Motivate Your Children for Their Performance



Motivate Your Children for Their Performance 

By Dickson Tumuramye

Our children have come to the end of their first term. We congratulate them upon successful completion of their term. We can now rise up our hands to bless name of the Lord. 

Children need to be appreciated for the far they have come. I know we try hard to put things they want in place which sometimes, it is costly and there are many other issues that demand for money. Someone may say what is Dickson talking about? I have tried to provide fees and scholastic materials for these children; I now go on to buy them gifts for just end of first term exams? Yes, it is important.
They have also done their best to make sure that they read hard and s/he did not disappoint you. They deserve to be celebrated. 

Others could have performed better at school in other areas. These too deserve to be appreciated. The reason for appreciation is to spur them remain focused and hard working. As you do this every term, I trust there will always be an improvement in different things as they will be working hard to maintain the grade unless they lose out on the gifts next time. 

It is a way that we motivate our children to work hard. Doing well in class does not necessary mean I should be the first every term. There could be a child who has been performing averagely, but this time, there is a great improvement. The child has shifted from a bad position to a better one. The gifts should be given on merit. There are those who may have not improved in their performance or they could have even done worse than last time, as a way to motivate him/her, it is also good to give her a small gift and make him/her know that if he/she improves, he/she will earn him/herself a big one next time. We sometimes only focus on the position and forget about the average mark, improvement in certain subjects etc. All these matter a lot if you have been consistently following the child’s performance.

Appreciation is to instill a spirit of hard work in this child and to help them know that for one to get something good, you have to work for it. There is nothing for nothing. We all know that one by one makes a bundle.  As this child sees your commitment to care for him/her irrespective of his/her performance, he/she will be motivated to challenge you next time. Therefore have different incentives for different reasons but let all your children at the end of the day feel appreciated for the little they have achieved. An individual's motivation may be inspired by events or others.

The gifts could range from best performers, creativity, hard work at home/doing chores, cleanliness, submission, care for others at home, time keeping etc.  After all, it’s not only excellent academic performance that determines one’s success in future. What is more important in your child’s life is for you to recognize his/her area of interest, talents and abilities beyond academia and concentrate on that to help your child alongside education to achieve his/her dreams. 

As you reward your children, put into consideration that each child is unique and talented differently. They all deserve rewards according to the measure of their efforts to improve in their areas of interest.

The writer is a child advocate and a parenting coach,  Kampala, Uganda.


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