Happy Wednesday! Half way through the week already!
I am linking up with Shay and Erika today for their series, How We Wednesday.
Today’s topic is how we motivate our kids!
I don’t have any magical advice and actually have pretty self-motivated kids so it’s easy for me, but I’m anxious to read what other people have to say today!
Here is what I do to help my girls get motivated, whether it be for school work, chores, and/or sports.
1. Set goals
I love setting goals and am trying to teach my girls at a young age to set goals and have high aspirations. Want that new laptop? Have a goal on how to save your money and earn it. Want to ace that Science test?! Study every night for 20 minutes a week before the test and it will come easy to you. Setting goals help us have many accomplishments in life, whether they are big or small!
2. Encourage them
I am a very firm believer in positive reinforcements and praise. When I see my girls are getting discouraged, I do my best to encourage them and keep them motivated. I find this to be especially true with Emily and her schoolwork. Have dyslexia is hard and she easily gets discouraged. I am there to always lift her up and encourage her to keep on keeping on, even when it’s hard. I’ve also figured out through coaching Elizabeth with volleyball, that encouraging her and telling her all the positive things she did right in the game goes a lot farther than pointing out all the negative things.
3. Celebrate with them
Whenever they accomplish something or do something they are extremely proud of, Chris and I make it a big deal! We make sure to tell them over and over how proud we are of them. We might even go out and celebrate with ice-cream or a new slime if we are feeling extra nice!
4. If all else fails, bribery works wonders!
Chores are where I have the hardest time for the girls to stay motivated. They know there are consequences if they don’t get their chores done, but if everything else fails and I’m feeling like a “mean” mom, sometimes bribery is the only trick that works. You do this for me, I’ll do this for you. You sweep and mop the basement floors, I’ll let you have a friend over type situation. I know some of you think bribery is horrible, but I’m not above it! HA
That’s pretty much all I can think of at the moment on how to motivate kids. When they were younger I did a lot of sticker charts and small rewards. Now that they are older, they know what to expect and are self-motivated to do their best at everything in life.
I hope it continues throughout their teenage years!
~Jen
I love your tip of celebrating! That is such a great one to remember. We also use bribes…I am not against them either Mama!
Oh my goodness in some of those pictures I had to ask whether the girls were twins so I needed to investigate and came to find out that while the girls are close in age they are NOT in fact twins. Do you think that when the girls were younger that you dressed them alike because they were so close in age?
I LOVED dressing them alike! I do believe it was because they were so close in age and we got asked all the time if they were twins. Now that they are older they are getting their own looks, but we still get asked that occasionally about them. Have a good rest of the week!