Although you send your children to school for their education, some believe they receive just as much knowledge from a combination of their parents, relatives and television as they do in schools.

Whilst there’s no proof to back this up, it would be great to think a child’s relationships develops their knowledge base tremendously.

One of the reasons some people believe this is the key to a student wanting to learn is them taking pleasure in discovering the massive world of ideas and creativity that exists both inside and outside of their school life.

Whilst you would obviously wish this to continue through their school years and doubtless throughout their lives, you’ll continually need to think of new ways to motivate your children to learn – but how do you do this?

Motivation through reading

While printed books continue to enthral children and show them how big the world really is, they may be used to their parents firing up their e-reader to read both fiction and non-fiction.

One of the easiest roles in motivating children to read is to read to them and ask them questions about developing the stories. Children are then eager to read their own books and will quickly devour all the printed matter they can reach, including newspapers and the backs of cereal boxes.

As soon as they are old enough to manage the responsibility of their own e-reader, it’s a purchase no parent or guardian will ever be disappointed with.

What do children think?

Some children are naturally shy and need to be coaxed out from behind this position to become confident individuals.

By asking children to express their own opinions and talk about their own particular feelings gives them the opportunity to make choices and feel that an adult is interested in their thoughts.

Where they can be involved in family decisions, they will quickly be encouraged to voice their opinion and although there is a tendency for children to overdo this, that is still a much better result than offering up a child with no opinions.

Every day is a learning opportunity

Where the opportunity arises, it helps motivate children if they are involved in conversations that they may normally have been left out of.

Obviously there is no need to frighten children by discussing the graphic details of a war in a country thousands of miles away, but to include them in discussions about life’s morals, opportunities and situations helps them understand the best way to react.

You can teach them about responsibilities by helping to complete tasks which initially appear to be extremely daunting. If they feel they are contributing, they will be motivated to complete the task and eventually take over by themselves, whereas if they are spending more time worrying about the problem, they won’t be learning anything positive, at all.

As ICT suppliers for schools, at Netcom ICT we help schools with their technology educational processes which, when combined with the hard work parents and guardians are doing at home, can provide all the motivation necessary to make children always want to learn.