Motivation

As parents, we are looking for ways to motivate our children to learn and improve. As supervisors, we realized that motivation must be staff-initiated. We can only explain to them the importance of their assigned task. The attitude of the staff to complete the task is not up to us. Learning from motivating adults, we must know how the child motivates himself.

It's easy to give up and say "I don't know" as a child. Use examples of how the child previously completed a task. "You didn't know how to count before. Now that you can count, addition is just a continuation of counting" Explain the similarity in graphics or real life illustrations. "1,2,3 + 4,5,6..." The child should be encouraged that he has mastered counting and thus willing to take a small step to learn addition.

Rewards can only dangle a carrot in front of a child like how pay increment works for a staff. Some people work for money but others want other form of recognitions. I know friends who use sticker system to encourage the child to complete her work. After accumulating a certain number of stickers, she can redeem a prize or a bigger reward. It works to a certain extent but I want my children to know that they are learning for their own benefits, not for a toy or a holiday. In fact, I earned my atari game for topping the school in P1 myself. But towards upper pri, I lost "steam" although I passed my PSLE.

If the child has an ambition, help him work towards it. Tell him studies is important for him to attain his goal. He/she may want to be a pilot, air stewardess, chef, artist or even a rock star. Recognize his ambition with a wow. My son wanted to be a famous artist. I brought him to visit museum and interview a local artist. He held his first art exhibition in class with friends giving him encouragements. He's motivated to improve his painting as his ambition has been broken down into baby action plans. It's not important whether he becomes a famous artist eventually. The message we are bringing across is if he works towards it, he is a step closer to his dream and motivated to work even harder.