It’s not just kids who feel a little down on a Sunday evening, with 5 days of hard work ahead of them - adults completely understand that feeling too! However, it’s important that you remind your little ones that school years can be one of the best times of your life. Whether it’s the end of a relaxing weekend, or the end of summer vacation, sometimes we all need a few tips and tricks to pep ourselves up and get back in the swing of things. So here are a few ways you can encourage your kids to be positive and embrace the learning opportunities that surround them daily at school!
Reward Them When They Deserve It
No one’s suggesting you start handing out lollies for every day of good behaviour and school attendance, but there is something to be said for appreciating when your children are putting in effort. If your reward good behaviour, it’s more likely to be repeated! Rewards don’t have to be sweets or things that are bad for your little ones - you can even incorporate activities that are good for them into their present, effectively killing two birds with one stone. For example, get a trampoline for the backyard - plenty of exercise and heaps of fun! Or for an ever bigger surprise, get a jumping castle, and watch your kids and their friends bounding around having the time of their lives.
Dress To The Nines
Everyone gets more excited about their day when they know they look great! Start getting your children involved with picking out their outfit, hairstyle and shoes, so they feel like an active participant in the morning, rather than the sleepyhead dragged out of bed. If they are having a particularly tough morning, suggest their favourite dress or shirt and remind them how awesome everyone will think they look. You can also make sure they feel well decked out with a nice-looking schoolbag, organised pencil case and comfortable shoes. Having the right outfit and equipment is half the battle when it comes to acing any kind of day anyway.
Keep Them Motivated
Motivation is the essential ingredient in accomplishing any task, easy or hard. Some of the professionals at Tutoring For Excellence have explained how they do just that below:
“From our experience, even the best books and materials won’t get kids excited about wanting to learn something new if they’re not motivated. Motivation is a key factor at all stages of a student’s education and this is why we believe it is our duty as tutors to play a pivotal role in encouraging motivation in our students.
What we often do is give our students a sense of control, this is how we keep them excited about learning. Another thing we love to do is to change the scenery where they study often, for example, adding new interesting educational posters to the walls, changing seating layout, bringing in special (guest) tutors to keep them motivated and engaged. Kids brains love novelties and we believe that this is a key motivational factor. We also try to make studying more fun, and engage educational toys which help in learning new lessons. This is a great help in keeping students engaged, motivated and focused on the task at hand.”
To find out more about tutoring children, follow Tutoring For Excellence on Facebook.
Have Clear, Visible Goals
Goals are extremely helpful in all areas of life - from schoolwork to the office, to learning a new hobby or skill. What is the point of working towards something if you don’t have a target or aims to hit? It can certainly be hard to find the motivation to keep going if you don’t. It’s been proven that having your goals clearly written in plain sight improves your odds of achieving them. That constant reminder daily of what you want to achieve is bound to propel you to work harder, faster and more precisely. So whether it’s a particular result your kid wants to achieve, a sports team they want to play for or even a long-term goal like a job they want to have when they grow up, get them to write it down or draw a picture and pin it up on their bedroom wall. Just be careful to make sure you make the experience fun, and exciting, rather than overly pressurizing or scary! Once your little ones start achieving what they’ve set out to, they’ll absolutely love waking up for school, and will relish the opportunity to learn all that they can.
Your little ones will soon be springing out of bed in the morning, excited to get to school to work hard, but also play hard with their friends and classmates.
