Motivation | light-the-fire

Motivation and rewards

Kids aren’t always able to see the effects their decisions now will have on their futures. It is our job as parents and teachers to help students make the best decisions for themselves, even when that doesn’t seem like the most exciting thing to do. Everyone has something that they care about; the trick is to match our goals for students to things that they care about until they can mature and learn to value the same things for themselves that we do. Below are some tips to get you started. It’s like shoes: if it isn’t a good fit, try another one.

Rewards I can offer...

Easy and cheap ideas to reward kids for meeting goals you set for them at school.

****WARNING **** Don’t offer it if you are not going to remember to follow through. Sometimes all a kid wants is an “I’m proud of you” especially when that isn’t something that they hear very often. As a kid, time, travel, or words of praise would have meant a lot to me.

*Student gets to pick what the family will have for dinner.

*Any one book from Goodwill or the used book store nearest you.

* Time at the park or national forest trails.

*Time at their favorite place.

*Date with Mom or Dad-- no other members of the family allowed.

*Student gets to join a sports team.

*Baking brownies or a treat with you.

*Student gets to pick your next haircut or color. (For the brave of heart, only!)

*Send an e-card to the relatives—take a picture of your student related to their goal and send out an e-card or just email to the whole family celebrating how well they did. Christmas Card programs are a great place to do this.

Freebies Kids Can Earn

1. Barnes and Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/summer-reading/_/N-rs9

Join the book club, and students can earn free books and all sorts of things from simply reading.

2. Local Libraries

http://srls.libguides.com/SRLSHome

Local libraries offer a different level of prizes for each book read over the summer. Keep an eye out for their summer reading programs where prizes can even include free food.

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