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How to motivate a child is not always easy, because they all have different personalities. 

I still believe in what you see is what you do. 

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By this I mean you should be the example and they will follow. The smaller they are the better it works. How can you expect a child to do something, if you do not do it yourself?

 My grandson stayed with me during his first three years when he’s mother was working. Being a granny looking after a child was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I could play with him, teach him and give him back to his mother at night. 

This also meant that I could get a good night’s sleep in. 

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Parents do not always have that privilege and might just be tired.  That is why I think he became such a wonderful child. They did the same as I did but they had more on their brain and also needed rest.

 I had no house worker and did all my work at home myself. I always made a point of it to make him help me, when they are so young they see this as a game. We cleaned the house and did the dishes as well as doing the washing.

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Ok he was not good at it at that stage but motivating him and thanking him for his help, always brought the biggest smile to his face. 

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He also knew that the sooner we finished, the sooner we could play. I still believe now as an old lady that here he learnt that playing comes after finishing the important stuff first. 

I see that in him today. He is now in his second year at university. He wants to be a good rugby player and he goes to the gym and practises like mad as when the holiday end he will start off as a fit player. 

He did study very hard and did so well, that it is the one child we never have to worry about as he has his priorities sorted.

 I don’t think it is all my work, by starting small he found that we do things in a certain way and that just stuck with him and never became a problem. It is so important to teach children that before we play we must finish our important work first. This is the same with homework. I don’t say that they must get from school and do homework.

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They are also just human so give them time out for themselves every day after school, and after about an hour of doing what they want they must do homework. 

You must not tell them to do it they should know that they have had their rest time and now it is back to what must be done for school the next day. 

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When children ask you for help, stop everything you are doing and help them first. As this is how they also learn that when you call them to do something they do not sit around and finish what they are doing first, they will come immediately. 

Just remember that you must ask them when they come if it is a good time and will they be able to carry on with what they were doing before you called them. They will say yes or maybe they were very busy with their homework. In that case you can say ok this can wait for a little later after you finished but the fact that they came when you asked was the most important to me.

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I must say we did this with all our kids and it worked for us. 

Motivation comes from examples from grownups. So I am not a believer in giving children rewards for doing something. But if you motivate them to work for a reward by doing jobs for something they want it is so much better, as they will also look after it a lot better than just receiving. 

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Praising children for doing good is always a good way of motivation, as I do not know any person who does not like to be praised for something they have done. 

Praise can make good people try even harder than you can expect.

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So this is the way that I think children should be motivated. Everyone might not agree, but for my children and grandchildren it really made them good people. Hope you enjoyed my post, and have a wonderful day.

with thanks to kaleem345