7 ways: Motivating learning in young children 2
7 ways: Motivating learning in young children
(part 2)
(part 2)
3. What is value: this may be one of the most difficult things to teach any child. What is value? How do you go about giving value to things and most of all, to one’s self?
Children are surrounded by all sorts of influences, from their parents, teachers, from their school friends and even from that box called the television set (cable, internet, and so forth). The problem is they need to know the value of things: this is important and this is why purpose and understanding comes first before value. When a child has a purpose and they understand the importance of the order of things – they can better understand the value of things and the value of why they need to do things.
Have you ever bought a gift for your child only to have it lost or broken, if you replace it quickly they lose all site of the value of that gift. They leave it about, easily forget it and more. But if you had this same child work several days or weeks of hard manual labor and instilled in them the understanding that if it is lost they will have to redo all the hard work they did to purchase a new one – there is usually a change in how that child cares for that item. This is because they can equate the hard work necessary to obtain the item with the value of the item.
As a side note: value is also important in order to help a child with self worth and self esteem – you decide your worth, no one else.
Children are surrounded by all sorts of influences, from their parents, teachers, from their school friends and even from that box called the television set (cable, internet, and so forth). The problem is they need to know the value of things: this is important and this is why purpose and understanding comes first before value. When a child has a purpose and they understand the importance of the order of things – they can better understand the value of things and the value of why they need to do things.
Have you ever bought a gift for your child only to have it lost or broken, if you replace it quickly they lose all site of the value of that gift. They leave it about, easily forget it and more. But if you had this same child work several days or weeks of hard manual labor and instilled in them the understanding that if it is lost they will have to redo all the hard work they did to purchase a new one – there is usually a change in how that child cares for that item. This is because they can equate the hard work necessary to obtain the item with the value of the item.
As a side note: value is also important in order to help a child with self worth and self esteem – you decide your worth, no one else.
4. True reward: what is true reward – it just happens to go with understanding value. In order for a child to seek and desire to learn on his or her own – they need to understand that yes there is a reward at the end of all this hard work. There is nothing more confusing than the educational system – they teach you all these things that to children and even to adults seems to be fruitless, wasteful and most of all you think to yourself “when will I ever need to use this in the real world?”
While there are something’s in life we will learn that we will never again use – the purpose of learning is to broaden your mind and to help you solve problems. This is often the problem with the school system – they teach you how to remember facts but often fail to teach you how to solve problems or how and where to find the solutions to problems.
The reward one receives from learning is that you open your mind to other possibilities and this helps you now and in the future. The light bulb is a very common item now a days, but we forget that it took over six thousand failed attempts before Edison learned how to make the incandescent light bulb to work properly. And in truth, how can you decide what future you want if you don’t learn a little about science, geography, math and so forth. Knowledge itself is its own reward.
While there are something’s in life we will learn that we will never again use – the purpose of learning is to broaden your mind and to help you solve problems. This is often the problem with the school system – they teach you how to remember facts but often fail to teach you how to solve problems or how and where to find the solutions to problems.
The reward one receives from learning is that you open your mind to other possibilities and this helps you now and in the future. The light bulb is a very common item now a days, but we forget that it took over six thousand failed attempts before Edison learned how to make the incandescent light bulb to work properly. And in truth, how can you decide what future you want if you don’t learn a little about science, geography, math and so forth. Knowledge itself is its own reward.
5. Patience: the old saying is – patience is a virtue, too bad so many of use lack patience. We now live in a society where everything is expected to happen now, today. It is an instant gratification type of world our children live in as they slowly progress through school only thinking about – when will summer ever get here.
Children need to learn that life takes time, patience and flexibility. When you plant a seed, you cannot expect to find a plant tomorrow, the next week or even next month. Everything in life takes time, there is a process, steps one must take in order to start and then reach the expected goal. The reason so many children hate learning is because they do not see the expected instant gratification of the work they do. Take for instance a test; a simple spelling word exam is given every Friday. So the student studies every day for four days and then on Friday takes the exam. The problem is the student has to wait the entire week end to receive the result of the exam on Monday – that is if he doesn’t have to wait till next Friday when he takes all his or her paper work home for mom and dad to review. In a society of ‘everything now’ the effects of taking a test and not being rewarded with a good grade now is lost.
What I often do is to have my child study and then take a practice test with me. When he passes our home made test he gets reaffirmation and a simple reward. This also allows for helping my child with any of the words he may have gotten wrong. So when the real test happens my child is better prepared, motivated to do well and can patiently wait for the results to come in. By doing this the child desires to learn because he/she see’s results now, and this allows to build-up momentum in a child’s desire to learn.
With that said, a child needs to understand that what is done today cannot bear fruit today – like building blocks you have to slowly build them up in order to create the master piece you desire (goal you desire).
Next
Children need to learn that life takes time, patience and flexibility. When you plant a seed, you cannot expect to find a plant tomorrow, the next week or even next month. Everything in life takes time, there is a process, steps one must take in order to start and then reach the expected goal. The reason so many children hate learning is because they do not see the expected instant gratification of the work they do. Take for instance a test; a simple spelling word exam is given every Friday. So the student studies every day for four days and then on Friday takes the exam. The problem is the student has to wait the entire week end to receive the result of the exam on Monday – that is if he doesn’t have to wait till next Friday when he takes all his or her paper work home for mom and dad to review. In a society of ‘everything now’ the effects of taking a test and not being rewarded with a good grade now is lost.
What I often do is to have my child study and then take a practice test with me. When he passes our home made test he gets reaffirmation and a simple reward. This also allows for helping my child with any of the words he may have gotten wrong. So when the real test happens my child is better prepared, motivated to do well and can patiently wait for the results to come in. By doing this the child desires to learn because he/she see’s results now, and this allows to build-up momentum in a child’s desire to learn.
With that said, a child needs to understand that what is done today cannot bear fruit today – like building blocks you have to slowly build them up in order to create the master piece you desire (goal you desire).
Next
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