Sunday, July 26, 2009

Homeschool Helps - Learning Styles

When a mom starts to homeschool, the idea of figuring out what type curriculum to use to teach your child can be so daunting. There are so many styles of teaching and learning and there are even more types of curriculum. Before you start buying textbooks and supplies it is important to figure out what kind of learner your child is. Then from there you can determine the type of curriculum you want to get. Do not fall into the trap that the more expensive the better. That, especially in teaching, is not true. You do not want to invest money in something that doesn’t fit your child’s learning style or your teaching style. You can read about how I first started in my post How My Adventure in Homeschooling Began.
So, first things first. How does your child learn? What do they enjoy doing the most? When they are given verbal instructions do they comprehend quickly what is expected of them? Do they do better with lists? Asking questions like these will help you determine how they learn.
Princess K loves drawing and being creative. She remembers pictures and images more than she remembers words, numbers or lists. In fact, reading is a struggle so I read all her material to her so she can concentrate on the learning. She would be considered a creative visual learner.
Little Man loves to read and is in constant motion. He loves building blocks, legos, anything tactile. He is very practical in his learning as he wants to know how something works and why something works not just that it works.Many of his lessons include hands on activities. We also give him a lot of books to on subjects we are covering.
Miss H still hasn’t completely shown me her learning style as much. She loves worksheets and seems to do best when I have her use manipulatives and hands on methods. She seems to be a tactile learner.
The best way to teach is to try to combine all the different learning styles together that way you can ensure that your child is learning.

Here are a few sites that have information about learning styles that you can read for more information.
Understand the Different Learning Styles
What are the Four Learning Styles


2 comments:

  1. Hi Jamie,
    This is Maria. We met at the hotel.
    Thank you for the information.

    I love to read your adventures and profile.

    God bless,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Maria. You are so welcome! I am going to post a few more Homeschool Helps that build on this one. I hope they help you as you begin this adventure.

    ReplyDelete

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