If you’ve been homeschooling for more than one day, you know that student motivation can be a tricky and elusive concept. Some days, your child is on track and cruising along that great highway of learning. And other days they’re pulled over with four flat tires. It could be ‘everything’ or just one subject that’s pulled them off the road. Whether it’s an overall slump or topic-specific, there are two ways to motivate your homeschool student.

Intrinsic motivation is fueled by internal rewards such as feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction, while extrinsic motivation is driven by rewards like grades, prestige, and avoidance of negative consequences.

Ideally, students (and all of us) operate with a great deal of intrinsic motivation. This is the drive to learn and do things for the pure joy of meeting a challenge and coming out on top. It’s often what inspires a child to learn the names of a hundred dinosaurs, understand how a car engine works, or play the violin flawlessly.

When we’re lucky, this intrinsic motivation carries over into the nuts and bolts of education – reading, writing, math, and more. Instead of counting on luck though, consider how you can adjust your teaching and inspire this type of motivation.

Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a great source for learning about intrinsic motivation. Pink covers the evolution of this concept in the ’70s, supporting research, and applications for family, education, and work settings.

How to Foster Intrinsic Motivation

Below are a few of Pink’s recommendations for parents and educators. Included are links to some of my articles for using these techniques in a homeschool setting.

  • Give the student as much independence in their school schedule as possible.
  • Let them know why they need to learn something. Help them see the big picture. Parents and educators who truly listen know if their students understand the purpose of their work.
  • Encourage a growth mindset. This is the idea that hard work and effort are the key to learning, not innate intelligence.
  • Give your student the opportunity to be the expert. Let them teach you or others something. Encourage leadership.
  • Recognize that tangible rewards might have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation.

Think about that last one. Is it possible that giving your student rewards beyond praise will change their perception of the task? Rewards like money or special outings can make an otherwise enjoyable challenge seem less appealing and more like work in retrospect.

Enjoyable or not, much of school is work for children. They have subjects they love and subjects they endure. Books they dive into and others they struggle to finish. You can try like heck to make it all fun and engaging. You may unschool or use any number of techniques to make it seem less like work. But sustained progress requires motivation to put in the necessary effort.

Does Extrinsic Motivation Have a Place in Homeschooling?

My quick answer is no. I think one of homeschooling’s greatest strengths is the ability to de-emphasize grades and focus on learning at the child’s pace. You can choose to develop a growth mindset and independent learning skills. Undoubtedly, your child will have to do work that they consider ‘boring’ or ‘hard’ at times But you can minimize any lack of motivation with these three techniques:

  • Determine if the problematic material is really necessary. Your child doesn’t need to do something simply because it’s what they do in public school or your curriculum includes it. Some items are irrelevant, repetitive, and/or extraneous. Homeschooling allows you to ditch anything you deem truly unnecessary.
  • If you decide that the material is crucial, revisit the tools to foster intrinsic motivation. Help your student understand the purpose of the material and allow them some freedom in how they get it done. Encourage them to tackle this hard stuff, not for a tangible reward but for the overwhelming sense of accomplishment on completion.
  • Use rewards judiciously.

Rewards aren’t all bad. I agree with Pink’s take on rewards for boring tasks – they should be an unexpected surprise after the fact. First, get your student to focus on overcoming the challenging material. Then (not always, but sometimes) deliver a reward at the end as a special treat. More importantly, always be specific in your praise with respect to the student’s efforts and strategies.

Recognize that fostering intrinsic motivation is not an easy road to take. Of the two ways to motivate your homeschool student, intrinsic is definitely more challenging. Some days it’s downright hard. But do it anyway. Go for that wonderful sense of accomplishment when you’ve completed a difficult task – steering your child towards intrinsic motivation. Yes, you’ll have to do it again and again. But it will get easier and the payoffs are tremendous.

Cover Image: Monte Vista, Colorado