Every parent and educator wants children to do well in school. No matter your own school experiences, we all want our children to thrive in school and life. One question we always see is how to encourage children to earn better grades. Do we offer homework help? Do rewards help?
Here are some ways to help encourage kids to get better grades:
1. Set high but realistic expectations.
Always hold your children to a high standard, but be realistic about goals. Having high expectations is important, but having too high expectations can put unnecessary pressure on your child, which is usually not helpful.
2. Enroll in after school care.
After school care can assist children in many ways. One way they help boost grades is by offering homework assistance. Sometimes all that is needed with homework help is to listen while they think through a project or by asking open-ended questions without giving the answers away.
After school care also offers activities that can assist with comprehension and learning through activities like; read-a-louds, buddy reading, books, story writing, creative dramatics, journal keeping, and games that enhance children's problem solving skills, deductive reasoning skills, and math related skills.
Another surprising way that after school care helps with grades is providing ways to get out their energy and socialize with friends, which can help them stay more focused during school or if they need to work on a project at home.
3. Refrain from rewards if your child is intrinsically motivated.
Being intrinsically motivated means that your behavior is driven by internal rewards. In other words, the motivation to engage in a behavior comes from within yourself because it is naturally satisfying to you.
This is a very good thing for children to be! It teaches them not to rely on external factors, such as rewards, to get things done.
The problem that arises when you give already intrinsically motivated kids rewards is that they can sometimes shift to being more extrinsically motivated. Basically, if a child is intrinsically motivated and he or she is offered tangible rewards for good grades, that child will likely come to rely on the rewards and may, in the future, only get good grades if a reward is present.
Kids & Company offers so much more than the typical Orlando after school program, with after school care until 7pm and even the option for Saturday and night care at our Curry Ford location. With two locations in Orlando, there is a convenient location for you and your child. If you have any questions about our programs, including: infant care, childcare, voluntary prekindergarten (VPK), or after school programs, give us a call at (407) 227-1015.