7yr old and motivation

[Worriedmum42]

Hi, just looking for some feedback from anyone with a 7yr old, Y2 child. My dd seems to be lacking in self motivation. She is a bright and articulate child who performs well but I can see she never really puts in any effort and is not really achieving her full potential.
When I ask her what she wants to get better at she struggles to name anything. I am concerned about her going into KS2 with a lack of motivation, as for her good enough is good enough. Are all 7yr olds like this? How can I try to instil a sense of self motivation or am I worrying over nothing?

Thanks

[user789653241]

Does she like any subject in particular? Maybe school work is too easy for her and she doesn't get challenged?
My ds is year older than your dd, but it's quite hard to motivate him with what he isn't interested. He tends to do bare minimum with no effort.
On the other hand, he is very keen on his favorite subject.
What i try to do is to search and find something that may interest him in few different form, and see if he likes it. I managed to get him interested in two things he dislikes recently. But, still long way from self motivated child in YR3. sigh.

[Autumnsky]

I am not sure what you do you mean about lack of motivation for a Y2 child. At this age, it is quite relaxed in the school. Also it is not clear if you ask her what she wants to get better. Maybe just choose something you think she maybe want to do, and do it with her? Like learning an instrument, it is a typical thing that need to practice to be good at. Maybe encourage her to learn one?

[TeenAndTween]

If you don't already, make sure you praise effort rather than results .

[mouldycheesefan]

Agree with pp, we focus in the effort not the results.

So not "well done, you got 100%" but "I am really proud of you for concentrating hard on those maths problems. They were tricky but you persevered"

It's also good for kids to do something that they find a challenge. Could be anything-sports, playing an instrument, drama, singing, etc

There is also a massive focus in ks2 on improving work you have already done, editing, peer review etc "how can I make it even better" and it really does improve the quality of the work.. You can do some of that at home too.

[user789653241]

I think if you have very able child, focusing on effort only and not the results can sometimes be difficult. If the child keeps making silly careless mistakes and don't seems to care about it, I would like to encourage him to aim to get 100%. I wonder what would you do with child like that?

Agree with pp to start musical instrument if she doesn't yet. Ds started recently, and It's only thing my ds put ok amount of effort in at the moment. But the thing is, he decided to start to learn it by his choice, not encouraged by us. That might be the reason.