How to Motivate Your Kid to Learn at Home During COVID-19 Pandemic?

Homeschooling – some have already practiced it without the coronavirus pandemic, and it has worked well. For some it’s a necessity, and there’s no other way, because schools are closed in many countries around the Globe. And for many families it’s become a torture for all family members, because one needs to work, has home chores AND has to be a teacher for their kid too.

You probably aren’t patient all the time, sometimes you might not know how to explain this or that topic to your kid. But even at times where you’re fully motivated and are ready to teach your child new things, she or he doesn’t want it at all. Fortunately, there are some useful tips and tricks to do it.

Create a Comfortable “Workplace” for Your Kid

Just like it is with yourself working from home, you can’t expect your son or daughter to be productive if they don’t have a neat, comfortable desktop, a chair, enough light, all the books and pens and – for older kids – a laptop or computer if they need one for learning.

Let them design their workplace themselves – this way, they will enjoy it much more! It’s also very important that this place stays in order. Teach your kid to clean up after the work is done. There should be a place for books, a box for all the pens and pencils, a separate space for all school belongings, so that they are easy to find the next day.

Separate School and Toys

Make sure there are no toys, puppets or LEGO parts on the table while your child is learning. Otherwise, they could distract them, and the school time would last much longer because of the inability to concentrate on the subject. If possible, separate the learning and the toy space.

Let Them Choose the Clothes

It’s difficult to concentrate and imagine you’re at school and have to learn if you’re in your pajamas. Let your kid choose and take on nice clothes for the “class” – this way he or she will be prepared better. Clothes is one of the school attribute, because that’s how you attend the class. Thus, your little one will feel a bit more “normality”. Do this every day.

Be Creative

How to get creative? Use a flipchart, a blackboard with chalk, draw, create presentations, set up tables and so on. Anything that could attract your child’s attention to the topic is perfect. Just learning with a book daily is boring, especially for younger ones.

Give Your Kid More Freedom

Let your child decide. Even if these are just small decisions, they will make your kid fell more important, independent and grownup. For instance, which subject to start with, when to start the “school day”, how long to make each lesson, what to do during the breaks. This will give your kid a sense of control.

Your Kid Should Know as Much as the Rest Class

Sometimes your child might not be motivated to study: “The school is closed, my teacher doesn’t control what I do, I get not notes! I don’t want to learn anything!” In such cases, tell your son or daughter, that the pandemic and homeschooling won’t last forever. There will be times when kids go to school again. “If you don’t study and return to the class, all your classmates will know much more than you. Then you’ll be just sitting there and feeling you’re the dumbest person in the room! Would you enjoy it?”

Also, there’s a risk to repeat the class again if you don’t study all the things you’re supposed to learn at this grade. Nobody would love it!

Let Them Contact the Teacher and Friends

Being a part of a community is important for everybody, especially for kids. It helps in forming their social identification. Who am I? I’m a good LEGO builder, I’m a guitar player, I’m a son and a schoolboy! Help your child identify themselves with the school community – that with their class – by letting them contact more.

If your child’s teacher enables it, let your child phone or facetime with the teacher and exchange news. Chatting on the phone with schoolmates would do very good to your child too.

Ask the teacher to send a group video of themselves for the kids saying something nice to the kids. It shouldn’t be something dedicated to some school topic, it could also simply be some ritual like wishing a great weekend every Friday.

Use Video Lessons

There are tones of videos on Youtube explaining different topics for schoolchildren at any grade. Find the best ones and let your child watch them if you don’t have the time or energy to explain another topic. Lots of today’s kid are so-called visuals – they need to see pictures to understand more. Videos help learning and make the whole process like a game.

Let Them Make Lists

Let your kid make a list of the work for the day and put a mark every time they are ready with something. Seeing your own progress on the paper gets one dopamine, and it makes you more motivated and happier.

Reward

If nothing helps, motivate your kid to study by rewarding. If they want more TV time, let them know how many words more to write to get extra 15 minutes. Give them an ice-cream after the Math is ready. Just anything that could be interesting and work for your kid.