Learning Styles

[KBadd]

How do you determine your children's learning styles? At what age are they discernible? Any resources for me? Thanks.

[PeterPan]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/533370-learning-styles/?hl=%2Blearning+%2Bstyles&do=findComment&comment=6018221  You had replies to this on Prek-K.  

[Coco_Clark]

I don't really buy into the whole "learning style" thing. I make my decisions along those lines based more on my teaching style, and our families lifestyle. BUT that being said, I think its something you just grow to know after a few months of teaching your kids. You will notice that they respond to hands on experimentation, or that they are very analytical and like direct instruction, basically that such and such program doesn't work because this and that while that other program is a good fit for that other reason. It's a lot of experimentation, and it changes constantly.

[....]

Recognizing learning styles has had a huge effect in our homeschool.  I have two kinesthetic learners (and one of them is also very right-brained) and two auditory learners.  And, yes, I didn't start recognizing it for what it was until they were older elementary age.  When he was about 6, I thought my son (the right-brained kid) had some kind of learning disability (long story, but he was tested and no, they couldn't find anything).  His brain is just wired differently.  It's very obvious when you go from teaching one of the auditory/sequential learners to sitting down with him.  It's like he's from another planet.

 

So, both of my kinesthetic learners are hard to teach with traditional methods.  They're also messy and expensive.  My oldest has experiments, bug cages, weird sprouting seeds and aquariums *everywhere*.  She's also designed several aquaponics systems and built filters for them.  Her brother puts together model planes, model tanks, miniature weapons, model castles...Nanoblock creations that we're not allowed to touch or take apart.  He wants to take apart and build an engine.  *Stuff* and clutter just follows them from room to room.  After six years of teaching them, I'm exhausted and just finished trying to do any kind of traditional schooling with them.  They'll both be doing something that looks like unschooling after this school year.  They can just take apart as many engines as they want.  Just leave me out of it and clean up afterwards.  

 

OTOH, my two auditory learners seem to be doing very well with literature-based methods.  My 9 yro keeps telling me how much she loves her "schoolwork".  The 7 yro seems to really like music, so we started trying to add more music into our day.  We put her in ballet (which she loves) and have been turning on classical music for her throughout the day.  *shrug*  They both seem to like read-alouds, poetry, art, etc.  I'm guessing auditory learners probably do really well with Charlotte Mason-type stuff, classical ed or even something like Five in a Row.  We're just going to keep on that path.            

 

Sorry for rambling.  Here's a little chart that might help:  http://www.visualspatial.org/vslasl.php

 

The Hoagie's Gifted website also has some resources on learning styles if you have time to surf around.  http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/learning_styles.htm

 

When I put "learning styles" into google, I'm seeing a ton of websites and learning style quizzes.

 

 

[....]

I don't really buy into the whole "learning style" thing. 

 

I bet you guys all have the same learning style!  That might be why.  

[Coco_Clark]

I bet you guys all have the same learning style!  That might be why.  

 

No, they actually have wildly different learning styles.  I just choose not to cater to them.    

 

I personally feel it's important that they learn how to gather information in several different ways (by doing hands on projects projects, by reading to themselves silently and telling me about it, by listening to lectures, ect) even if that way is not their personal ideal, and perhaps even more so if its not their personal ideal; that some subjects natural are taught easiest by one learning style and others by another; and that the BEST way to learn is by involving several different styles in one subject.  

 

So instead of picking out the "discovery-based, hands-on" program in every subject that one of my sons would do best in, I pick the program that best fulfills my goals for that subject that year, our schedule, my teaching style, my budget, ect.  Sometimes that's a highly auditory program like ELTL and we work on teaching him to strengthen his auditory learning skills.  He gets his "hands on" learning in other subjects and in those subjects his brother is forced to do many experiments, projects, ect that he considers "busy work" and has a hard time translating to information.  That's ok. That's good. It gives us a chance to work on it.

 

It also gives me the ability to combine them in nearly all subjects, which cuts my teaching time nearly in half and gives them all the benefits of gaining from the other.  Right now they have separate language arts and math.  That's it.  And I have them both doing LOE Foundations in the hope of combining them once they are both in Essentials.  So really they only have separate Math.  When they are much older, and I am more of a facilitator than a teacher, maybe I will let them veer off into their own programs, better catered to their learning styles to some extent.  But I will probably always require SOME work in each style.  

 

 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Ah, your kids are young.  Wait until you lose an entire year of math or grammar because you used Abeka or Rod and Staff, and  they have absolutely no retention of an entire year's worth of instruction.  Been there, done that.  Like butter on a hot pan.

 

Or maybe your kids will learn no matter what.  I got the other kind. :)