Do you teach to your child's learning style or your own? Or do you somehow strike a happy medium?
Back in November I attended a talk for home-schooling moms on the topic of Learning Styles. Two years ago I had heard this very talk (by the same speaker) and went home totally confused. My Perfect Paula did not pay attention to detail, my Sociable Sue could actually concentrate and get her work done, and my Competent Carl acted more like a Wiggle Willy. Even after reading Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks I had no idea what curricula would work best for each of than I did before.
Because of this confusion, I almost skipped this talk the second time. I went anyway because, well, I needed a night out, and am so glad I did. The time interval and experience added just the perspective I needed to take everything she said with a generous grain of salt. Instead of trying to categorize my children and fit them into boxes, I returned home simply wanting to know more about them and how they thought they learned best (because, quite frankly. I am often too busy to notice!). I made up a little quiz based on several learning models discussed in the talk and asked them to draw a picture of their ideal learning environment.
Here is my un-scientific quiz: Download Learning Style Profile
Based on their answers, here are the learning profiles we have:
Child #1:
- likes desk by a window
- prefers to doodle on paper
- would like to sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair
- color preference: green
- natural sunshine
- morning person
- likes to read alone or be read to
- likes books with pictures
- prefers wooden pencils
- doesn't like so much touch
To Do list for Mom: provide thinking putty and doodle pad, bring up exercise ball, set up word searches or crosswords with spelling words on spellingcity.com, draw more diagrams for math & science, keep desk by window with pine tree view.
Child # 2:
- likes sitting at a desk
- likes to work alone, but near others
- prefers quiet
- color preferences: orange and violet
- natural sunshine
- likes to suck on something (usually hair)
- morning person
- reads on her own
- likes color in books
- would like to doodle on a white board
- prefers mechanical pencils
- likes hugs and touch
To Do list for Mom: provide sugar-free candy to suck on, more hugs, get a little white board for desk, stock up on mechanical pencils, ask her to write plays to perform about what she studies in history and literature, continue use of classical music on headphones, purchase notebooks and supplies in orange & violet.
Child #3:
- likes to stand while working
- likes to walk around and do work various places
- color preference: brown
- would rather be near a window
- likes inside lights
- sucks on pencil eraser
- morning person
- reads on his own
- likes books with color pictures
- prefers wooden pencils
- not so much touch
- wants a little white board
To Do list for Mom: keep letting him stand to complete work (except for maybe handwriting), put work (like math pages) on a clipboard so he can move around with it, provide sugar-free candy to suck on, get a little white board for desk, more science experiments (resume 365 Simple Science Experiments during Together Time), hands-on projects and models, words on spelling city, buy electronics from thrift store to take apart and reassemble.
Obviously, I can't and probably shouldn't cater to every preference, but I was more than happy to accommodate some requests - just because I can. Oh, the beauty of homeschooling!
