Ok, so if you've been following along with the Homeschooling 101 series, we're on Step 3 which is simply learning about the four main learning styles and how they fit into your homeschool. No worries, if you missed the first 2 steps, you can check them out below.
The four main learning styles are also known as the VARK model and are as follows.
1. Visual learners
Visual learners typically learn best through methods like flash cards, charts, flannel graphs; anything they can see.
REALLY good public school teachers incorporate some of this so those visual leaners get what they need as well, but with 25+ kids per class, incorporating visual learning is only possible so many times per day. Just a PSA, none of this is a knock on public school teachers. I have my teaching degree as well, and definitely see the value in teachers, but I want to drive home the privilege that we have as homeschool teachers to truly tailor our child's education to them.
Having said that, the best teachers teach kids to learn using all four styles. We know that their job isn’t going to cater to them, their college professor isn't going to tailor every lesson to our child's learning style, etc. but that comes later on. In the first few years of school, let them absorb the knowledge in a way that works for their brain. Learning how to learn in a new style is literally a skill set, so it's something they have to learn with time.
2. Auditory Learners
Auditory learners typically learn best by hearing read alouds, listening to audible books, sitting through lectures; any time where they can absorb knowledge through their hearing sense.
3. Reading and Writing Learners
These are the learners that learn best through writing out spelling words and vocabulary words/definitions. They love reading the text on their own and then answering the corresponding questions. They are often labeled as the "easy" students.
Public schools teach majority in these two sections; auditory and reading and writing. Again, not a slight on them, but they've got a classroom full of kids and typically only 2-3 adults to both teach and provide classroom control. These two options are the easiest way to teach a classroom full of amazing, but rambunctious little ones.
Story Time
Although I came from the projects and had everything stacked against me, I thrived in school. I was considered a model student, put into the highest level gifted programs, and even skipped a couple of grades before starting college at the age of 16. At one point around middle school the school system even put me through a pretty rigorous IQ test only to find out that I was slightly above average. Truth was, I wasn't anything special. I just fell in that very small category of kids that happened to learn best from those two methods; auditory and reading and writing. Because I fell into that rare class of kids, I had zero issues through school. In fact, even after leaving school during my 8th grade year, my GED scores were in the top 10% not only in my state but nationwide and I graduated at the tops of my class in college also. I was a teacher's dream.
Sadly, I was one in five. My four younger siblings didn't learn in those two categories and all failed academically and a few were even labeled as slow. None of them are slow, but they were being taught in a learning language that they simply didn't understand and coming from the home situation we did, no one was volunteering to work with any of them after hours or on weekends. They were all left behind in a system that just saw them as a number on the roster that brought in government funding.
Again, I'm not ragging on the teachers, some of my best friends are some pretty amazing teachers and their students are beyond lucky to have them, but the system itself is undeniably broken and we as parents have the opportunity to bypass a broken system and give our kids the best chance in life when it comes to their education. We have the privilege to teach them to fall in love with learning in a way that makes sense to them.
See that cute little girl up there? She's my mini me, except she's not. She's about as far from an auditory and reading/writing learner you can get. She has a tiny bit of visual leaner in her but her major learning language is #4.
4. Kinesthetic Learners
Kinesthetic is a fancy way of saying hands on. These are the learnes that are always doing something with their hands. Their brains work best when their bodies are busy and they sure will give you a run for your money. They're incredibly smart, but they're also easy to label as "difficult", "easily distracted", "talkative" and a number of other labels that we educators like to put on students that don't fit inside our box. These are the students that are often left behind in a traditional school setting.
Kinesthetic learners learn best by hands on methods. Manipulatives, science experiments, history projects, arts and crafts, and educational board games allow them to thrive academically. Unfortunately, these methods are the hardest ones for schools to incorporate because they can easily lead to chaos with a large class.
Just picture 25 kids making slime at their end of their science lesson. If you're normal, you're picturing a fun class room of kids making slime. If you're a teacher, you're picturing little Johnny putting globs of wet slime in Suzy's hair. Jake and Titus covered from head to toe because they decided it would be fun to start a slime fight across their desks, and little Brittany is eating it by the spoonful because it's purple and grapes are purple and grapes are yummy so in elementary kid logic, purple slime is also yummy. It is anything but a fun class room of kids making slime. It's a complete disaster and at least one of the kids will end up in tears. Back to boring worksheets it is!
Now don't get me wrong, schools do try to incorporate some hands on elements like Science and history fairs, but let's be honest, a lot of that falls on the parents. The kids that have really good, hands on parents have a field day with these. The kids with little to no support at home go into full panic mode and usually end the project feeling nothing but shame with their finished piece. I would love to change the world for all of these kids, but I can't. The one kid I can change the world for however, is mine. The coolest part of all this? You have the same opportunity with your child. I'm so excited to get to help you on this journey!
Before we move on to the teaching styles, let's pinpoint which learning style first your child best.
