Before anything else, it’s important to understand that you need to be patient with your child in as many ways as possible. In other words, don’t feel rushed if you think that your child hasn’t found a passion for something early on. A part of a child’s development is learning and experimenting with different things to see what they naturally like. That being said, it is never a bad idea to introduce a hobby to them. Two hobbies that any kid can learn to love is video and photography. Not only are they easy to learn, but they also don’t have strict guidelines or rules to follow. This makes these hobbies very attractive to kids because it allows them to express themselves in different ways without repercussions. These are qualities that are hard to find especially in crowded hobbies like sports. In a perfect world, they might even learn to love these hobbies enough to make it their life-long passion. With this in mind, here are five great tips to get your kids more interested in video or photography.
#1: Buy Them Video Or Photography Tools
If you couldn’t guess already, kids are naturally curious. Sometimes you might not even need to push a hobby towards them because they might have already found it on their own. However, as far as video and photography are concerned, an effective way to push these hobbies is to buy them the tools to do it. Whether it is a camera for photography or a laptop for editing a video, these tools will most likely be a motivation for them to keep doing it. In some cases, a child might not even need an expensive tool to create a spark of motivation. One very affordable kids camera is the kidizoom action cam by Vtech. It’s easy to use, well-built and it should definitely do the trick. As a parent, you can look at this tip as an investment in your child’s future. That said, make this investment without any expectations in return. This investment should be made with the child in mind only. Another thing to keep in mind is time. While it’s mostly a good thing that they are spending hours of their day doing video or photography, make sure to give them breaks to come back to the hobbies with even more passion and desire.
#2: Give Them A Project To Do
Once a child has a tool in hand, they might let it go rather quickly if they find out these hobbies aren’t for them. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, there is a clever trick that can prolong the time they use their tools. The trick with these hobbies is to give them projects to work on. This could be anything from a picture collage or a powerpoint video. An even better alternative is to ask them what kind of project they would like to do. This is a fun step as most kids usually come up with crazy and creative projects that could only derive from the mind of a child. Another great tip is to give them more than one project to work on. This could be given to them either simultaneously or as a stepping stone of progression. As we can see, there are many ways to bring about a project. As long as they have something to work towards, they are more likely to keep these hobbies going for longer periods.
#3: Give Them A Set Of Challenges
Not to be confused with projects, challenges are another great way to keep them interested in these hobbies. Specifically, challenges can be seen as goals within a larger project. They can be used to track progress, build problem-solving skills, and a variety of other challenges that can help keep them interested. Also, these challenges also don’t have any rules or guidelines to follow. They can be given to a child at any time, at any scale, and can be made up of anything. For example, if you see that a child is lacking the motivation to finish a project, a spontaneous time-limit challenge might immediately spark their interest in the hobby again. Especially when these challenges are combined with rewards, you can create a revolving pattern of challenges that will keep feeding them with interest. Once again, you have to be careful not to force these challenges on them. A child is either going to love them or reject them altogether. It’s all up to them and how they view video and photography.
#4: Find Them A Video Or Photography Buddy
Finding a child a hobby partner or project buddy has proven to be one of the most effective ways at sparking and maintaining interest. Above everything else, this method works because it teaches a child about accountability at an early age without even realizing it. It also teaches them about the effectiveness of brainstorming and teamwork which are two of the most essential qualities that they will need as employees in adulthood. One way to maintain interest with both children is to create projects and challenges that will require both of them to complete. For example, you can create a video challenge where one child needs to be in charge of recording film while the other is in charge of editing. Worth noting, this is just one of many different examples that can keep both children motivated.
#5: Reward Them With More Tools
Last but not least, one of the more controversial tips to keep a child motivated is rewarding them. This is a controversial subject because some parents believe it builds entitlement in a child’s mind that doesn’t always play out in the real world. However, what most people often ignore the timing of when to reward a child. In this instance, a good time to reward a child is when they have fully completed either a video or photography project. This way, a child understands that they are only rewarded by accomplishing something and not leaving it halfway through. Another important note to keep in mind is the reward itself. In order to keep them motivated, a great reward might be another video tool, photography tool, or tts tool for adding voice overs to videos. As mentioned before, this keeps their interest going for as long as they want to keep doing it.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.