Praise is a blessing to any homeschool.
A mother in an online group helped me to remember that. She said:
“I think sometimes I forget since I am teaching the girls at home that they need pats on the back.” — Tracie C.
Beautiful.
It’s easy to forget to use praise with our children sometimes. We get so involved in trying to correct their bad behaviors that we fail to remember to honor the good ones. I’ve been guilty of that.
Thankfully Tracie’s quote serves as a reminder to pat our kids on the back for all the work that they do.
Here’s some prose and poetry on using the power of praise in your homeschool.
Use The Power of Praise to Motivate Your Child
Praise is a powerful motivator for children. When praised and encouraged, kids will typically work harder on an activity. On the other hand, nagging and criticism will make them less inclined to want to work.
Hmmm…so would using more praise reduce the need for nagging?
Last year, I decided to find out.
I began upping the positives that I gave my teens. I started showing more appreciation for the work that they did and I praised them more frequently than I had in the past.
I was amazed by the results. They started obeying me more. They worked harder. I found that I had to nag them less.
That was all the proof I needed to show me that praise really works well as a motivator. I’m definitely going to continue to increase it in our home.
Feel free to try out my experiment in your home to see if you get the same results. I bet you’ll be pleased. 🙂
Use The Power of Praise to Help Your Child Learn
I like to use praise to help children learn better. I have found that kids get less frustrated while learning something difficult if you praise them every time they show understanding for even the tiniest bit of information.
That’s because learning sometimes takes place in leaps and bounds, and other times it’s like climbing a mile long staircase. In the latter case, every step becomes an accomplishment. Reward your kids for those accomplishments and they’ll desire to work more.
It also works well to applaud your kids for every right answer that they get on difficult assignments. It helps them develop confidence in themselves.
And what about the wrong answers?
Just remind them that mistakes are for learning. Tell them to figure out what they did wrong and move on. It will keep them from dwelling too much on their slipups and steer them towards a path of self-learning.
Use The Power of Praise to Change Bad Behaviors
Praise can be used to stamp out those undesirable habits your kids have. You simply change your focus from stopping the bad behavior to looking for the opposite good one.
Here’s a poem I wrote to illustrate what I mean.
Look for the Good
If bad behaviors haunt your house
And your kids do things you fear.
All you have to do is look for the good
And the bad will disappear.To get rid of those dreadful traits in your kids
And wipe out those awful ways.
Just catch your tykes doing what is right
And shower them with love and praise.When you use this easy technique
You’ll find you’re pleasantly surprised.
Your kids will behave much better
And your problems will become pint-sized.
See?
Catch your kids being good and praise them for it. They’ll generally want to do more of that good behavior.
Here’s a quick example. Let’s say your child is not working as hard as she should on her school work. Praise her when she does work, even if it is just for 10 minutes. Eventually, she should start working better.
Effective Ways to Praise
Praise is a helpful tool when it is used right. Here are some suggestion on how to do it so that you get positive results.
Praise effort. Attempts should be praised along with accomplishments. That will encourage your child to keep trying. And sometimes, effort is more important than results.
Praise your child’s actions, not her character. Compliment her on the activity that she did. Like this: “You wrote a very detailed and complete report on lions. Good job!” That lets her know the work she did was good. Try not to describe her character with compliments like this: “You’re such a smart kid.” She’ll feel like she has to live up to those standards. Plus, it’s a judgement of her character.
Describe specifically what she did. This is more meaningful to her. It lets her know exactly what was good about her actions.
Be genuine. Kids know when you are sincere. So praise from the heart.
Praise immediately. Don’t wait to give your child praise. It will have a greater impact if it is done at the time that she does something well.
Praise a desired behavior until it is a habit. Once your child has gotten good at doing a behavior, cut back on the verbal rewards. She shouldn’t need them as much and you can start focusing your praise on helping her develop a new habit.
Praise outstanding work. When your child does really phenomenal work on an assignment or anything else, do you best happy dance. That will make her want to do that again.
Praise virtue. When you see your child doing a virtuous act, applaud her for it. She’ll be more inclined to want to do it again.
Don’t praise too much. If you over do it, it won’t carry as much weight and pretty soon your kids won’t be interested in it.
Praise is a powerful tool for any homeschool.
Use it in a prudent way and it will save your day.
Sorry. There I go rhyming again. I’ll try to quit now.
Did this post about the power of praise help you out? If it did, please share it with others who can benefit from it.
Many blessings,
