Visual Learners

[Sade]

My 8yo son is definitely a visual learner. He seems to retain more from illustrated books, videos and computer time.

 

I would love to hear any tips or advice, blog posts, websites, etc that you can think of.

 

And also any educational videos/dvds that you can recommend.

 

Thanks so much!

[Arcadia]

For Science

Magic schoolbus dvds or youtube

Bill Nye the science guy dvds or youtube

The Way Things Work DVDs (your library might have)

Steve Spangler Science on youtube

 

For grammar fun

Schoolhouse Rock on youtube

 

For math drill/practice

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm - free

http://www.dreambox.com/ - not free but trial is free

[brownie]

Hmmm...I would still be careful about overusing TV to teach, even if it works for now. I think long term that may increase how visual they are and impact focus as well. My oldest and youngest are definitely visual but we rarely use the TV. We have all kinds of manipulatives for math. We do lego robotics for part of our science. I draw pictures of concepts rather than notes. I explain math and science concepts with legos, experiments, etc...I tell my youngest to look at his spelling words and "snap a picture with his brain". We make pictures out of his toughest spelling words or make the words out of wikki stix.

[Spryte]

I have a 9 yr old visual learner. Read up on learning styles as much as you can - it really helps.

 

We do use a lot of manipulatives, although as he gets older I find we use them less. We use the whiteboard often - either one on the wall or handheld smaller boards.

 

DVDs, etc - I use them as supplements only, but we do use them. We don't do TV or computer time otherwise, so this is considered fun screen time: We love the ideas that Arcadia threw out, plus BrainPop is a huge hit here. Huge. The Happy Scientist is great, too, and I usually schedule it to match up with our science. Hands on science experiments are good, and we've used a lot of the Discover and Do DVDs as jumping off points. Oh, and Mathtacular was big for a long time. Horrible Histories is available on iTunes - love that, too. Lots of documentaries on Netflix, etc. Vi Hart's math videos on youtube are dearly loved.

 

Teaching Textbooks has been good for us, in the math department, as well as Life of Fred and a slew of living math ideas/books.

 

MCT's language arts has gone over well - visually appealing.

[wapiti]

There have been a number of threads about visual learners. Some of them are tagged VSL - try a tag search. It's not necessarily easy to tell just because the student learns from videos. To further consider how much your student is a VSL, see this. To read more about VSLs, start here. There is more to learning through visual-spatial methods than simply videos. The most significant aspect may be the organization of the information presented - learning the big picture before the details and other methods to give the student a context for things before they are learned, so that they are easier to file away in memory. Some video and computer programs may teach sequentially and some books may teach from a big picture perspective - it all depends on the specific program.

[Spryte]

There have been a number of threads about visual learners. Some of them are tagged VSL - try a tag search. It's not necessarily easy to tell just because the student learns from videos. To further consider how much your student is a VSL, see this. To read more about VSLs, start here. There is more to learning through visual-spatial methods than simply videos. The most significant aspect may be the organization of the information presented - learning the big picture before the details and other methods to give the student a context for things before they are learned, so that they are easier to file away in memory. Some video and computer programs may teach sequentially and some books may teach from a big picture perspective - it all depends on the specific program.

 

Yes. This.

[Sade]

Thank you all!