SPECIAL MOTIVATION
Keeping your teen motivated until the end of the school year
SPECIAL MOTIVATION
Keeping your teen motivated until the end of the school year
This article is a translation of an original text by our partner
Succès Scolaire
The first part of the school year is behind us and the days are getting longer, but school is far from being over. Before you know it, it will be that time of the year when young people will be far more interested in going out than studying. As a parent, how can you help your teen maintain their motivation until June?
TEMPORARY OR CHRONIC LACK OF MOTIVATION
What’s causing your child to lose their academic motivation? Is it related to a recent event, such as the confinement, or have they been this way for a while? If this is the case, it’s useless to suddenly become a motivator. It’s important to understand why they lack motivation and establish strategies for moving forward.
MORE LATITUDE
In adolescence, it is common for teens to want to resist parental authority and make their own choices. To help your teen maintain their academic motivation, you’ll need to use strategies.
One of these strategies is to give them more latitude. After all, your goal is for your child do their homework and study so that they’ll do well in their exams. Why not give them some slack? Let them do their homework before or after dinner, review their grammar rules with an educational game online instead of traditional paper-based exercises, or study comfortably on the patio instead of being closed up in their room.
These alternatives will satisfy their need for freedom and autonomy, and that’s motivating!
BECAUSE TOGETHER IS BETTER
Friends are a very important part of your teen’s life. You can suggest that they study with a friend on the phone or on videoconference. Studying with a partner changes the dynamic and can be very stimulating. Remember: the means justify the end when it comes to boosting your child’s motivation! You’ll just have to provide subtle supervision to make sure things stay on track.
DOWN WITH PROCRASTINATION
It’s easy to put off studying for your next exam until later. Both the cause and effect of low academic motivation, procrastination is very detrimental to academic success. The more you delay your school work or studying for an exam, the less motivated you are to tackle it at all.
To help your teen beat this bad habit, ask them to make a list of all their upcoming assignments and exams and arrange them in order of priority. Then ask them to evaluate how much time they will need to devote to each task and add 50%. Why? Because we often underestimate the time needed. It’s better to plan more time than less.
Psst: doing this with your child is very instructive. Learning to set priorities, make a plan and stick to it will be useful throughout their life.
FROM FAILURE TO SUCCESS
Has your son or daughter been failing French and chemistry? No need to panic: there’s still time to get back on track, because the most important exams of the year are still to come. To do so:
- Work with your teen to set clear and realistic goals to achieve.
- Then establish strategies to achieve the goals set. Here are a few:
- Work at the library during lunch periods when no extracurricular activities are scheduled;
- Transcribe their course notes or write summary sheets on the main points of the subject;
- Read their notes aloud;
- Write up a question and answer sheet and have you ask them questions.
If your math skills are rusty or if you were never good at chemistry, hiring a tutor may be a solution. In addition, building a relationship of trust with a resource person such as a tutor can be motivating and inspiring for your child.
WITH OUR PARTNER
Succès Scolaire: the reference in tutoring and homework help, offers invaluable advice to help your teenager to maintain good mental health thanks to their free guides and their blog.