It’s All About The Right Motivation
Sometimes I think homeschooling success is dependent on figuring out what motivates each child(without using gobs and gobs of candy!). For David, it’s competition with himself through timed trials, and recently I discovered a new motivator: getting to choose ANYTHING you want from the local dollar store. You wouldn’t believe how excited he was when I suggested this as motivation for him to read more from his readers. Every time he finishes a reader(126 pages of stories), he gets to count out $1.00 worth of coins from the coin jar(practicing money!) and choose anything he wants from the dollar store(although I told him I have veto power over anything 
) Well, Wednesday morning, he got up early and finished the last 20 pages of his reader. Here are the results:
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David with his coin bag.
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The Store.
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After about 1/2 an hour of deliberation, he finally decided on this remote control car. It’s pretty funny because it’s attached to the controller by a wire that’s so short, David has to dash around the house, making sure he’s within 2 feet of the car at all times! The carpet apparently keeps the car under better control by slowing it down!
P.S. The wire got pulled out this morning, so now it’s just a push car. I told him he needs to finish the NEXT reader so we can go buy another one….I’m a shameless manipulator!
You are too funny! It is great he can be motivated so easily, I sure wasn’t and this is really making me hold back in my decision in homeschooling our kids. I am leaning very heavily in the direction of a school based on my experiences. However the idea of letting my kids out of my sight terrifies me, aaahhh!
How did you deside, what were the factors for you?
Dear David,
Don’t bother reading those boring books. Books are for girls. I will help you fix your remote control car. I also have an RC airplane you can try out.
Unce S
familymclean: there are so many little factors that made us decide to homeschool that it’s hard to know where to start. Interestingly enough, we never planned on homeschooling, but when David turned 4, he got a bunch of workbooks for a birthday present. We started working in them, just a page or 2 a day, and he loved it! Since he was too little to start kindergarten at the public school that fall, I decided to order a formal kindergarten curriculum and see how it went. We figured if it worked out, then he’d be a year ahead, if it didn’t, then we’d just start him in public school next fall and he wouldn’t be behind at all. Anyways, since then, we’ve kinda’ seen other reasons why homeschooling is right for us right now. Some of them I’ll list here in no particular order: we weren’t impressed with the local public schools…so many of the graduates seemed barely literate, we didn’t want to expose David to all the negative influences of non-Christian kids and teachers at his young age, David’s social personality, we can teach subjects we feel are important – and leave out the unnecessary fluff and subtle indoctrinations(self-importance, as long as it makes you happy – then it’s fine- type of ideas), but most of all I think it’s just such a privilege to be able to stay home with our children and mold their minds according to the Word of God. I don’t know if we’ll homeschool forever, but for now I am thankful for the opportunity…although it is such a huge responsiblity! Parenting can be such a scary thing when it comes to making big decisions, and you wonder if you made the right choice for your kids.
Hilarious! He’s such a cute kid – and SO smart.
Personally, I’m really impressed with how you’re doing homeschooling and how it’s working out for you guys. I’ve never really considered it as an option…but who knows what will happen with our kids. The schools just keep getting more and more corrupt!!
That’s so funny, and shame on uncle Unce S ;0D Very neat that you are trying home school, and in a relaxed way. That’s how kids learn best, not because you do every thing the way they would have in public school! I can’t think of sending ours to public school as I went for first grade and did not have a good experience. But the thought of teaching them my self is scary! Keep up the good work!
Money is a HUGE motivator here at our house. I was sick of candy and stickers were just not working anymore. I like money because they don’t understand the value of a dollar yet (as in it can’t really buy much, but they don’t know that yet, LOL), but also because they can learn how to handle money well..tithing, saving, spending, etc.