Learning should always feel like a fun and exciting experience. Children will have to be in education until they are at least 16 years old, so making the experience of learning enjoyable will help them beyond their later school years.
Making school a fun and exciting time will help all children with their experience of learning in general. Here are some tips to get your child feeling motivated about learning.
Focus on your child’s interests
A good lesson in how your child can best learn is through their own interests. There’s no use in helping your child learn through activities that don’t cater to their exact interests, as they will become bored quickly and much less motivated going forward. To make learning fun again, relate them to things they do like. For example, if your teen loves computing and technology, lean into that to help them with their English Literature homework, as they both cater to the learnings of language.
Learn together
It can admittedly be a lot of work to feel motivated each week to pick up skills. In these cases a good place to start would be in working together. Ask what they are working on and if they need any help, to start with. Then, you can give your child control in terms of the subjects they are studying and what they’re currently picking up in class. There’s a lot your child will pick up in school all the time and it’s a good way to help them remember what they’re learning and how they can improve.
Work on your strengths and weaknesses
A reason why your child could not be as motivated to learn lately may be down to their current struggles in school. There could be particular areas that are just incredibly difficult for them to pick up and they will appreciate taking a step back and looking at what they could do differently. This is when you can work together to find ways to improve on their weaknesses, but also identify what they’re really good at already and how they can help with their growth. Thankfully, this is a lifelong lesson for many of us, which is why it’s great to discover them while you’re in school.
Encourage your child
Motivating your child can help with your child’s studies at any stage in their learning journey, from their SAT exams, a GCSE maths exam or a 13+ English paper. If you are regularly encouraging your child to do well, they will feel more determined to iron out any mistakes they potentially make. And it’s a good opportunity to give them rewards for when they do well, making them more motivated to do their best in their learning.
