Motivating Children to Learn

How can we help our two children in elementary school become really motivated to learn? They never want to do more in school than their daily assignments. - Motivation Problem
Answer: Your children need to get excited about learning. It doesn't have to be about learning everything in school, or even part of the regular school curriculum. They need a passion in their lives to discover as much as they can about something so they will become virtual experts for their age through reading, talking to others or practicing a skill. It could be a hobby that lights their learning fire. It could be a specific skill, from playing chess to computer programming. They need to find something that they want to know more about or become better at.
Once your children acquire this passion, it will surface in school in their compositions and reports, which will now be more interesting for them to write as they have information to share. It will lead to their eagerly reading books and magazines on the topic for more information. And it is quite possible that it will improve school skills such as reading, writing and speaking.
They do not have to catch this learning fire from you, although it will certainly help if they see that you are interested in learning. Just make sure that they are around people who want to share their excitement about something, from stamp collecting to cooking to mountain climbing.