Motivating Your Child

Parents can find it hard to get their children motivated, especially after a school holiday. Rita O’Reilly, CEO of Parentline, says that a lot of calls to their helpline are from parents anxious about their children’s schooling and  education, so Primary Times and Parentline have put together some tips to prepare your child for the start of the New Year (After all the fun and free days of the Xmas holidays)

Top Tips

• Try to re-establish a routine for your children, paying particular attention to bedtime. Late nights and lazy days during holidays can leave everyone feeling out of sorts

• It can be difficult to get children to bed if they are buzzing from too much computer or mobile phone use. Try to have a cut off time for computers to help children‘wind down’ and encourage them to switch mobile phones off and leave them downstairs to avoid them being disturbed after they’ve gone to bed

• Think about what your children are eating and try to introduce some wholesome meals for the family as children are far more able to concentrate at school if they have a healthy diet

• Think about doing things as a family. Perhaps have a ‘treat night’ every so often – order a pizza, let the children choose a video or DVD and enjoy a ‘chill
out’ family night

• Encourage the children to look out for early signs of spring, e.g. who can spot the first snowdrops or the signs of buds growing on trees and bushes
“The whole household needs to change to a more structured routine,” says Rita, as the pace of family life changes from a walking mode to running to soccer, hurling or dancing. Bedtimes, structured mealtimes for all the family, homework and good quality time need to run like clockwork as children love routine- so that your is positive and enthusiastic about the start of the new term says O’Reilly. Tips to help your children learn

• Give encouragement and show appreciation of the child’s achievements, whether great or small. This helps to build their confidence.

• Help children learn that learning can be fun and that it can also be frustrating. Allow them to make mistakes and to learn from them.

• Encourage a variety of interests, both at home, with friends, or in‘out of school’ activities

• Learn together: Do things together, visit interesting places, talk about things you’ve seen on television, discuss life issues and give your child the opportunity to ask questions• Let your child develop at his or her own pace. Be realistic and avoid putting your child under pressure by having over-high expectations

• Accept each child in the family for his or her own unique abilities. This helps to nurture a child’s self-esteem, essential for healthy learning

Majority of parents say children want more family time, with more play time high on the wish list. Half of Irish parents believe that they don’t spend enough time together as a family and over 85% of parents would like to spend more time together, according to the results of a survey released to mark National Game Playing Week.

The results of the survey also showed that 83% of parents thought their children would like to spend more time together as a family. Playing together ranked highly on the list of things parents thought their children would like to
do as a family.

52% of parents said that they spend two hours or less as a family on a mid-week evening. Much of this time is taken up with eating dinner, watching TV and doing homework, leaving only a short amount of time for quality play time.

Dr Celine Mullins, child psychologist says that spending time together as a family and especially playing together is extremely important for a child’s development but understands that this critical time is often lost in the buzz of activity.

“Children crave time with parents. It makes them feel special. Parents are
encouraged to find time to spend playing with their kids on a regular basis. Playing with kids builds a bond that will last forever and lets the child know that he or she is loved and appreciated. It opens the door for sharing problems and concerns when the need arises as well as being a great stress reducer for overworked parents,” she said.

Parentline

Carmichael House

North Brunswick Street
Dublin 7

Telephone: 1890 927 277
Email: info@parentline.ie