How to motivate your child to learn

A study conducted by Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in 2012 with more than 3,500 students shows how important it is for school success. Scientists led by psychologist Kou Murayama surveyed motivation and learning strategies as well as the children’s understanding of math problems and IQ over six years, from fifth to tenth grade. The result: students who were motivated and really wanted to grasp what they were learning became better at math over time, regardless of their intelligence. You can find the ccss 3rd grade ela at this link.

Parents should therefore help their child with one thing above all: staying motivated! Only how?

1. be more interested in learning content than in grades!
A child should enjoy learning and be happy about his or her new knowledge. Then an intrinsic drive develops, which psychologists call “intrinsic motivation”. In contrast, “extrinsically motivated” children learn only to get good grades or to please the teacher. In 2014, Portuguese researchers Marina Lemos and Lurdes VerĂ­ssimo found in a study of 200 elementary school students that both forms of motivation can work simultaneously. The crucial factor is their relationship: If intrinsic motivation, i.e., the drive from fun and inquisitiveness, predominated, the performance of the students in the subjects Portuguese and mathematics improved steadily from the first to the fourth grade in the study. According to the researchers, extrinsic motivation only played a role from the third grade onwards: if it then got out of hand, the children’s school performance deteriorated again. To promote intrinsic motivation, parents should emphasize learning content more than grades. For example, first inquire about what a class assignment was about instead of asking for the result.

Way to go! How to praise children properly

2. support the curiosity of the little ones!
Children who can act out their crazy ideas – such as keeping an earthworm as a pet or squeezing green juice from weeds – are naturally inquisitive and eager to learn. This is because they realize how exciting it can be to discover and try out new things. No matter how unusual a child’s ideas may be or how chaotic they are guaranteed to be, support them! Praise creative ideas, even if they don’t immediately seem sensible or important. In this way, parents also help their child learn about his or her own interests and limits. 3.

3. encourage hobbies!
School is often more important to parents than soccer and co. But only through long-lasting activities do children realize that it takes perseverance and stamina to achieve small and large successes. Whether at the piano, PC or field hockey: only with sufficient training do they become little professionals. Durststrecken must also be overcome. Those who understand this are better able to get through dull learning phases.

4. explain what learning is for!
To help you with this ccss 3rd grade ela. It is often not clear to children why the knowledge they have gained at school should be useful in life. Help them get started, because motivation needs goals: If you learn to write, you can send grandma a birthday card, for example. Good English skills make it possible to talk to computer players all over the world via the Internet. And a better math grade may pave the way to the degree program of your choice. If you have a goal in mind, you will also want to tackle more difficult learning content.

5. be self-motivated!
In 2011, a team led by Idit Katz from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel showed how important the basic attitude of parents is for motivating a child. The researchers interviewed 135 students and their mothers or fathers and found that parents who helped with homework out of fun and of their own accord gave their child a more positive feeling about learning and behaved more empathetically than those who supported their offspring out of a sense of duty. Their empathetic behavior, in turn, boosted the children’s intrinsic motivation.

6 Don’t be hasty in offering your help!
Even though parental motivation is important for children: don’t overdo it with help! This was shown in a study by a team led by Alois Niggli from the Fribourg University of Education in Switzerland. The researchers surveyed more than 1,400 eighth-grade students about their parents’ involvement with homework and tested their French skills at the beginning and end of the school year. It was found that poorer school performance resulted in more parental involvement. However, more adult involvement caused their children’s performance to deteriorate even more.

Parents should therefore let a child try out each task themselves first before offering their support, and also afterwards always emphasize the steps that the child has managed on their own. Only in this way can it learn: every effort leads to a success of which I can be proud. If you intervene too much in the learning process, you risk making the child unintelligent and unconvinced of his or her own abilities.

Exercise patience!
Even the most motivated child will have a bad day. It is important to signal: Mistakes and regressions are allowed. Learning sometimes goes faster, sometimes slower. And you can also reach your goal in a roundabout way. Parents should be patient. Excessive pressure to perform is the biggest enemy of motivation, leads to excessive demands and makes children passive. Instead, emphasize what the child has already accomplished. As the goal approaches, offer the prospect of a reward, such as an excursion together. Then the last stage will be completed in no time.