Some of you have asked, “How do I get (keep) my child motivated?”
What you probably mean is, “How do I get my child to do the work
correctly without complaining?”.
 
Fact is, being motivated is more than just compliance. To motivate
a child is to teach the child to love learning.

The child must enjoy the process of learning. He must have a desire
to satisfy himself by learning. A child who loves to learn is a
child who is motivated.
 
Children come with varying personality types. Most children have
some desire to learn. It’s your job, as a parent, to increase this
desire. Unfortunately, many home schoolers unwittingly make mistakes
that result in the child losing his/her desire to learn.
 
Some parents try to motivate children by setting high expectations
for them. This may work, but if the expectations are too high you
can actually discourage them from learning.

On the other hand, you don’t want to set the bar too low, or you’ll
be tempted to settle for mediocrity. Set your expectations just a
little higher than what you believe they can accomplish. 
 
Avoid criticizing your children. Criticizing will only discourage
them. Let them know that you believe they can do it. Be patient
even when it looks like they’re not putting in a 100% effort.
 
Teach your children that work can be fun and rewarding. Be sure to
praise them when they succeed.
 
When children are learning something new they’ll often complain that
the work is too difficult. In this case the parent should spend more
time working with the student on that subject.

I realized that my son needed extra work on fractions when he
became frustrated by his assignments. Once he understood how to
work with them, he was much more satisfied.
 
The way you teach can also affect the child’s desire to learn.
You could just put a book in front of him as the default learning
process and tell him to do the lesson.

But with a minimal amount of creativity, you can create more
interesting ways to learn.
 
For example, say you are studying the Gold Rush. You could have each
child do a little research and then have everyone get together to
discuss what each has learned separately.

You could even make a game out of it by going outdoors, collecting
pebbles from a stream, and have the kids separate out the lighter
colored specimens as “gold”. Or make an indoor game of it the same
way with pebbles or stones collected ahead of time.
 
Some children are always compliant and learn easily. OK, not very
many, but some. If you have a child like this stop and thank God
 
Most parents who ask for advice about motivation don’t have children
like this. But that doesn’t mean that your much-less-than-perfect
child can’t be a blessing as well.

Teaching a child with an uncooperative personality can be a real
challenge. In order to teach sucessfully, parents must be able to
manage their child’s behavior in such a way as to make them want to
cooperate, to make them want to learn.
 
The first thing to do is determine why the child refuses to
cooperate. Is it that the subject is too boring? You may need to
find a way to make the subject more interesting.

If your child is bored, perhaps a game would help. Yes, even
a game. Remember, anything (OK, almost anything) goes in home
schooling. If it helps your child learn, do it.
 
Maybe the child doesn’t understand a lesson because you covered the
previous lesson too fast. In this case you should go back and
review. Don’t feel you’re bound by time restraints. Set your own
course.

Home schooling gives you the flexibility to do whatever it takes to
help your child learn. Take advantage of that by finding what
works best for their unique personality and learning style.