I have no idea why my learning style is.
I am an intensely visual person, but I remember movie quotes and funny sayings often hearing them only once. In fact, I used books on tape to get through my AP English class in high school. I wrote a paper on Heart of Darkness by flipping back and forth through the book to zero in on the passages I remembered listening to on tape. Even so, you can't just tell me directions. Even writing them down won't help me much. I have to do the steps myself a few times before I've got it. That's why I don't read instruction manuals and how-to guides. Far better for me: Hand me a working website or computer program and I'll tinker with it until I understand how the code works.
This confusing interplay of learning styles and approaches to gaining knowledge can be frustrating for teachers (parents) as well. It drives my wife crazy that I refuse to even open the help manual when I'm stuck, and instead look for some tangible walk-throughs and videos online.
Speaking of online videos, we have a video that is all about homeschooling students of various learning styles and approaches:
Exploring Your Child's Learning Styles
As I read this post about one homeschooler's frustration with the school system and visual learning style differences, I got thinking about The Stroop Test. This is a simple and yet powerful reminder that we are more than a single input/output mechanism. As humans, our brains take in and process information combining multiple stimuli.
So if your student is struggling, or you're struggling with your student, take some time to consider your child's learning style, and perhaps utilize some of the suggestions in the video above.
You can find more helpful homeschool videos on our Homeschool Helps page.
Do your children learn the same way you do? Have you had to adjust the way you teach certain subjects to match your child's learning style?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester
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