How can I know my child’s learning style?
Posted by gitterdun in Educational GamesOct 4th, 2009 | 5 responsesYou are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “How can I know my child’s learning style?”.
5 Responses to “How can I know my child’s learning style?”
About Me
Try these sites!
At this age all of life in a learning experience. Basically what you want to do right now is make many different types of activities available to her and watch to see which ones she really gets excited over.
My grandson, from age 1/2 year ALWAYS went for the musical or otherwise noisy toys, while his older brother was more interested in things that had a lot of texture.
These are just clues, but they can help guide you later on. You have plenty of time before her structured learning begins to figure out her style.
It may be difficult to pin down her learning style right now; some kids gravitate toward one type of thing right from the start, while others sort of shift between styles.
What does she like? Does she immediately go for things that are colorful, or does she remember things that she hears? Does she enjoy things that she holds, touches, and manipulates, or does she have to have a variety of textures?
My son, for example, is auditory and kinesthetic. His favorite toys were always things like See N Say, the talking telephones, and spatial puzzles (age appropriate sizes and shapes). His favorite things to watch were simple visuals that didn’t switch too quickly but had plenty of talking and music. (Think Veggie Tales, Blues Clues, etc.) If I made him visual reminders of things, he didn’t catch on, but if I went over something with him verbally, he got it the first time every time.
Now, at 10, his favorite things are audio books, computer programs that talk to him and have him manipulate things onscreen, cooking, gardening, and building things. He enjoys reading, and reads daily, but will retain 90-100% of the info from an audio resource. So, I prepare things for him that help him review in a number of ways – computer programs, manipulatives, audio resources, file folder game-type things, and traditional read-and-write. He loves to lapbook rather than just write things down on paper because the manipulation of the mini books helps him retain the info.
Right now, just take her shopping and see what she gravitates toward. Play with her and take note of what she enjoys. Especially at this age, she’ll naturally play with or ask for whatever makes her learn. Watch her, see what she likes, and then give her similar resources to help her learn her skills.
I started out choosing a traditional textbook approach for my dyslexic auditory kinesthetic then-6yo…and he let me know almost immediately that I had chosen the wrong thing
He did the work to be obedient, but didn’t retain a darn thing. After a month, he cried whenever I brought out his books. So, that curriculum was sold and we tried new things. Finally, I brought him to a curriculum convention and led him around to the different booths…and he ran right to the things that made the most sense to him.
His math program (then Math U See) was taught on DVD and was manipulative based. (I caught him sneaking the discs and a DVD player to his room in the middle of the night, lol!) His science program read like a good story book and had plenty of experiments. His history program was full of lit books and projects. Etc., etc. Now, he tests above grade level in pretty much everything and gets bored when we’re not doing school.
Bottom line, just be attentive to what she likes and she’ll let you know what she needs. She’s wired to learn, and she’ll do what she needs to in order to learn. Just trust her and go along for the ride!
Most 3 year olds learn through play, so I don’t think you can go wrong there. If you want to do a few worksheets, Kumon workbooks are really simple and fun.
Here is some information about homeschooling preschool:
Here is some information about learning styles:
Good luck!
Playing *is* learning. Just play with her, watch how she learns. Do some searching on the internet for homeschooling: local groups you can connect with and ask questions of, Yahoo groups where there are lots of experienced homeschoolers of *all* types to get their input from, books from the library, etc. My oldest thrives on unschooling-thank goodness we found it before I got all “schedule-y” on him! My youngest may need a bit more structure, but only time will tell (he’s 3 as well).
Remember, you have plenty of time. You don’t need to have a full plan of action before she’s 5 years old-you don’t even need to notify your school district in some states until the child is 8 years old. She doesn’t need her schooling mapped out through college by 5 years old, so just take it a step at a time, a day at a time and don’t think past 6 months. There is nothing that can’t be learned later if she’s not grasping it by a certain age. That’s the beauty of homeschooling: we can adapt and change and go at our child’s pace. Sometimes that means jumping ahead, sometimes it means leaving something for a later date.
Don’t worry about the “type” of homeschooling until you’re comfortable with the knowledge you have of what homeschooling entails. Then, keep a group of other homeschoolers close at hand that you can express your worries to, share details with, ask questions of. Soon, you’ll have confidence in yourself and homeschooling and the worries will fall by the wayside. They’ll crop up now and then as she grows, but the biggies will be laid to rest and you can deal with occasional, small worries better in small “bites”. Enjoy your journey!