Parenting Tips Motivate Your Child

 

Encouragement

Motivate Your Child

1. Talk with your child about what you're reading: Share interesting newspaper and magazine articles, point out beautiful words from books and introduce new vocabulary. 2. Provide a good selection of books for your child so that he or she can always find one of interest. 3. Have your child pick out books in addition to the ones you choose.

4. Discuss the books with your child as he or she reads them. Ask questions about themes, characters and how the story might relate to real life. 5. Help your child build confidence by allowing him or her to reread a book several times. 6. Reward your child for reading new books.

Prepare your child for the First Day of School

1. Begin preparing your child a few weeks before the big day (sooner, if this is his or her first school experience or a new school). If your household has relaxed bedtime and morning routines over the summer months, start to wake your child a little earlier each morning, and move bedtime up 15 minutes every few nights to re-establish "school hours." 2. Plan a "back-to-school" shopping day with each child individually, and make it a special event. Of course, you'll set (and try to stick to) a general budget, but leave some room for one or two small extravagances (reuse last year's backpack, but buy this year's hottest cartoon-character notebook).

3. Before the big clothes-shopping trip, spend some time with each child sorting through last year's things and decide together what goes into which pile (keeper, hand-me-down or donate). Insist that your child try on every keeper.

4. For a new year in a new school, plan a visit there a week or so before the first day. Walk through the building locating the classrooms, bathrooms and lunchroom.

5. If your child will be riding the bus, find out the route he or she will take and take a drive on it together a few times. If he or she is a walker, plan the route and walk it together both ways.

6. Help your child deal with first-day jitters by focusing on some special advantage of, for example, being a fourth-grader. Perhaps your child is now old enough for his or her own house key, an increase in allowance or some other new privilege.

7. Celebrate the big day. Go out for dinner or plan a special meal the night before, or present your child with a small gift.