Learning as a game: 3 Reward systems to use at home

Does your child not enjoy learning, or are they filled with dread whenever it’s time for them to study? If that’s the case, they could be lacking motivation.

Motivation can come from many different sources, but one easy way to quickly induce motivation is through gamification strategies. Simply put, it’s all about making learning a fun and enjoyable experience.

In this article, we’ll cover reward systems as one possible way to help your child embrace learning at home, along with several examples that you can easily create at home to encourage your child to study.

Using reward systems as motivational tools

The act of rewarding a desired behaviour has existed since the beginning of time, and not just for us humans - animals have been observed to use it as a means to teach each other new skills, too. Reward systems are therefore an easy concept to understand and even easier to put into practice.

At its core, each reward system consists of two parts:

• Perform a desired behaviour (e.g. ‘read a textbook chapter’)

• Receive a reward for desired behaviour

And that’s it!

• What sort of tasks do you want them to complete every day? Although you are free to choose anything, keep in mind that easier, more straightforward tasks (such as reading a textbook chapter or completing a worksheet) may be more palatable to your child.

• What kind of rewards will you give? It can be anything from a chocolate bar or extra time for games or TV shows, but make sure the rewards are proportional to the task. It’s also worth considering a ‘milestone’ feature that gives out bigger rewards at the end of a streak.

Competitive Systems

If your child has a sibling or two, you might be able to turn their innate competitiveness into an advantage by encouraging them to participate in a harmless competition. You’ll want to think about the following:

• What will they be competing on? The easiest thing to measure performance would be assignment and exam scores, but you can also explore other options such as topical quizzes as well.

• What will the rewards be like? It is probably best if all competing siblings are given a reward, with the winner getting the bigger prize - after all, it’s all about encouraging and acknowledging their efforts, and not about winning.

• Will they resort to cheating? Like all competitions, if the reward is valuable enough, participants may feel tempted to use underhanded tactics to win. Make sure that the competition is fair and unexploitable as much as you can, and if it still happens, try to make it another positive learning experience.

Redeemable Points

In a redeemable points system, your child earns points by completing tasks, which they can then exchange for rewards determined by you. Incidentally, Geniebook has a Bubble system that also allows students to earn and redeem Bubbles for items in the Bubble Store.

Similar to the Streaks system, this also encourages your child to stick with learning as much as possible, but with some slight differences. For one, there’s no need to adhere to a set schedule unlike streaks - your child has complete freedom to learn on their own time and will, which is great for nurturing a self-directed learning mindset.

If this system suits your child’s needs, you’ll want to think about the following:

• What sort of tasks will they need to complete to earn points? Some complicated tasks can award more points than simpler ones, and vice versa.

• What kind of rewards can they redeem with their points? Bigger rewards should cost more points, and vice versa.

• Can they repeat tasks to get more points? Should these tasks reset each week or on a monthly basis? It’s yours to decide.

Conclusion

We hope this short list of reward system ideas will help you find the best way to motivate your child. Feel free to tweak and experiment with your own ideas, or think up your own novel ideas!

Alternatively, if you’re looking for extra help for your child to learn and improve in their studies, Geniebook is always ready to assist. Our AI-personalised worksheet generator, live online classes and real-time chats with experienced teachers all contribute to a seamless educational experience that’s tailored to your child’s learning preferences.

Find out more about Geniebook’s Suite Of Online Learning Products, or begin your journey with us by clicking the link below.