Motivation

No one does anything without a motive. 

Short term, my girls are very motivated to make my husband and I proud of their efforts.  Long term, they talk about wanting to do well with school things so they can be well-educated adults.  They recognize this will make them better employees, better parents, better people.  All good.

Zee’s really too young yet to think much on a distant future and what learning his math facts has to do with it.  His motivation is all short-term and much more specific. 

Week to week, our kids work for the pleasure of playing games deemed ‘weekend games’.   All games that come into this house are labeled either school-day or weekend.  School day games usually have some redeeming educational quality about them.  Weekend games are everything else.

The kids are all free to play weekend games as soon as their school work for the entire week is complete.  Most of the time that’s sometime on Friday.  If all the work is completed, the girls can play all day Saturday and after noon on Sunday. 

The system works a bit differently for Zee.  Instead, he earns weekend game time for the weekend by completing his work on time each day.  Chores must be done by 2pm, teeth have to be brushed in the morning, daily school work must be done by dinner, etc.  At the end of the week he distributes the game time he earns over Saturday and Sunday.  Done right, he can play nearly as much as his sisters who get the free reign.  Usually though he misses a few things here and there and has to choose which hours he’ll have to find something else to do.

For now I think our system works pretty well.  Since the kids are working for their own motives I don’t have to fight with them over doing their work.  Most of the time everyone puts a good effort in and we all earn the right to kick back and enjoy the weekend relaxing together 🙂