It’s almost end of August, parents! That means now (if you haven’t sooner) is the perfect time to implement the strategy that will motivate your child to learn more throughout the school year ahead!

Once school starts, there will be homework all over the place with other extracurricular activities. Plus, you’ll want to spend time with your child playing, relaxing and chatting about a day instead of nagging him into doing homework.

If you’re reading this during the school year, try to implement this strategy on weekends. There will always be some leftover homework for the week. If your kid is very young, fun learning on weekend mornings might become a special quality time between the two of you!

Anyway, I strongly believe this strategy will save me time to relax with my 6-year-old because he knows the rule: first homework, then play. We’ve practised this for his English classes which he takes in a private school two times a week.

My kid cannot go without books and learning activities a single day – he’s so naturally curious! But I believe all kids are. It’s on us parents to support that curiosity, to let it grow and not neglect it or suffocate it. Here are some additional things that we do every day to instill love towards learning.

Motivate your child to learn in the morning.

This is my number 1 advice because mornings are for winners. Your kid will likely be learning during morning time in school. So, this is a way to prepare their body clock for learning.

We’ve been practising a school morning routine since mid-July this year to prepare our son for his first school year. We always read something in the morning during breakfast time.

On many days, he wants to let the puppies outside and have breakfast in our backyard. Sometimes, he walks them through the neighbourhood while I prep the breakfast, books and activities. Since it’s summer break, we have the opportunity to have a slow morning.

Once school starts, we’ll only have 30 minutes for learning activities before we leave the house. And I want him to naturally want to do them with me because that will wake up his brain for success. So, here’s what we have been doing this summer break.

After walking the dogs or playing with them, it’s still a chilly morning. We feed the dogs together, wash our hands and enjoy our breakfast/coffee/learning time. Dogs hang out with us, so it’s always a great time.

After he finishes breakfast, he’s usually over with learning for now. Then he heads to the pool to cool, swim and play with his sea animals set. He always knows when it’s time to come out of the pool and always wants me to read something to him or tell him a story which I make educational and fun at the same time.

Make it fun!

Learning should never be a boring and scary activity. It is easy for young children to make it fun because the material has all the cute characters. If you help your kid fall in love with learning now, nothing will be hard for him later.

I follow my son’s interests and provide all the knowledge I can about a certain topic he currently likes. That’s what helps to motivate your child to learn and explore more! We use toys, activity books, and songs, and we make fun academic games. We do projects from books, or we make our own.

Even while teaching writing, math and science, I do it through hands-on activities. According to my son’s current interests, I make sure to provide hands-on experiences as well. For example, we visited an interactive exhibition about ancient Egypt when he was into learning that.

For learning to be exciting, keep in mind that each child has a learning style. So, the perfect learning time for my son might not be the perfect timing for your kid. My kid likes to focus on one subject per day, while yours might want to read and do math and art on the same day.

If you don’t want the learning to be boring, make sure not to act like a lecturer. Imagine a moment when your child makes a mistake in everyday life. For example, he falls off a chair and hurts himself after you’ve told him to stop rocking. If you start lecturing him, he will be ashamed and lose interest in cooperating in the future.

If you calm down your voice, hug him and explain that’s a consequence through which he should learn now, he will likely respond positively. That way, you build trust in the long run and welcome all his feelings and mistakes without shaming him.

It’s the same with learning. When my boy makes a mistake, I ask him the big “why” to spark curiosity and slowly point out the correct answer. This way of responding to mistakes gives time to correct and welcome each mistake as a healthy way to learn more.

Oh, and one more thing! If you’re not in the mood for learning – simply don’t do it. You won’t make it a memorable activity if you don’t bring positive energy into it.

Let the child explore and play independently. Kids learn through play!

Surrounded by books…

Whether you’re reading this while the school year is going on or during the summer break, never skip a library visit. We look forward to this every Monday.

We also love magazines such as National Geographic for kids and comic books, and we buy activity books each month. A very interesting fact is that my son was never a fan of Mickey Mouse, but he loves these comic books featuring Mickey, so we have tons of them!

Another set of books that we never skip is activity books, step-by-step guide books for kids, science experiments books, encyclopedias, and bedtime stories books. What can I say? We are real book lovers! Check out some of our favourite picks.

Motivate your child to learn with educational toys.

Once they are born, babies learn to breathe for the first time. In a mother’s womb, the oxygen and nutrients flow through the placenta straight to the baby. So, babies have to learn how to breathe in new surroundings.

And they succeed. Babies also learn to walk, talk, eat, and all the other amazing stuff. So, why do some people grow their children as haters towards learning? Why do they tell them: “You’ll see when you start school in a year” in a negative way?

Why do they plant a seed of hating school, and why do they suffocate the natural need to learn and be curious? Grown-ups want to know everything about their new toy, whether it’s an instrument, a motorcycle, a new phone, whatever.

It’s easy to learn when you love something. And what kid doesn’t love toys? By educational toys, I mean musical instruments, puzzles and blocks, pretend play and dress-up toys, arts & crafts and many more. Because, remember, kids, learn the best through play!

Recently, I played a game of a doctor and patient with my son. My role was as an orthopaedic, and he was my patient. I took advantage of this game to teach him the names of each muscle and internal organ of a human and the names of bones.

The game was so inspiring for my 6-year-old that he drew a human body through an xray! I love this drawing so much!

And here’s how we played the game. Some of you might wanna try. 🙂

So, I brought out our human body magnetic puzzle toy, and we played. The first thing each doctor has to do is relax the child by showing him his props (mine was that toy). So, we talked about almost every magnetic piece and solved the puzzle. Then I performed a routine examination. 

He loves that game even now, and we play it occasionally. One day, when he was a doctor, I broke my arm, so he had to talk about the bone and do the necessary. What a great way to motivate your child to learn and have fun bonding time!

I listed some of our favourite educational toys below.

Avoid criticism, but also too much praise.

I left the most important thing for the end! Do you like it when you make a mistake, someone repeats it out loud, scolds you and puts it in the centre of the universe? Well, the child doesn’t like that either!

We have already mentioned earlier that this will not help your kid achieve anything except that you will stifle his desire for advancement and embarrass him. And that will close all the doors to developing a love of learning.

And since you are here to find out how to motivate your child to learn and love it, there is no need for too much praise. Why? Because it can undermine the motivation to go further. When you praise your child for everything, you risk ruining self-esteem or making a narcissist.

I’m sure that this sounds confusing. You don’t criticize but stay positive without praising the kid for a job well done. But, what should you do then? Focus on always supporting your kid, but not only when they do something excellent. Be there for hard feelings and struggles, and be there for their accomplishments.

You do not want to give too many praises because praises focus on an outcome (a success about good behaviour, a grade) on your judgement about it. In which ways this lowers your kid’s self-esteem? They rely on the approval of others and don’t focus on themselves.

Instead of that, we want to build self-motivation through encouragement. So instead of saying: “Good job, you got an A”, focus on the hard work behind it. For example: “You worked very hard on this subject during the past week. You must be proud of yourself”.

When my son shows me his new painting or drawing, I don’t go like: “Good job, you’re such an artist”. I don’t want to grow my kid as an approval-seeker and people-pleaser. So, I look closely into the painting and comment on everything I can see there.

See, I focus on what comes behind the work and not on the outcome! That way, he has the space to focus on growing his self-esteem from the inside.

If anything goes wrong, for example, your kid gets a lower grade in school, he should work harder, but he shouldn’t work for an A. Encourage your kid to work harder by asking questions such as “How do you feel about it? What will you do differently next time?”.

All eyes are on the process! As a parent, you’re not allowed to look disappointed. You should be there during the good moments and the bad moments. “You worked hard on your math skills these days, and it looks like this week’s test tasks are easier for you.”

Final thoughts…

Whatever time in life your family is reading this, it is never to late to motivate your child to learn. Provide all the tools necessary and be the constant support. And also, parents ARE allowed to express how proud they are. And they ARE allowed to say “Good job!”.

But keep in mind that we should do these only after something exceptional. Their first performance, for example. Don’t worry. By being their support system throughout the day, they know that you are proud of them. Now, it is their time to learn to be proud of themselves.