How to Appropriately Reward Your Child for Good Grades
When it comes to academics, grades might be one of the most frequent points of disagreement between parents and their kids. When children don’t put in the effort to study as they should, it becomes a problem for many parents who want their children to succeed. This is especially true for difficult topics like Math, Science, and its various branches. The fact that these disciplines are among the fundamental ones that have the power to improve or degrade a student’s marks might even become irritating and upsetting.
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What are the advantages of rewarding your child?
Naturally, encouraging your child to perform better the following time or to prolong their successful academic streak is the best advantage and outcome of rewarding them for achieving high grades. By doing this, you can also be sure that your child will work harder to finish their assignments on time and to study hard for their tests. Many students struggle to stay motivated to study and finish their tasks, even though they are intelligent and possess natural qualities that allow them to succeed in their studies. The gift might serve as a kind of incentive for them, encouraging them to keep up their best effort in class whenever they perform well on tests or receive high grades.
What are the disadvantages of rewarding your child?
We’ve talked about rewards turning into bribes rather than inspiration. Although rewarding your child has the potential to have highly positive results, if done poorly, it may only have short-term effects. Your child can start expecting a gift each time they receive good marks, which is when rewarding turns into bribing. And because of this, they will only give it their all when a reward is already in sight. Studying and achieving the high grade required to receive the prize will be of little interest to them if they are not interested in it.
As a result, you might not notice any increase at all in their general learning, particularly for kids who struggle to grasp novel ideas. They won’t be able to acquire the skills necessary to achieve high grades and make use of their knowledge in the long term, which includes applying it and remembering it, because they only put out effort when they desire the reward. Therefore, this might not be as effective for wealthier families or kids who consistently get what they desire.
How to appropriately reward your child for good grades?
It is entirely up to you about the kind of gift or the amount of money you’re going to reward your child. Experts suggest decreasing the amount though and having the highest value for the best scores. If you do decide to reward your child, you have to have an agreement with them and reward them depending on the acceptable grades agreed upon.
In addition, you can talk to your child and reach a consensus. In fact, if parents are considering rewarding their kids, this might be the wisest course of action. Talk to them about it first, and decide on a reward if the child has good grades in all of their subjects or just some of them. Furthermore, you can also accept a suitable incentive that will eventually inspire them to perform better.
1. Give them options for rewards
The very first reward that may come to mind would be money. However, there are other ways to motivate your child to work towards good grades other than money. Rewarding isn’t all about the physical things that you can give your child. If say, for example, they get good marks in their essay or they receive high scores on their test, parents can offer their praises so that they will become more inspired to do well and even better next time.
You can also prepare their favorite food or even take them out to eat at their favorite restaurant. Additionally, you might treat them to enjoyable activities that will give them a sense of accomplishment. You can reward children with experiences like enjoyable family activities that can improve their outlook on life and strengthen their link with the family, rather than the typical gifts of toys or money. In contrast to their new gadgets or money, these activities will also help children create important memories.
In addition, you can acknowledge your child’s achievements by praising them for completing the school year instead of concentrating solely on their grades. Since their parents appreciate their efforts during the school year, the child will feel more motivated as a result. Furthermore, when their parents give them additional support to get good grades, like hiring a private home tutor, your child will feel more inspired and motivated. In addition to helping students achieve their desired grades, a home tutor can also help students become more self-assured and inspire themselves to pursue their academic objectives.
2. Use a more personalized approach to rewards
No one knows a child better than their parents, thus it’s critical to take into account the child’s needs in order to improve academic performance. Since it differs from child to child and truly depends on their own strengths, there is no set way to see this. A child’s strengths may be lost in the ruins and may not be exploited to their advantage if parents are more concerned with grades.
Rewarding using a more personalized approach will help parents see what their child needs and how you can reward them. As an example, if parents can see that their child has trouble with procrastination and always do their schoolwork at the last moment, they can reward their child when they complete their tasks ahead of time instead of rewarding them for the grade they achieve for the task. Instead of concentrating only on achieving high grades, this method will help the child with the learning process and handle any problems that may come up later. Children can become more determined and self-assured in completing their assignments and strive for improvement over time by concentrating more on the efforts made than the outcome.
They can therefore learn and perform better as a result. It’s also critical to think about what parents genuinely want their kids to achieve in school and use that as motivation to help them do better. Parents can choose whether they want their child to possess the values necessary to strive for high marks or just to have good grades. Do you want them to have good scores on a test or do you want them to practice proper and effective studying techniques? Do you want them to get good grades or do you want them to understand the importance of learning? If so, speak to them about this and help them achieve the goal as well as reward them to do better.
Rewards can also be a means to deal with bad behavior and encourage your child towards a new and more amiable one. Always look for the best strategy to reward your child to produce better results in what issues they are having and not deteriorate the situation instead.
3. Reinforce good grades using rewards
Parents need to know the factors that affect their child’s grades. It could be that your child has trouble completing their homework on time or they are having a difficult time understanding the learning material they are given. When you have determined the source of the problem, then you can decide the reward to give and how frequently you can give rewards.
We have discussed how difficult it might be to distinguish between bribery and rewards. Additionally, if you are like the majority of parents, you are undoubtedly worried that paying their child is tantamount to bribery. As previously stated, this may be the case in certain situations, particularly if rewarding is not carried out correctly.
Nevertheless, rewarding is not the same as bribery. Bribery is the practice of giving something before the desired outcome. Bribery is more likely when you buy your child a new item or promise them a day out to encourage them to prepare for an impending test. On the other hand, incentives are offered to commemorate a person’s success. Instead of being a one-time present, rewarding excellent behavior might help address more serious problems the child is experiencing.
Conclusion
If done properly, rewards can be beneficial. Depending on what your child needs, there are many different ways to reward them. The most popular objective, though, is to watch your child succeed academically and inspire them to do better. Given proper rewards, this is evident. Whatever strategy you use, never forget that there should be a goal and that paying someone might not be a sustainable solution.
Carelle
Carelle is a teacher who has been through the ups and downs of the teacher and learner life. She wishes for every learner to gain educational satisfaction that will help embody the people they want to be in the future.
