Some people are just not natural learners. While personality and disposition play a huge role in kids’ ability and willingness to learn, most good students had to learn to become good students at one point in their lives. And they didn’t learn that at school! Intellectual growth and love for learning extend outside the classroom, so parents need to know who to best help their kids discover the joy of learning. Here are some of the best and easiest ways to build learning motivation in kids.
Make it fun
Some kids can be motivated super easily. When they have a fun task at hand, they don’t even have to try hard to enjoy and finish it. For instance, kids who love animals will soak up all the available knowledge on them while kids who love basketball might spend hours practicing throws and plays. These are just some of the examples of intrinsic motivation—motivation that stems from the fun and pleasure a task provides. You can try to be playful, use humor, awaken curiosity and let kids explore in order to encourage internal motivation. But, sometimes learning can’t be fun and motivation has to come from beyond the task.
Encourage internal motivation
Internal or intrinsic motivation has tree essential needs that need to be satisfied: competence, autonomy and connection. If you want to build intrinsic motivation, these need to be addressed. Competence is very important for motivation. When kids are good at something, they want to do it all the time. If you want to boost kids’ motivation, you can address the gaps in knowledge and help them overcome issues. Also, kids are often unmotivated when being forced to do something. It’s obvious that kids can’t have total control over their learning process, but parents can minimize resistance by allowing as much independence as possible, using various educational tools and useful platforms like https://subjecto.com/essay-samples/. Finally, relationships are also a huge source of motivation. Most kids will gladly do things that bring them closer to family, friends and other groups they admire and care about.
Read as much as you can
It’s clear that reading help kids develop a rich vocabulary, but it also helps with concept processing and communication. You can motivate your kids to read and love reading by surrounding them with books. Make sure to read to them, have them read to you, have them see you read and even create daily family reading time (20-30 minutes). If you create a good reading atmosphere, your kids will see how important it is.
Focus on strengths
No matter how many difficulties your kid has, it’s important to focus on strengths and practice positive reinforcement. Constantly mentioning weaknesses will do nothing but discourage, distress and kill any desire to learn. If your kid struggles with math, you can get them a knowledgeable online math tutor to help with certain concepts. While your kid and their tutor solve math perplexities, you can praise your kid for doing well in English or Bio.
Put kids in control
At school, most kids experience nothing but control, control, and control. And when kids know they are being controlled when it comes to education, they often choose to ditch it to spite those who encourage it. Of course, it’s important to be a guide for your kid and get them safely through learning, but your kid needs some sort of control over the experience. You can allow your kid to choose writing topics, reading materials, and their learning environment. Giving them the freedom to choose their extracurricular activities is also a great idea. The more your kid has control of their learning, the more willing they will be to actually engage in the process.
Explore their learning styles
Every kid has a specific learning style that fits them the best and gets the best learning results. There are seven styles: Visual, Auditory, Verbal, Logical, Social, Solitary and Physical. Visual learners learn best by seeing things, while auditory learners prefer to listen to explanations. With young kids, it’s fun and useful to explore different styles of learning, especially when they start bringing good results.
If you encourage your kid in all the right ways, they will grow to love learning and enjoy every second of it. It’s important to be caring and supportive and your children will fall in love with knowledge and hopefully, nurture that love deep into their adulthood.
