It can be very difficult to motivate a child who doesn’t seem to want to do their schoolwork. As a parent, you may be invested in your child’s academic life, purely because you understand how important it is for them in the future. The problem is that kids probably don’t share the same concern about their future. They may want to prioritise gaming, YouTube or even hanging out with their friends. If you want to try and give them the support they need, then this is the guide for you.
Stay Positive
It’s vital that you try and keep a relationship with your child that is both respectful and open. Being positive is key here. Remind yourself that both you and your child are on the same team as this will help you to be influential. This is your most important tool as a parent, so keep this in mind. If you punish, threaten and preach to your child then this will be detrimental to your relationship overall, and you may even find that it harms their motivation too. If you can, try and remember that your child is not behaving in the way that they are on purpose. They are not trying to make your life miserable. When you feel yourself getting worked up, take a moment and calm down if possible. Remind yourself that it’s your job to help them to learn how to be responsible. At the end of the day, if you get negative and make it into a moral issue then there’s a high chance that your child will become defiant and instead of thinking things through, they will react poorly. Remember that it’s possible for you to find some free 2nd grade writing activities online, if you want to encourage them at home.
Incorporate the Rule “When You”
You know that you get paid after the work that you do, so try and implement this into your child’s learning too. Tell them that when they finish studying, they are more than welcome to go to their friend’s house. Enforce this rule and ensure that you stick to it. If your child does not have discipline then this will help them to create it, so make sure that you keep that in mind. If you enforce this rule, then you will be able to help them learn what their brain is and isn’t equipped to do.
Create Structure
If your child is not studying and you know that their grades are dropping quickly then you have every right to get involved. It doesn’t matter if they want you to or not. Remember that you are not there to do the work for your child, you are there to help them to set the structure so that they can do the work themselves. The structure may well include study times scheduled throughout the day or even having the computer in a public part of the home. Tell them that they are not going to have any electronics or any video games until they have done their homework either. If you can enforce and stick to this rule, then you should be able to come out on top.
Comments are closed.