Oct 27, 2022
Parent’s Guide: How to Help Children Stay Motivated in Learning
As a parent, do you often find it challenging to keep your children interested and motivated in learning? This is because kids are frequently distracted by various things like games, social media, and other activities, causing them to lose focus on the learning process.
The waning interest in learning can be attributed to several factors, including:
High Parental Pressure;
Monotonous Study Routines;
Difficulty Keeping Up with Peers;
Excessive Digital Distractions;
Feelings of Desperation Regarding Academic Success.
We know that nobody enjoys feeling left behind, especially when children are frequently compared to their peers by their parents or even teachers. This comparison often occurs in schools and can lead to discomfort for students of all ages.
Of course, taking away all the enjoyable aspects of your child’s life isn’t the solution, as it might foster negative perceptions and even hatred toward learning. So, how can we ensure that they maintain motivation for future success?
In this article, we’ll explore why this decline in interest happens and discuss strategies to overcome it, ensuring that children stay motivated.
Key Things to Identify
Before providing assistance to your child, it’s crucial to understand the reasons behind their lack of engagement in learning. This understanding will help you devise optimal learning strategies to address the issue. Parents should begin recognizing these signs to implement logical solutions for their children.
Dull Learning Routine
When it comes to study routines, children often follow a pattern: attending classes, having face-to-face sessions with tutors, spending hours on homework, and repeating the cycle. This repetitive cycle can lead to boredom and eventually fatigue.
Children naturally have high curiosity and a desire to learn. It’s essential to maintain and even enhance their curiosity for continuous learning.
Seriously, think about how many times parents are asked “why” by their children in a single day—the answer is quite a lot.
Another way to look at this from a different perspective is to consider how even as adults, we often get bored with repetitive work routines. Emails, calls, meetings, and then back to the same office the next day. While some people may enjoy this stability, it can lead to a lack of enthusiasm and eventually burnout. The same principle applies to children.
Pressure for Academic Success
While some people thrive on competition, many others feel differently. However, external pressure can overwhelm children (and even us).
As parents, it’s natural to want our children to succeed and be the best. But be cautious about setting unrealistic standards and constantly comparing your child to others.
Although some parents choose disciplinary methods like this for their children, it often backfires and hinders their performance.
For example, when setting grade targets for your children, remember that everyone absorbs knowledge at different speeds and has unique learning methods. And that’s not a bad thing!
By paying attention to your child’s strengths and weaknesses, you can tailor specific learning methods that suit their needs based on this information.
When Children Fail to See the Benefits of Learning
Have you ever asked yourself, when faced with a task or job, “Why do I have to do this?” Children have similar questions too.
As adults, we understand that learning is essential for the future. However, children may not perceive it the same way because they are often more interested in immediate gratification. It’s crucial for us to convey that the actions they take now will impact their lives in the future.
So, how can we help them understand the importance of learning?
Well, the key is to explain it in a simple way that they can grasp. Instead of forcing them to study, it’s better to encourage them to find meaning in each learning material.
Explain to them how mathematics can be used to make real-life decisions, such as choosing the best deal while shopping. By emphasizing the practical application of these lessons in real-world scenarios, children will recognize the true value of learning.
Essentially, by connecting lessons to everyday life, they will feel engaged in the learning process. They’ll understand that the knowledge they gain is genuinely needed and useful for them.
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What Can You Do Instead?
Now that we have some idea of the “why,” let's get to the “how”’ in increasing your children’s interest in learning.
Children are active beings, and more times than not they would probably prefer to do learning activities than simply sitting on a desk and listening to lessons.
This would be a great bonding activity for parents to explore with kids and lets you know what sparks their interest! Here are some fun learning activities you can implement:
Educational Games
Educational games are perfect for when traditional methods with paper and pencil are simply not enough to keep the little ones engaged. In addition, they are also a great tool when trying to teach children about logic, critical thinking, and many other soft and hard skills.
A popular method that has been implemented in many classrooms would be Kahoot quizzes. By using this platform, kids are able to join through their gadgets and there is no pressure on being shamed if you get an answer wrong as students are able to join using fun nicknames that do not give away their identity thus creating a safe space for making mistakes.
In addition, there is a wide selection of applications and websites that educate people on the subjects of mathematics, science, history, health, geography, and many others. Usually, the game instructs the player to solve a mathematical equation or answer a history trivia in order to proceed to the next round or level up.
This is a great method to keep kids engaged as they are just excited to play games, not realizing that along the way they are picking up useful skills.
Outdoor Learning
Sitting in a room for hours while trying to absorb new information can be a downer for most people, especially kids. Doing so, can really weigh down on a child’s excitement to learn, and honestly can we blame them?
Many schools nowadays incorporate outside learning where teachers and students go over learning materials in an outdoor setting. By implementing a slight change in scenery, students feel more refreshed and less slumped in digesting new learning materials. Try doing the same with your kids and take your tutoring sessions with your kids in the backyard or a public park to boost your kids’ learning spirit.
A great example would be heading outside to teach your kids about different types of rocks and soil for a brief geology lesson. If you’re lucky enough to live near the ocean with rich marine biodiversity, take the time to take your science lessons outdoors and look out for different types of sea life such as anemones, schools of fishes, seashells, and more.
Field Trips
Similar to the previous point, scheduling field trips with your kids can boost learning interest as it takes the learning outside of the classroom, which can eliminate boredom.
Perfect for history lessons, going on a museum trip can spark interest in learning about past events, important monuments, artifacts, and paintings. This is highly beneficial, especially in children who have shown interest in the fields of art, literature, and history. They need this activity to be held occasionally.
Think of it as adults, we oftentimes get so tired of the same four walls of the cubicle and repetitive routine. A business trip or an insightful work conference to improve our knowledge can be a nice treat in the midst of a monotonous work regime. The same applies to children and can help rekindle their learning spark.
Bite-Sized Learning Material
Lastly, learning can be an intimidating process, especially when kids see the amount of materials that they have to master within the span of one semester.
Minimize their anxiety by breaking up learning materials into several pieces that will be easier to manage by them.
For example, when it comes to learning mathematics, instead of stressing the entire counting system, take each learning lesson to really focus on comprehending each subject into bite-sized pieces. Make sure to incorporate fun games related to addition such as puzzles, treasure hunts, and other varieties to avoid boredom and motivation loss. Remember as mentioned earlier, kids are simply excited to play games, that they don’t even realize they’re gaining knowledge in the process.
Use all of these tools strategically by keeping them organized to keep your children engaged and focused on the material at hand.
Things to Keep in Mind
Now that you have all of these resources at your disposal, make sure to utilize them to boost learning efficiency and avoid motivation loss during the learning process. As parents, getting your children to fun activities and stimulating tasks, can help them stay on track and reduce their lack of interest in learning.
In addition, it is also important to recognize that there is also a good amount of trial and error that comes with finding the right study routine for your little ones. Therefore, it is important to be patient and allow children to explore in order to find the right approach for their learning.
Lastly, value the time in taking a break from studying and exploring other interests that your children might have. Sometimes, all it takes is a little breather from the books to rejuvenate your kids and prevent fatigue from studying.
As parents, this would be a great opportunity to explore their interests outside of the classroom whether it be sports, music, cooking, and many more.
Here at Timedoor Academy, we offer a variety of lessons surrounding coding that can be a fun learning addition for your kids. Our curriculum allows students to learn the fundamentals of computer science and accomplish fun projects such as creating their own games, websites, and mobile applications.
To get started, head over to Timedoor's website through this page, and our teachers will be more than happy to get you and your little ones started on their coding journey.
