[KathyCastles]

Difficult thing...I was wondering what tactics everyone uses to maintain motivation and engagement with children in their first few years at school.

Any advice?

 

[annethcz]

You may have better luck posting this question in the Learning At School forum.

But in general, I don't think I do anything special to motivate my child at school. I may be in the minority, but my children are attending school because they WANT to be there. If school is not providing an overall positive experience for them, they are free to spend their days learning at home instead.

As for homework, my kids don't have much of it. I do ask them/remind them to do their homework. At the beginning of the school year, the kids signed the school handbook which included a pledge that each student would work to the best of their ability. So they know that attending school comes with the obligation to do their work. If they choose not to do their homework, they can face the natural consequences of not doing their work.

Although we don't provide any incentives for our children to do well in school, we do make it clear to our kids that we believe education is important. We let our kids know that we believe that they are wonderful and intelligent people, and that we want them to acquire skills that will serve them well in life. We involve our children in our life in a meaningful way and model behaviors that we hope to instill in our children, such as reading for pleasure and for information. DH and I talk about our educational experiences (both institutional and real-world experiences) and tell our children how much we value the education we've received. We have an expectation that our children will continue to explore and learn throughout their lives, and have conveyed that expectation to them. We also expect our children to attend college/university and have made that expectation known to them as well.

Our children do well in school and are active and engaged students. If that were to change and our children no longer enjoyed school, we'd make changes. We've homeschooled in the past and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. We'd also be willing to seek out a different school if their current school wasn't a good fit. But I will admit that we chose our children's school very purposefully. They attend a fabulously child-led charter school.

If my kids weren't motivated and engaged students, I'd think that the particular school, classroom or teacher weren't a good fit for that particular child.