In this Mental Talk we are going to present the different parenting styles and the ways in which they affect our children and in particular their motivation to learn.

If you are planning to have a child, you also may probably wonder what kind of parent you will be and how you will manage to keep the balance between setting healthy boundaries and unconditional love.

Parents of small children might think about the kids’ future performance at school, considering their individuality and the challenges of the school environment nowadays.

A parenting style includes the attitudes, behavioral patterns and goals underlying the raising of a child. Do the parents tend to be very strict or do they allow a lot of freedom?

Raising children is always a challenge for parents. After all, it has a significant influence on the children’s development and usually parents consider it as their responsibility – something that may feel really tough sometimes. Parents often doubt whether their parenting style is the right one.

Over the course of school years, many children lose motivation to learn. They forget the fun of learning new things and no longer have a natural thirst for knowledge that we see in most elementary school students when they proudly learn to read, write and do arithmetic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought school at home for many children – depending on which year and where you go to school, the school takes place entirely or at least to a large extent at home. Home schooling was sure a big change for all of us! This new situation might feel both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

On the one hand, it provides a lot of freedom of the way the children learn and the time they do their homework or prepare for the class activities.

At the same time children can sometimes have the feeling that it is difficult to get motivated to learn at home. They might get bored because there is not enough variety of activities or they are missing the others in the class. They might sometimes get angry about the assignments the teachers give, feel frustrated, or feel insecure if they are doing well with the studies.

We will discuss strategies that help the child to enhance his/her inner motivation to learn.