When I began homeschooling my third child in 1997, I really didn’t know much about learning styles. Of course we all have a dominant and preferred method of learning, but up to that point, I had never given much thought to their ‘learning style’. I discovered quickly that learning style has a great bearing on the type of curriculum you choose and how effectively it works.
The Three Main Learning Styles
- Visual
- Auditory
- Kinesthetic
Visual learners prefer to have visual cues to help them absorb information. They do best with diagrams, charts, illustrated books and video.
Auditory learning like to listen to lectures, audio books, etc… as they pick up the subtle nuances of voice inflection to pull the deeper underlying meaning.
Kinesthetic learners (or tactile learners) are hands-on. They need to touch, feel, move and be directly involved to best learn. They have a hard time sitting still.
Each of us will use any of these three learning styles to some degree, but usually there is one more dominant style. Knowing that dominant style for your child will help you choose a curriculum that is best suited for them.
Your kinesthetic learner is going to have a hard time sitting through a lecture that your audio learner would thrive in, and your visual learner will be easily distracted through that same lecture.
If you have children in more than one learning type category, you can either buy completely separate curriculum for each that is tailored just for that child. Or you could mix up the curriculum so that each child is exposed to shorter bits of a different learning style. This is actually a good idea, as it helps them to train themselves to focus and learn in all types of learning situations. If done in shorter increments, it will not overwhelm and frustrate their learning efforts.
Watch your child and see how they play, that’s a good way to help determine their learning style and provide the information you need in choosing the right curriculum for your child.