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Questions tagged [motivation]

For all questions pertaining to motivation, like motivating children to do something (e. g. chores, homework, learning) or dealing with a child's lack of motivation.

12 votes
7 answers
7k views

How do I motivate my 8-year-old to practice the piano regularly?

I end up offering TV time as a reward but he complains so much while practicing, tracks time by calling out every 2 minutes, and practices without respecting the piano or the music (bangs it out). He ...
makmom's user avatar
  • 349
20 votes
7 answers
56k views

How can I motivate my child who doesn't care about rewards?

My son is 8 and has always been argumentative and basically lazy with doing ANYTHING since he could talk. If he has homework that takes ten minutes, he will take two hours due to just leaving the ...
Cara's user avatar
  • 201
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

How do I motivate my ten-year old to take responsibility and to do his best?

I worry that my ten-year old son is developing (has developed) a mindset that will come back to bite him as he gets older. He is a very bright and active kid, but does not like to extend himself and ...
joblial's user avatar
  • 113
4 votes
5 answers
512 views

How do I help children who think they don't need to know math, still learn math and have fun doing it?

I am teaching mathematics for students from elementary school to senior high school. I advise the students to learn mathematics (as the language of nature) as well as English (as the international ...
kiss my armpit's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

Need suggestions on how to deal with my 11yo in school

This turned out way longer than I intended, please try to bulldoze thru it. My oldest daughter is 11. She's the middle of 5 (21 19 11 9 7). Her older bros are in 'college' (they're taking classes). ...
monsto's user avatar
  • 5,513
41 votes
8 answers
12k views

How can we motivate a young adult without breaking the family?

Background One of my children is in her early 20's and deeply stuck. She has finished high school during the first COVID-19 lockdown, has then had a short stint at living alone and studying (aborted ...
AnoE's user avatar
  • 2,800
39 votes
12 answers
10k views

How to help my son improve without being discouraging?

I am building and painting miniatures, and have been doing so for many years. My son is showing more and more interest in building and painting them with me, which is great. I let him build a ...
Lucas F.'s user avatar
  • 501
13 votes
7 answers
13k views

How to inspire a 7 year old to accelerate reading efforts?

I have a seven year old son who is having a hard time "getting inspired" to read regularly. This is somewhat of a struggle for me as his older brother was reading Harry Potter at around his age and ...
ylluminate's user avatar
12 votes
8 answers
24k views

How can I encourage my 5-year-old to learn to swim?

My son is five years old and simply does not want to learn to swim. We've had him in swimming lessons, but he won't go in the water and if put in the water will not make any effort to swim. He is ...
philosodad's user avatar
  • 4,724
10 votes
5 answers
1k views

How to motivate yourself to read stories to a kid whom you know cannot understand and respond accordingly?

From: How to read an English story book to the kid when we don't talk in English at home? If you start immediately, it won't matter what language you're speaking; either way it will be babble :)...
Aquarius_Girl's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

I can't motivate my 13 year old twins to get school work turned in

We have tried grounding them, taking all their privledges away, we have tried reward systems and nothing works. They have started lying about getting the work done and turned in when they know we ...
Vhuber's user avatar
  • 101
9 votes
4 answers
3k views

How to persuade lazy-to-think kids to learn mathematics?

I am teaching mathematics for kids. Some of them are so lazy in thinking. They often answer my questions without thinking. And some of them also early decide that they will be artists, dancers, ...
kiss my armpit's user avatar