chores. 
• Encourage your child to play with other children. This helps him to learn the value of sharing and friendship.
• Be clear and consistent when disciplining your child. Explain and show the behavior that you expect from her. Whenever you tell her no, follow up with what he should be doing instead. 
• Help your child develop good language skills by speaking to him in complete sentences and using "grown up" words. Help him to use the correct words and phrases. 
• Help your child through the steps to solve problems when she is upset. 
• Give your child a limited number of simple choices (for example, deciding what to wear, when to play, and what to eat for snack).