learning style

So, remember when we were in high school (well, some of us) and all that data about learning styles started to come out? And the teachers tried really hard to incorporate the research into their classrooms, but it was really, really difficult because well, public school is not really all that flexible. So much less so these days.

Understatement of the year.

With all the common core and testing requirements I really, honestly do not know how kids these days flourish within school. And yeah, maybe relatively few kids ever really flourished in school, but it seems like the margin is getting smaller and smaller. I mean it has to be.

Back to the learning styles. When I first learned about learning styles there were only three options - auditory, visual and kinesthetic. And then they added music and a few other ones. A few classes I took in college touched on learning styles as well as developmental processes and that was kind of the last I thought about it.

It behooves me though as a homeschooler to get really familiar with all the new literature on learning styles and begin to try and figure out my kids' a little better.

Last year I had an idea of how Guthrie learned best, what type of environment she would learn easily in. And I was mostly wrong.            

This is all about flexibility though, right? And learning?
I feel like I am still learning with Guthrie, learning her temperament, her personality, her learning style - especially as far as homeschooling goes. I mean I've totally got parenting her down pat. Totally.

One thing I've really noticed though is how quickly Guthrie can understand a concept if I can put it in the context of natural world. It's not so much that she is a "big picture" kind of girl, but if I can relate it to the seasons, or some natural category it just goes so much smoother. Or any category or pattern in general. So maybe one of her ways of learning is naturalistic.

Our local Nahant Marsh Education Center offers homeschool supplemental science/nature classes - the only outside class I didn't even waver on signing her up for. They meet monthly during the school year and so far have been really great. I stay with her, at her request, but also as an additional pair of hand because her group is K-4th and yeah, there are some busy kids in there. Some really, really smart busy kids.

I'll be curious to see what we observe as far as learning styles in both the kids. I hope it will be super helpful in facilitating their education over the years.