100 Ways to Motivate Kids

Julie Polanco

• Publisher: Morgan James Faith
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781642791242
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

This guide offers one hundred free or low-cost educational activities that inspire children age six and up to explore the world God made. 100 Ways to Motivate Kids offers challenging projects and activities for children ages six through eighteen to engage with the world in relevant, creative, faith-based, and educational ways. Dividing this guide by age group and subject area—covering math, nature, world cultures, and more—Julie Polanco includes fresh ideas that help develop twenty-first century skills through fun, developmentally appropriate experiences. In addition, 100 Ways encourages community involvement, a love for the environment, and an entrepreneurial spirit. There is no need to buy expensive kits or subscriptions because this pocket-sized book covers the same STEAM principles (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) at a fraction of the cost—and includes the humanities.

Ideas for Children Ages 8 to12

Children this age are generally very competent. They are in the developmental stage called “Industry” and want to know how to do almost anything. However, motivation can start to lag right around this time. This can happen because of overscheduling, boring and irrelevant schoolwork, and disregard for the child’s passions. The ideas in this section are meant to rekindle the dying embers of your child’s passions, build confidence, and challenge her thinking and creativity.

Language Arts

While children this age know how to read, they may struggle with composition skills. They may need some encouragement in their communication skills. These suggestions focus on giving kids reasons to share with others in a meaningful way, not with emoticons, acronyms, and shorthand. We need to take back our most valuable human asset—written language—and it starts with our children. Let’s engage our kids in face-to-face time and immerse them in longer reads.

1. Take them to the library (or bookstore) and let them choose whatever books they want. This idea may not seem all that amazing, but consider how often we choose books for them. There are many reasons why we may do this, but think about what we are saying to our children when we don’t allow them to choose. We are saying that we don’t trust them to make good choices, that only we know what good books are, and that our interests are more important than theirs. Let them choose, even if they choose gross joke books, graphic novels (although you might want to check the images), or fashion magazines. They won’t choose those things every time, and their choices can spark some great conversations.

I did this with my daughter Tiger when she was twelve, and she chose books I didn’t like. However, the books sparked conversations about worldview, pop culture and trends, multiple perspectives, and more. It also drew us closer together, because I showed her that I respected her as a person.

2. Create a traveling notebook. Purchase a bound notebook and write some notes about your child and your time together. End your note with an open-ended question for your child to answer and to keep the conversation going. For example: “I really enjoyed our time at the movie today. It was fun to stuff our faces with popcorn and laugh together. What was your favorite part of the movie?” After a month or two, maybe longer, you will have a keepsake of your thoughts and written conversations. What a wonderful way to document your child’s life.

3. Put together a family newsletter. Let your child interview you and take pictures. Encourage her to imagine what your pets might say. Let her make it as silly and funny as she likes. Include jokes and cartoons that she creates. Perhaps all your children can work together and then send it to extended family members, such as grandma and grandpa.

4. Do you say “it’s” or “its”? Get a cereal box or other kid favorite (maybe the box from a recent toy purchase) and ask your child to rewrite the advertising copy on the outside of the box or to rewrite the assembly instructions. They get to intentionally forget punctuation, use the wrong homonym, and spell incorrectly. The more mistakes they make, the better. This gets lots of laughs, but it also helps them spot the frequent public errors in spelling and punctuation that are rampant these days. They will gain a new appreciation for why these aspects of language are important.

5. Rewrite the ending. Ever hear of fractured fairy tales? This is a bit like that. What if Goldilocks didn’t run away from the three bears? What if Cinderella didn’t have the other glass slipper? Explore different endings for popular, and not-so-popular, stories. Did a different character become the hero or heroine, or did the main character find a different route to obtaining their goal or desire?

6. It didn’t happen that way; it happened this way. This is similar to number five, but this time retell the story from a different perspective, such as telling the story of the three little pigs from the wolf’s perspective (there is a hilarious version of this available called The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka). Maleficent is another example. How does the story change when you do this?

7. Oh, balderdash and nincompoop. Find funny sounding words in your dictionary that aren’t really used anymore—the funnier, the better. Make a list of them. Discover their true meanings together and then choose one to use often throughout the day. This is different than inventing new words, like in Frindle by Andrew Clements. This is about using real words that no one uses anymore, making life interesting, and helping children gain an appreciation for the power of having the precise word for what you are trying to say. Too often, I have heard people say things like, “You remember that place, that place with the big thing in front of it?”

8. Did I get any mail today? Create a “mailbox” for each member of the family. Put “mail” for them in their box, things like thank you notes for doing a great job on something or helping out, short stories you think they might like, or just a letter to them about your day together. You could even mail them a letter for real. Kids love getting mail, and they will be inspired to write back to you. These notes can be the start of a scrapbook. My daughter Butterfly really latched on to this idea and put a lot of effort into decorating her box. She also created boxes for each of her three siblings and insisted that everyone put little notes in her box. It has been fun giving each other encouragement and sharing laughs.

9. Library scavenger hunt. What better way is there to help your children learn how to find treasure? First, determine which books you want them to discover. Start with five and find them yourself first so that you can create appropriate clues. Then create riddles that lead them to your titles. This will help them learn to navigate your library, be resourceful, and find new favorites. For more fun, let them make a scavenger hunt for you!

Are you enjoying these ideas? Tell others! Leave a review on your favorite bookstore’s website.

Math

Did you turn to this section first? Everyone seems to have trouble motivating their kids to do math. Who wants to sit in a chair and do rows and rows of math problems? No one. There is the argument that kids need practice in order to perfect their computation abilities. However, if they don’t understand how it’s used in real life, their perfect computation won’t matter. Math is a tool, not a subject. Just like any other tool, it gets sharpened by using it in real situations. Here are some ideas to motivate your child to use the skills he has learned in his own ways.

1. Let your child plan a party for a few friends. What kid doesn’t like having a fun time with friends? The key here is that you set the budget but tell her to plan i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• How to Use This Book
• Ideas for Children Ages 6 to 7
• Ideas for Children Ages 8 to12
• Ideas for Teenagers
• Resources
• About the Author
• Other Books By Julie Polanco