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Incentives for grades?
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Not that they should even NEED incentives to get good grades but do any of you have or view them? I started grading the math papers this year and if they have a lot wrong I make them go back and do corrections (although I am rethinking this that I should have them do all corrections), anyway,
Why settle for a B when they could/should be getting A’s? My husband says they need incentive, but we can’t pay them for good grades because we don’t have extra money even for that. I will ask the kids what they think would make them work harder, but thought I would ask here too.
Nope. None here. And my kids do have to go back and correct missed math problems. It’s how you learn from your mistakes. They have to redo the problem and walk me through it so I’m there beside them to help correct concepts they misunderstand. Thankfully this does not happen often.
I started out that way when first home schooling – having them correct all the problems, but I started to let it slide because I was short on time with having to work plus study for my classes. But now my studying is over with so I need to start this up again. I also need to take some time on sunday and get organized for the week ahead instead of trying to do it the day of or the minute before we need it. I consider myself an organized person but I guess there is always room for improvement.
You’re right, it does take time! I try to grade math papers by lunch time and catch them right after lunch if there hasn’t been a free moment. It doesn’t always happen with seven kiddos! I also know when I see an increase in mistakes that the child either
A) Is hurrying to much and making careless mistakes.
B) Is distracted by siblings and stops mid-problem, then returns to it and has lost where they were in the process.
C) Not understanding a concept and needs to slow down, back up, and cement what’s missing.
For motivation occasionally I will plan an activity we can do together when they reach a goal. So, if my oldest needs to really work on her multiplication facts and I want her to tackle it willingly we’ll set the goal to celebrate when she does XYZ. Money is in short supply here, so our activities often are to bake something, craft something, go to the park/zoo we have a membership to/etc, or get a day off school or off 1 subject for up to a week.
The incentive we use is free time. I only check the older children’s lessons one time a day right before afternoon free time. If a child doesn’t have work completed, has corrections to make, or needs tutoring time, we use that space in the afternoon. Wanting as much free time as possible motivates them to be a bit more accurate in their computations and to read their lessons carefully on their own before seeking assistance. Of course, this applies only to the independent older ones. With younger children, I like to be available during our morning lessons and correct their work immediately upon completion…my presence is incentive enough. 🙂 Oh, we also have entire lessons redone for those times when there are too many errors. One blessing of homeschooling is that children can master the material instead of being forced to move ahead when not quite ready.
We sort of do free time as an incentive, but not intentionally. They work on their math pages, then I grade them immedietly (with them right there). After they correct any mistakes, they can go. We almost always finish with math, so they are usually in a hurry to go play! If they’ve missed a bunch, I’d redo the lesson the next day…This actually hasn’t happed yet this year! We switched to MUS last fall, and the lesson pages are fairly short so it only takes a minute or two to grade.
I have been putting some thought into this of late as well. My oldest, in particular, will only do what he knows he will easliy succeed in, and not a mite more. How can I challenge him toward higher achievement? i.e. a more complete narration, a more careful sketch, a more comprehensive project – which I KNOW he is capable of. I don’t like the idea of “rewards,” and we don’t give grades, but I do believe in natural consequence and a good return for your work. At this young age, I want to bring out the character of doing your best, but I don’t expect a young one to value that in and of itself at this age (kids under 10.) My son is very motivated by rewards, and my husband has the idea of giving incentive for going above and beyond in school work (chores are done w/o pay because he is a member of the family) – a date, small treat, game, etc….is this bribery?
Well, my personal opinion is that it is bribery if you were to say something like, “if you do better on this project I will give you…”etc. THAT is bribery.
If you were to catch him doing something to the best of his ability and then give him an unexpected reward because of that effort, then it would not be bribery because he would not have done the work for the the sole purpose of the reward. It would be best if the reward were to somehow correlate to the work that had been done. For example, if he were to get his math lesson done well in a timely manner, when he would often dawdle or hum and haw instead of just working at it (I am just using this as an example, I am not saying this is something that your ds has a problem with) then a reward for that could be extra time on some other “fun” activity. If the reward were given to him unexpectedly, he would correlate that a job done well the first time and in a timely manner has the natural reward of more time for fun.
It could work well but would require more work because for the first while you would be needing to be very observant and “catch” your son doing things well so that you could reward him for it. You would also need to be creative in coming up with rewards that correlate well to the different jobs or work that is required of him. Hope that made sense to you.
Again, that is just my opinion on the subject. You know your kid best and have a better idea of what he will take out it.
-Miranda
Our incentive is free time as well- my kids know they don’t move on to the fun activities they want to do in the afternoon if we don’t finish our work. This includes any revisions, corrections, and redo’s for work that isn’t their best. I sound tough, but my kids get a lot of free time and every afternoon they have something to look forward to. I just require that they do their best work. It’s my favorite part about homeschooling- no need to rush through anything just to get it done. There’s plenty of time in the first half of the day!
I don’t give rewards but I do give praise. I can tell when my oldest has worked hard or given a thorough narration, etc. I do not let my kids slide w/ messy penmanship when I know they can do better. If they just take their time and focus then they can be done and go play, or whatever. But when they try to give less than their capabilities and I make them do it over, they lose playtime, naturally.
I get the fact that sometimes we just don’t want to work hard. Sometimes I just don’t want to do laundry or go grocery shopping and sometimes I do put it off, of course we suffer the natural consequences, but sometimes we just need a break. If that’s the case, then that’s one thing, otherwise, I expect what I know they can do.
I do have one ds who loves to be “graded”. He loves to see a 100% or A+ on his papers and I do give them if that’s what he has done (like math tests). Other subjects I give him praise or I tell him that I don’t think he was focused during that lesson, or whatever, and he needs to redo it.
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