It is important that motivation and confidence are installed in your child because they are the basis of their self esteem. Children need to be motivated and supported by their parents so that when they grow up, they are able to make the right decisions. It’s hard to teach your children things like motivation and confidence, however, you can teach your child how to be self motivated and confident. Self motivated and confident children grow up to be self motivated confident adults.
Coming down to the level of our children and making their opinion count: Assuming the same level/status with your children makes it possible for parents to see things from the perspective of the child/children and when this is done well, the child will have every reason on earth to be motivated. A perfect way of coming down to the level of your children is to make their opinion count in virtually every thing (you may subtly discard their opinion later).
Other ways of coming down to the level of your children are:
sharing food with them,
sharing the same bed with them at night,
participating in some of their “stupid” games,
pretending you understand their language
(especially when they are still learning to talk)
Talk and listen. This lets them explore and revisit their ideas, and develop self-awareness. Conversations also involve complex and varied interaction skills, thought processing and language structures.
Making Love the motive of our action towards our children: Bring them up with love, care and support. Another thing mention here is that a little gift now and then (not every time so that it does not become an unhealthy culture) helps to show the child that you care and you never can tell how far this will take the child as far as motivation is concerned.
Create a print-rich environment. Have books and reading and writing material within reach. Also other print material- calendars, notices, brochures.
Read to them. Start with turning pages, talking about pictures and going on to reading the story and talking about it. Model reading for pleasure and information.
Write. Start with pre-writing – handwork to develop fine motor control, such as drawing, arts and crafts, cutting, threading, and making things. Scribe for your child as he talks, model writing for pleasure and for specific use (making a shopping list, for instance). Let him help you write.
Giving sincere and open appreciation: Research has shown that children are the most vulnerable set of people on this planet earth. They tend to live more on the immediate and this ultimately become s a great determining factor in their future life. If you must flatter them, make sure it look so real that even you may get to the point of doubting the fact that it is all flattery.
Leverage on other peoples’ mistakes: In as much as it is not good trying to take advantage of other peoples’ situation, we need to let our children know what led to particular predicament of some people in our neighbourhood. For example, telling them that this person is suffering today because, he/she failed to do “this or that” in the past.
You can also get your children motivated by making them see the future for themselves, make them envisage what the future will look like.
