Visual-Spatial/Nonverbal Learner...

[Jacey]

Does anyone else have a child who is this type of learner? If so, would you mind sharing some of the ways you approach teaching to fit this learning style and the curriculum you use?? Or any other insight? I have recently pulled my dd9 out of 3rd grade ps to homeschool (we are starting our 6th week). I'm trying to figure out curriculum for next year and I would love any input!

 

So, back to my question-- For those who also have v-s learners what do you do for homeschooling? I am personally drawn to classical education but I'm not sure it would be a good fit for my dd; plus I believe for us it would be best to take hs on a year-by-year basis and I worry about deviating too much from "traditional school".

 

One concern I have is, from what I understand visual-spatial learners tend to do better with "whole-part" type of learning than "part-whole" type of learning (classical education and traditional approach). Anyone else heard of and/or addressed this? Ideas?

 

Writing is an area where I'm having a harder time deciding how to approach. I get the impression that teaching writing in general can be tough to address and on top of that, my dd is very resistant to writing (common for s-v learners)--it is like pulling teeth (that aren't loose!)!! At the moment for writing I am having her do the following each week: cursive, creative writing, some copywork, and journaling. What do you do??

 

Also, though I'm finding that though she is great at math (picks up new concepts very easily) she HATES repitition ("why do I have to do this, I already know how"....yada yada yada....). While I am afraid of going too quickly through new math concepts (in 3-4 wks we went through an entire book of Singapore math-- though we did skip some that she had learned in ps) I also don't want to hold her back by insisting on too much practice? Thoughts?

 

I look forward to hearing any others' experiences with this type of learner! :)

 

Jacey

 

dd9: Singapore Math, STOW, Wordly Wise, Words Their Way (spelling), A Beka Science, A Beka L3, Reading-real books, Writing- mixture of cursive, creative, copywork, and journaling.

[Nan in Mass]

I have 13 and 17yo's, but they've homeschooled since 1st and 5th grades.

 

I taught my children to draw (using Draw Squad and then Artistic Pursuits Junior High), and I let them draw for some of their papers. They both just did a drawing of the circles of hell for Dante's Inferno, and they went through the exact same planning/researching/rereading procedure as they would have if they had written a paper, so drawing is a viable way of digesting a book. Your children ought to know how to draw anyway, and learning to draw is something anyone who can write by hand can do, since it just involves learning to see things the way they actually look, not the way they really are. We're not talking great art here, just an ability to draw.

 

Check out graphic organizers. A search on the internet should produce some good info.

 

Pick either immersion or reading-based foreign language programs, since these are whole-to-parts. We like Ecce Romani, since this approaches Latin from both directions, but Cambridge Latin and Lingua Latina are also reading based. They are for older children.

 

We use Singapore, which is more whole-to-parts, but you have to be careful. The new concepts are demonstrated using simple numbers at first, so it is possible for the child to get the answer in his head using an old concept (or just thinking about it), but they are supposed to be doing it using the new way. Make sure your child is doing it the way the bubble children are, and make her write her show her work (at least in PM5 and PM6). You also need to make sure they memorize the facts.

 

I found that the history/literature/great books/science as laid out by TWTM worked well for us, because it was loose and interest based.

 

Dictation did more for spelling for us than anything else.

 

And you might want to check out Bravewriter for writing.

 

HTH

-Nan

[Closeacademy]

I use things that appeal visually. She is in 2nd grade but this is what I am doing with her.

 

My dd loves Singapore Math and Singapore Science. They both help to stretch her brain but have the visual aspect to help teach concepts and appeal to her learning method.

 

For Language Arts, I use Spell to Write and Read because she is very logical and this explains the English language in a very logical way. I made up silly sentences and drew pictures to help her learn the phonograms. This next year we will be working through the lists but I have made charts, search a words, fill in the blanks, and activity sheets up for her so that at the end of the year she will have a nice reference guide when we are done.

 

I am using the Ruth Heller grammar picture books for her as well and made up charts for her to fill out to make her own grammar dictionary as well.

 

Basically, I go for the visual aspect. I do know that scripted does not work for us.

 

Hope you have a great homeschool journey.:001_smile:

[Tami]

We tend to use lots of graphic organizers. Some resources that come to mind, pulling from content areas, are:

 

How to Report on Books by Evan -Moor

Country Report Projects for Any Country and State Report Projects by Scholastic

Great Science Adventures by Dinah Zike

 

Whole to part English curriculums are Shurley English, Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Total Language Plus

 

My dd enjoys open-ended assignments, and one curriculum that includes this is the Oak Meadow. THere are several reinforcement/assessment choices for each topic.

 

Other hits here are book basket method instead of specific book assignments, and other forms of modified child-directed learning. I also look for DK-type books with beautiful pictures. Our United Streaming subscription has been worth its's weight in gold. Videos and projects really serve to stimulate interest to do further research and reading, so we do those FIRST instead of last.

 

I recommend "Right-Brained Child in a LEft-Brained World." THe book helped me immensely in my teaching.

 

 

 

These kids need specific teaching practices and need a little space and freedom. Of course, freedom comes with responsibility. :D

[Nan in Mass]

I should add that because my son needed tons of practice with the verbal stuff, we did discuss the books. At least discussing them was easier than writing about them. TWTM has a nice sequence that helps build up the ability to do this. This is an essential skill throughout life (discussing things), so I actually worked on developing it. Narrations don't come easily, but are very important, more important if the child is visual. I wouldn't make a visual child memorize via a verbal method, but everyone needs to be able to express themselves coherently, at least, verbally. We began with narrations, then moved to storytelling, then did "three things" (I say dog or something, and the children have to say three things about dogs. This is the beginnings of 5 paragraph paper writing. Then I had them expand on the three things a bit.) When they could do that, I moved into teaching writing. We used Writing Strands (with some success) but eventually, when they were older, switched to Format Writing, which is awful but worked to get my children writing because it points out exactly what should be in each sentence of each type of paragraph, but didn't spend lots of time fussing about the sentence structure itself, which my children would have hated. Meanwhile, we were doing the logic stage literature questions, and then the rhetoric stage ones from TWTM. Because these are very general questions, they work better for my children than ones attatched to a specific book. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it forced them to answer the question in a fuller way than a specific question would?

 

Basically, I broke writing into two different pieces - oral and then when they could do it orally, we switched to trying to actually write it down. We practised writing (the physical act) during Latin and other subjects. I also taught them to type BEFORE I expected them to write more than a paragrahp at a time, because this allowed them to do their writing in a nonsequential way, which seems to be important if you aren't a verbal/sequential person.

 

TWTM resources are mostly heavily illustrated, which worked very well for my children. They also specifically taught things that other curriculums just assumed my children would pick up by osmosis. My children don't, being wired a bit differently than your average person.

 

-Nan

[RebeccaC]

My oldest son is v/s and my younger is just a v :) In the WTM Susan uses either as spines or as support a lot of DK or DK type books. DK was developed for a child with LD issues and who was probably v/s or at least a v. My sons love the Kingfisher book for history and devoured it along with various Usborne books. However due to the language delays writing and outlining have been hard to develop. We have not done Latin because of the language delay. English is not my oldest son first language due to his LKS vision is his first language. He did not read due to that until he was 10. This is the same kid who at age 6 knew that Frost's poem Stopping by the Wood on a Snowy Evening was about death. We talk quite a bit in depth about history and lit lots of allegory and metaphor used in conversation but it just does not seem to translate well or easily to writing. So I loosely follow the ideas laid out in WTM. We did First language lessons when it first came out and that was an excellent fit. We have worked through most of the Story of the World books.

 

I have used Moving with Math as our math program along with other things to back up what is learned. My oldest son has an almost perfect long term memory but has problems with short term auditory memory so he needs a lot of repetition there.

 

Since there is such a passion for all things C.S. Lewis I will give Grammar through Sentence Writing a try. Lori D has excellent posts on ideas for teaching and working with boys who seem to be v/s or similar to so look for her posts.

 

You can use a Classical Model or WTM model but you will just have to modify it for your child.

 

I am hammering this out quite quickly so I have not check it for grammar and I won't be able to until later so I hope this has made sense. I have been hsing my boys since March of 96.

[asher]

I 2nd Tami's book suggestion. Another book that has really helped is the

 

Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silverman. It was full of ideas on how to teach different subjects and VSL resources. I didn't know ds was VSL until I came here and started reading about all the other wonderful VSL children. Writing is arduous for ds, too, and he hasn't even gotten to cursive. :P The Evan Moor series has been great for teaching history. One of the ideas that the books presents is that once VSL learners learn something, they have it and there is not a need to continue to drill it, and often times doing that loses their interest in a subject. Of course, like everything else this might not apply to all VSL's. :)

 

 

 

 

[Jacey]

they have ALL been very helpful! I will definitely check out the book suggestions regarding v-s learners and look more into graphic organizers (she did use these to a small degree in ps). I am also interested in the United Streaming subscription. Luckily enough, though my dd is a vsl, she doesn't struggle with any of the other language arts areas except writing.

 

I do have a few other questions......

 

Tami- When we first started hs'g I considered using LLATL & TLP but ended up deciding on A Beka LA3. It's okay, but will probably switch to either LLATL or TLP next year. Do you personally use these and if so, do you use as a complete LA program including for Literature?

 

Closeacademy- I just ordered My Pals are Here for 3rd & 4th grade this week. I was leaning towards those in the beginning but ended up going with A Beka Science. Dd9 went from loving science to hating it very quickly- the pictures appealed to her but she found the text dry and boring; I wasn't thrilled either. I think she'll like the SS format better (hopefully). Do you use this as a complete program for science? Do you supplement with any DK books or anything else?

 

Nan- I have also considered letting my dd use typing as a way to address the writing issue. When did you start with your dc (age-wise) and did you use a program to teach them how to type? Thanks also for the tip on using an "immersion" program for foreign language- I would not have known that! I am hoping to decide on a foreign language curriculum soon for next year. My dd had been exposed to Spanish to a small degree in ps, but not sure if we are going to keep this up or try Latin or French (I took French in school and so have thought about teaching this b/c I am familiar with it).

 

Thanks again to everyone for all their suggestions!

[Closeacademy]

I use it as a complete program. If you ordered the workbooks and the Higher Order Thinking Skills there is plenty of science there to explore and stretch the brain.:001_smile:

[Arch at Home]

I tried to respond once but my post got lost in a computer hiccup.

 

I am also using MPH Science. I do consider it to a complete program. For 4th grade I will probably try to have a few more hands on activities. My dd like the magnetism segment best and I think that it is partly because we had a kit to play with.

 

My 3 dc are learning to type. The youngest is 4. I would say that he is more learning his letters than typing but the older two (6 and 8) are definitely learning. We are using Sponge Bob typing. It has instruction segments intermixed with games to improve accuracy and speed.

 

I want to also suggest Brave Writer for a LA program or at a minimum a writing program. This approach starts with the child dictating to the mother, eventually moving into shared writing, then solo writing. It has been very effective to allow my dd to express herself without being incumbered with the mechanics of writing and particularly spelling.