Keep Your Teen Motivated to Learn: Part I
by Mimi Rothschild
As a seasoned home school parent, you have undoubtedly enjoyed the benefits of helping to educate your children and watching them bloom and grow under your guidance. However, your children are beginning to grow older and you are experiencing increased difficulty in keeping your teenaged students motivated to learn. This process is becoming more and more frustrating and if you are new to the home schooling environment, it might just be enough to convince you to give up.
Take heart, you have selected a wonderful avenue for educating your children; you just need some help. Do not feel inadequate; just about every teacher in America has to find resources to keep students, especially teenage students, motivated.
Online Learning
While your curriculum is likely motivating and challenging, it is also your curriculum. Teenage students are…well…teenagers, and as they go through hormonal changes, they challenge and test their parents. Don’t take it personally when their attitudes or words are less than complimentary toward you. Teenagers need boundaries and limits; however, they also need a chance to learn how to motivate themselves, and you can help them do that. Rather than pushing them to use your curriculum and do a project within your expected time limits, consider several classes in an online learning environment or asking them to develop their own course of study if yours is not of interest to them.
In an online learning environment, the students are responsible for doing their coursework. Give them the primary responsibility of maintaining the online learning material. This will provide them an opportunity to increase their independence, and online tools will allow you to monitor your students’ progress without appearing nosey. You may be amazed at how your students will desire to excel at the hand of someone beside their current nemesis (you, The Parent). While your teaching may be no different or better than the online professor, your students will likely be more motivated because it is an authority outside of the one they are currently testing.
Rewards
Provide your teens with physical rewards, not material ones – for example, an outing, social gathering or event that they have expressed interest in or want to attend. Perhaps a membership or involvement in a club contingent upon continued success in an educational area relating to the club. Do not use food, television or material products for ongoing rewards; not only can this be a costly way to reward your children, it will give them unreasonable expectations for future achievement.
Another method for rewarding your teenagers is to have them pick a reward that they want (again, non-material). As your children work on projects, motivate them by offering a daily award for completed work. Give them something nominal, (a ticket, rock or coin) as they perform designated tasks. The items can be saved and spent as the children wish for the reward of their own choosing. Have a list of rewards available to choose from, like having an afternoon off of their choice or not having to clean their room for a weekend. This will teach your children to work consistently, the importance of saving, and the beauty of enjoying rewards for a job well done. Rather than pushing chores as a punishment, show them how hard work can make their lives easier by providing them with breaks from their usual tasks around the house.
However you choose to keep your students motivated, do not be inconsistent. The number one thing that teenagers get frustrated with parents for is inconsistency. Be sure that this is not a source of contention between you and your teenage students.
 E-Mail to a Friend
|