Okay, friends, I need your help. Best tricks for motivating an older student????
My oldest, The Writer (15/9th grade) is a wonderful student. Very self-driven, a bit of a perfectionist, works hard, does well, really a dream student.
Except for art. Which he's required to take, more or less. The state of Texas, in which we do not reside but will soon(ish) be moving to, requires one year of a Fine Arts credit for all high school students. Faced with that, he chose between Art, Drama or Music, and landed on Art.
His perfectionist tendencies collide with the course requirements, such that most projects take him a bit longer than they should, which in turn completely zaps all motivation for working on the projects.
Case in point: a multi-step project which has been "in progress" for roughly a month now; he's on the final step, with a small fraction left to go, and there it sits, unworked on, day after day after day.
In all his other classes, he's motivated. A self-starter. Diligent. Really a model student.
Just not with art.
The work he does turn out? It's pretty good. Not art scholarship good, but not bad, either. So it's not a quality thing, just a "how do I get this kid moving" thing.
Which brings me back to the question --- best tips for motivating an unmotivated older kid?
How have you dealt with this in your home school? Or even in other tasks, if you are not a homeschooler?
I'd love any suggestions you might have!
I find pointing out that *I* have to do things I don't want to and procrastinate about 'em too helps. Then I show how I get around that lack of motivation and do that which I don't want to do. Bribery works well for me - reminding myself that I can do x if I've done y. That used to work well for Princess - she seems to do something similar now at least. For Ewok it is better to say, "Just do 15 mins" whilst for Wookie I've not manage to find a way...
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