Rewards

“I don’t want to do my school work today.” “Do I have to do my school work?” “I hate doing school.” “Just a few more minutes of television and then I promise I will finish my school work.” “I wish school was more fun.” How many times have you heard statements like these? I bet more times than you wish. School is not always fun everyday, however, you can make it a bit more interesting if you incorporate rewards and incentives along the way. Motivation, especially intrinsic motivation (the motivation that comes from within ones self), is a critical part of the education process. Motivation is a necessity so that learning becomes a continuing, improving, interesting and hopefully enjoyable process. Rewards are a part of the motivation process.

Reward ideas can be as simple as a sticker chart your child fills in each time a subject or assignment is completed--complete the activity, put a sticker on the chart. When a row is completed, a prize of some sort is earned. Game boards are even more fun. Check out this link for an idea involving a very cool and interesting game board your child is sure to have fun playing. I bet things are soon to change around your house very soon!

Music and Nursery Rhymes

Creative teachers or creative online resources can use music to teach various content across the curriculum. Teaching music to children will provide a new set of skills that will help to enhance their overall abilities. Kindergarten kids love to sing and learn new songs. What a super way to teach parts of the body, colors, numbers, names of the days of the week, names of the months of the years... Because a kindergarten age child has a relatively short attention span, keep your songs short and varied. It is better to do three five minute songs, than to spend 15 minutes on one song. So once again, choose songs that are either easy to teach, or that your child is already somewhat familiar with.

There is evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes and rhythmic poems, songs, and chants significantly enhances early reading skills and phonemic awareness. In fact, research highlights phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of a child’s reading success. What could be more fun and educational than learning to read and write by learning funny poems and rhymes!