Positive (growth) language

Do you look at solutions or rather at problems? By stimulating optimism, you teach children a positive outlook on life and on learning new things. This helps them become motivated more quickly and also see opportunities in things they have never done before. As a parent/caregiver, you play a major role as a model in your use of language. Use a lot of ‘growth language’; your language use is focused on the growth process. For example:

Say instead of: “I can’t do it” “I can’t do it YET”

If a child says they cannot do something, focus on growth. ‘I know you can’t do it yet, but by practicing you will get better and better at it.’

Connection

The attentive presence of a parent or caregiver is the greatest gift you can give a child. Do something that truly makes the child happy. Children need relationships; to belong, to be accepted, and to feel safe. By listening, offering trust, giving support, and setting a good example, you create connection and a positive atmosphere. Almost all activities or chores that a child does unwillingly; he/she would rather do with an adult nearby.

Personal attention and doing something together is nice. You can also apply this by doing a Squla exercise together on the computer or tablet. We often let children work independently on devices without noticing because they are usually able to do so independently as well. But it is extra motivating if you sit down with them for a while and watch along.

TIP: Squla has fun drawing quizzes that you can do together. Afterwards, you can immediately put what the child has learned into practice by drawing together. Or after doing a number of math quizzes, play ‘little supermarket’ with the child to put math into practice in a fun way right away.

Attention is therefore the most important thing for a child; so important, in fact, that children are also happy with negative attention. As a parent/caregiver, you have a lot of influence on the relationship and the atmosphere. Through conversations, but also by showing understanding (‘I also find it difficult sometimes to…’), you work on the relationship and then motivation follows.

The child's own input

If children feel that they can make their own choices and have influence on the learning process, this has a big impact on motivation. A ‘child conversation’ can help with making their own choices and strengthening the relationship, but above all it gives the child more independence.

TIP: Give the child a choice instead of an assignment: ‘Shall we do the math first, or your language work first?’.

Belief in one's own abilities

Everyone likes being good at something. You can strengthen this feeling with realistic expectations and a challenging environment. Putting effort into something is especially fun if you also get recognition for it, right? Success experience is therefore important in this process. A fun way to gain a sense of success is with Squla's games and quizzes. In a playful way, you can do an online exercise together, which activates prior knowledge, gives the child a success experience, and then makes the transition to homework easier.

TIP: A little math game as an opening and as a closing activity for math homework makes it much more fun!

For a child to be truly engaged, a game must not be too easy and not too difficult. Children who are intensely engaged in playing are learning at that moment.

What if a child is unmotivated?

Motivation problems can have various causes, such as:

• Learning difficulties and, due to few success experiences, less confidence in one's own abilities.

• Too little challenge; sometimes it is just too easy.

• Emotional problems or stress, or problems at home.

• Learned behavior (no stimulating environment).

Helpful here is to start a conversation with the child. Explain that you want to make learning and homework more enjoyable again and want to look for solutions together with the child. For example, ask the child:

• What does he/she like to do? And what not (and why is that?).

• When would it be more fun or better for you?

• If you had to give doing homework a grade from 1-10, what grade would you give it? And what would be different if you gave it one point higher?

• And what can we do together to make that nicer for you?

• In what way can I help you better?

At the end of the conversation, summarize the conversation (I understand that you… and I can help you by…). Explain how you are going to do this. By then writing down the agreements, you show that you take them seriously, and by signing them together it becomes an official agreement.

Why do you have to do something?

If you know why you are learning something, its importance becomes clear as well. When a child knows why something is useful or why something needs to be practiced, he also understands why it is important.

When do you have to do something?

Sometimes it can help to make a clear schedule of the activities. First we do a game, then we do the homework and then you get to choose something yourself. Using a step-by-step plan or pictograms makes this visible. Short activities and different forms of work make it more varied. Let children estimate for themselves how much time they need and how they are going to do the tasks.

Learning through movement

In education, learning through movement is being used more and more often. Research shows that math and language lessons in which children master the material through movement can lead to better results. It stimulates chemical changes in the brain (such as dopamine), which increases concentration. Children also find it incredibly fun to do. Draw the ‘times tables’ outside with sidewalk chalk or jump the answers to math problems into the air. Fun guaranteed!