The majority of parents feel it’s like pulling teeth when they try to get their kids excited about school. Every parent wants their child to thrive academically so that they can be productive young scholars later in life. Here are the best products and techniques to get your child excited about doing homework.
Splurge on Supplies
Most parents have no problem running up their credit card to get their child that big ticket item for Christmas, but when it comes time to purchase school supplies they suddenly want to pinch pennies. No one is saying that you have to spend thousands of dollars on the best stationary that money can buy, but invest in your child’s academic success. This means ensuring that they have all of the office tools and the organizational tools needed to succeed both at school and at home.
Use a Planner
A planner or an agenda is one of the biggest secret weapons of highly productive and successful people. Sadly, most school systems don’t hand out planners until kids reach middle or high school age. Even small kids can benefit from planners. Buy your child a fun planner in a color or design that you know they’ll enjoy. Teach them the value of making to-do lists and visually writing out the tasks they need to accomplish in order to succeed. When young kids learn to enjoy scratching something off they’re to-do list once the task has been completed, it’s a habit that they’ll want to carry with them into high school and beyond.
Buy Those Rewards
Some parents have the attitude that their kids don’t deserve a “reward” when they do well in school because school is their job and they should just want to do well. That’s a fine attitude to have towards your 25-year-old graduate student, but kids aren’t adults who want to succeed for personal satisfaction. Rather, they need a bit of outside influence to motivate them to do well. Find out what your child wants and offer to buy it for him or her if they succeed on a project or test. This reward system is positive reinforcement and positive reinforcement is far more effective than negative reinforcement. When a child’s only motivation to succeed is a fear of being screamed at if they fail, they tend to just throw their hands in the air and learn to live with the negative consequences. When a child knows that accomplishing a goal means that they’ll enjoy a reward, however, they’re more likely to actually want to rise to the challenge in front of them.
Extreme Home Makeover, Office Addition
Once your child is old enough to have homework, it’s time to clear out that nook of their room devoted to toys and replace it with a dedicated office space. Most productivity guides for adults suggest that you need a designated work space in your home. That way, when you’re in this space your brain switches over to “work mode.” When you’re trying to do meaningful work on the couch, a place you associate with lazing around and relaxing, it’s difficult to get into that “work” mentality.
Create a work space in your child’s room that’s relaxing, organized and designed with concentration and success in mind. This means that the space should have organizational tools and office tools. Allow your child to be a part of the design process while you’re setting this area up; if they’re excited about the actual space, they’re more likely to be excited about the work that they’re going to do in this space.
Have Fun
When kids associate schoolwork with misery, they’re not very motivated to want to do it. However, when they associate learning with “fun,” they’re more excited to dive headfirst into their homework and textbooks. It’s important to force yourself to adopt this enthusiastic mentality about education in your home. If your child is doing a unit in school devoted to the life cycle of a plant, take them to a gardening store on the weekend. If your child’s art class is transitioning from simple coloring and moving towards actual art history education, an art gallery makes for a great Saturday afternoon excursion. Teach your child that “learning” isn’t something that they just do between certain hours during class or when they’re studying. Rather, it’s an ongoing and never-ending facet of daily life.
It can be challenging to inspire kids to want to succeed in their studies. However, if you incorporate these products and tips into your child’s routine, you can nurture that enthusiasm and turn them into enthusiastic young scholars who actually want to do well due to a love of learning, rather than a fear of failing.
