How to Raise a Motivated Child

A motivated child can only come from a motivated parent. If you're willing to sit back and wait for your child to become what he or she will become, they just might end up sitting and waiting for something to come to them. It usually doesn't work out that way. If you want something, you've got to put forth some effort and go out and get it. That's what motivation is all about. And if you want your child to be motivated, you need to get motivated as well.

You can do this, first of all, by providing the necessary support, meaning letting your child know you will be there if he or she ever needs your help. While you appreciate their hard work, sometimes they just can't get the task at hand done all by themselves. By your show of support, they won't fear the challenge of the task and will strive to complete it that much more.

Next, try to keep the world around them challenging. Complacency leads to laziness where a challenge brings on motivation. If a child is challenged to learn something new every day, he or she will build on the lesson, yearning to know even more on the subject. Along with the challenge should be integrity. Teach them that taking shortcuts in the quest to find information will only lessen the experience of learning. Sometimes, taking a shortcut leads to a dead end road. You may be closer to the end of the journey, but you can't make it all the way there.

If your child seems to be struggling in achieving what he or she set out to do, break the goal down into steps they can accomplish one at a time. Simplifying the process to a more understandable level will alleviate the frustration of not being able to accomplish whatever project they are working on. When applying themselves one step at a time, the goal now appears attainable instead of futile.

Try to apply to real life the lessons they learn at school or pages from the book they are reading. You can make comparisons from math lessons, for example, to how long it will take to get to a relatives house for a weekend visit. Or, how a character in a book might remind your child of a person in real life and the similarities between the two. Keeping the real world in relation with school work reinforces the lessons more as it gives them something to compare the lessons to.

And finally, don't forget to appreciate your child's hard work. Nothing is more disappointing than to invest a great deal of time into a piece of work only to have it unnoticed. Reward their diligence and persistence to be the best they can be. And remember to stay as motivated as they are. Children like to do as their parents do. By setting a motivated example, your children will work that much harder.