4 Surefire Strategies to Motivate Your Child to Learn

All parents want their children to excel at school. However, how do you motivate your child to learn? How do you help them develop a life-long love for learning? While the skills and knowledge that they gain in the classroom are crucial to their growth and development, Severna Park Children’s Centre, Inc., believes that their learning should extend outside the walls of the classroom as well.

As a premier daycare center in Pasadena, Maryland, we have compiled the following proven strategies that you can use to motivate your child to learn.

1. Encourage open communication.
   Allow your child to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. How do they feel about their current educational experience? How do they feel about their school activities? Create an atmosphere where they feel comfortable talking about their likes and dislikes, as well as their concerns. Oftentimes, when children feel like their opinion doesn’t matter, they’re more likely to disengage from the learning process.
2. Encourage reading.
   Help your child develop reading skills and a love for reading by reading to them frequently. Once they are able to read by themselves, have them read aloud. Make reading time more interesting by using different voices and tones. If possible, create a family reading time where everyone is reading something. Be a good example and show your child that reading is important. Not only does reading help them develop a richer vocabulary, it can help their brain process different concepts and ideas. It encourages their creativity and imagination. Children who develop a love of reading, develop a love for learning.
3. Introduce different learning styles.
   Every child learns at their own pace and they have their own learning style preferences. Don’t try to force them to learn according to a specific way. There isn’t necessarily one right or wrong learning style. Observe them, let them find their own learning style, and guide them accordingly. There are seven fundamental learning styles: Verbal (linguistic), Visual (spatial), Physical (kinesthetic), Aural (auditory-musical), Logical (mathematical), Social (interpersonal), and Solitary (intrapersonal).
4. Pay attention to what he’s learning, not his performance.
   While school performance is important, it isn’t necessarily the most important part of your child’s educational experience. The most important thing is what he’s learning at school. For instance, instead of asking your child how they did on the exams, ask them to teach you about what they learned at school. By paying more attention to their learning experience, you are showing them that results are not the most important thing; actual learning is more vital than test grades, and that you are more concerned about their well-being than their performance at school.

These are just four tips from your friendly child care centre in Pasadena, Maryland. If you have other tips that you would like to share, please comment below to let us know.