Tips To Motivate Your Teenager To Study Better

Teenagers are always energetic and have the curiosity to explore new things. This energy and curiosity need to be channelized. Teenage is a phase where one faces maximum changes, physical and mental. However, this is the time when the body has enough energy to handle these changes easily.

Most of the teenagers are enthusiastic to learn new things but in an interesting way. Studies make them feel bored because of several reasons like getting compared with peers, scolded by parents/teachers on getting low grades and it takes more than 20 years to complete education. These are the reasons why teenagers think of growing up quickly and getting into a profession like their parents. However, when they actually get into a grown-up stage they miss their school life.

Now the question is not that how to take them on the track of studies but the question is how to channelize their energy and curiosity in the right direction in order to motivate them for studies. As a parent, we may need to follow some tips as follows

1. Tell Them Why Studies are Important

There are multiple reasons why teenagers lack motivation in studies. They start asking questions like where are we going to use sin theta, cosec theta and tan theta in our life? Why are we studying these boring subjects like history? First of all, teenagers should be clear with the fact that why they need to spend more than two decades for studies. Each passing year makes the forthcoming years of study easier as we become well aware of the basic concepts. 

Life is too short to learn with our own experiences. Schooling provides us with an extract of the whole civilization of ages in a few years. Once we complete our study we can move ahead easily. It provides us studies of languages and experiments of our ancestors through science/math. Subjects like history make us well aware of mistakes and revolution done in last ages so that we can move comfortably in our life with their experiments and experiences.

2. Choose Communication In-Spite of Scolding 

Scolding is another reason why teenagers lose motivation in studies. It is the nature of the parents that they start scolding their teens on small mistakes and failures. They expect higher grades in every test and exam. Healthy communication can sort this problem. If communication is done with love, support and guidance it can easily motivate teens to work hard going forward.

Always continuous improvement should be noticed and appreciated as compared to perfection. No one is perfect in this universe. As a parent, if we are observing progress and improvement in the performance of our teen then it should be appreciated. This will definitely motivate our teen for next time to do better. Appreciation works, scolding may not.

If continues drop is observed in the performance of the teen then other things need to be taken into consideration like a consultation to psychiatrist or meeting with teachers. Even for such a situation, scolding will not work.

3. Avoid Comparison and High Expectations

High Expectations from teens and comparing them with others can break their confidence. At the time of results, parents are usually seen comparing the result of teens with their peers, siblings, friends and cousins. It is always advised that every person has his/her own strengths and weaknesses. No one can learn and master in everything. As parents, it is our duty to see that in which subjects our teens are learning things easily and which subjects they are facing difficulty with. Some extra time and guidance need to be provided for those subjects in-spite of making a comparison.

4. Give Some Freedom

Teens get frustrated and feel bored due to a lot of restrictions imposed on them. They also start feeling like their freedom is being stripped because of studies. Teens start following wrong practices, telling lies and finding excuses when they are prohibited from the activities/sports they are interested in.

So it is better to divide their time for all the activities including studies. We should provide them with some time for games, watching TV and extracurricular activities as well. A little negotiation can also be made. We can ask them to complete their homework or projects before leaving for enjoyment. But objection on everything else just for the sake of studies will never make them good students.

Teens should also be free when its matter of making friends and spending time with other adults like elder cousins/uncles/aunties etc. Teenagers are always surrounded by their parents and teachers but they have the curiosity to know about the life of adults and they want to discuss the same with their friends. It also gives them a sense of freedom and they get motivated from within to become successful in life

5. Guide Them Whenever Teens Need

Parents should spend 2 to 3 hours with teens when they are completing their homework or projects. If parents are not able to do so even then continue discussion must go on with teens. Help them in breaking their full task into chunks. When some chunks of work are completed, give them some time to relax. Allow them to listen to some music or play 1-2 level of their favourite game. After relaxation, they can start with the rest of the work.

Also, try to make boring subjects interesting to them. If teens complaint that this subject is so boring, then keep facts in front of them that why that particular subject is important for them to study. Explain to them the contribution of that subject to our society. Tell them that they need to understand the subject in-spite of memorizing it.

Also, help them in making a daily routine. Initially, you have to keep it in mind that they follow their daily routine, but after a few days or week, you will see that the teens started following their daily routine on their own.

Energy and interest of teens needed to be taken in observation. If we could channelize these qualities then the teen will get motivation for studies.