How I Homeschool Kids With Various Learning Styles

Today I am so excited to share How I Homeschool Kids With Various Learning Styles (and you can too)! Homeschooling children with various learning styles can be a major challenge, and I’ll be 100% honest, it took me awhile to learn how to do this.

Before I share what I’ve learned I just want to say how glad I am to be a homeschooler! Homeschoolers have such a tremendous learning/teaching advantage with their kids and this is one of the area’s that brings big advantages. When you homeschool you get the option to pick the curriculum for your children, and you can select books and curricula that truly resonates and reaches them.

Although this can be super daunting (the curriculum you pick can bless or burden your homeschool), it can also be so exciting when you find a curriculum that works for you and your kids. What a contrast this is to public school where curriculum is pretty much set, and if a kid connects with the curriculum then great, they will do well and maybe even be on the honor roll.

On the other hand, if a kid doesn’t “get it” the chances are high that they’ll likely be sent home to figure it out on their own. Sadly, if a kid continually doesn’t get it, parents are made aware and either have to try to help or hire a tutor. It can be exhausting and depressing for parents and a kid that has a hard time that is struggling in school. When the kid’s learning style and the curriculum don’t fit together kids go on to suffer with negative self image and often feel “stupid”, sometimes they are even labeled as lazy, and the awful thing about it is they nor their parents always realize that it’s not the kids fault.

As a homeschooling parent of kiddos with various learning styles I learned early on how important it was to figure out each of my children’s learning styles, and how to effectively teach to their style. I’m going to share some of my best tips with you today.

Whether you are a homeschool parent or a public school parent, if you have a struggling learner this post might help.

How I Homeschool Kids With Various Learning Styles

1. I Found the Right Curriculum For Our Family

This was way easier said then done! We gurgled through traditional textbooks (like what are provided in public schools) for years before in tears and through prayer we found the perfect curriculum for us that coincidentally utilizes various teaching styles, YOU CAN READ MY REVIEW OF WHAT WE FOUND HERE.

Now, I’m not saying traditional textbooks are bad. They work wonderfully for some kids (you’ll know which ones because they will probably be on the honor rolls in public school and in homeschool they are usually the ones that learn and thrive easily without a lot of trouble).

There are so many curriculum choices, and if you have a bunch of children it works best to try to find a curriculum that is not grade specific, that teaches to multiple children at the same time, and approaches topics from multiple teaching methods. I highly recommend using Cathy Duffy reviews as you are researching curriculum and consider getting her book, How To Choose Homeschool Curriculum.

2. I Found My Kids Learning Style

Knowing you’re children’s learning style makes such a difference. I used to try to find several different ways to explain something thinking that if I just found the right words to say, maybe the kids would “get it”.

Then I learned about learning styles. Did you know there are now said to be SEVEN learning styles! READ ABOUT THEM HERE.

3. I Discovered These 10 Teaching Tips & Resources

Once I discovered/learned the following tips I was able to begin to effectively reach all my kids with their special learning styles. Here they are;

1. Have Mozart, Vivaldi, or Bach or other study music LIKE MY STUDY MUSIC PLAYLIS HERE playing quietly in the background during school-we can tell a difference on day’s we forget to do this-we are more productive with the classical music playing for sure! Music has a way of unlocking parts of the brain, making it easier for people to learn.
2. Let the kids get the wiggles out first thing. Have the kids sing, jump around while counting, whatever it takes to get the wiggles out before they sit down. Also, if you have kinesthetic/hands on learnings let them move around while you are reading and see if that helps them. Sometimes if they are having trouble with focus allowing them to move or exercise while teaching the lesson helps them.
3. Make all the kids sit through a group lesson at some point during the day-this reaches the social and auditory learners.
4. Try to use the chalkboard or whiteboard and find pictures as visuals as you’re teaching/reading a lesson, even if it’s for rough sketches and important words- this really helps the visual learners!
5. If you have a long passage to read, stop often to talk about what you just read, and whenever appropriate crack a joke-make it fun and keep the kids laughing if you can because this keeps them engaged.
6. During the lesson encourage note taking to help the verbal and physical learners and the read-write learners.
7. With the younger kids who almost always start out kinesthetic/physical because of their age, have them draw a picture of what they learned. Having kinesthetic (hands on) and visual or read/write learners draw about what they learned is one of the most wonderful ways to help drive the lesson home.
8. Sometimes I’ll have the kids write a 2 or 3 sentence summary of what they learned-this helps the older kids that learn best by writing.
9. If kids need reinforcement, then to round off the lesson and reach both the auditory and visual kids by playing a YouTube tutorial or video on the subject.  For example, we used YouTube tutorials to drive home lessons on estuaries, euphotic, disphotic, and aphotic zones of the ocean and more.
10. Some of our kids learn some (not all) things best using self study, so after the lesson if the kids need I’ll send them read the lesson themselves if they need further enforcement.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a bonus tip. If you just presented a smashing session but you have a kid that was simply not paying attention out of laziness and you are 100% positive it was laziness (please understand that there is a HUGE difference between laziness and ADD/ADHD so don’t confuse the two)….here’s something to try on older kids.

 Please note; this is for older kids around 10 up…I wouldn’t  ever want to do this on younger kids-and again you want to be SURE it was truly laziness. A kid twirling upside down on a spinning chair while you are teaching is a good indicator that they are being to lazy to focus. 

Tell them that they need to learn _______fill in the blank with whatever the lesson was______by the end of the day or there will be a repercussion. Decide the repercussion before hand.

Or if you allow them screen time tell them they have to buy their screen time by learning about what you just taught.

After all, this is how it would be for them if they were in public school….they would be sent home with a ton of homework if they weren’t attentive at school.  You may be amazed at how resourceful and what great researchers you didn’t know you had!

I hope, How I Homeschool Kids With Various Learning Styles, helps you with your learners! Be sure to check out my other homeschool related posts below or HERE, and if you would like to be alerted to upcoming posts please subscribe to post notifications below. I promise your information will never be sold or shared.

Also, BROWSE my homeschool video’s on YouTube here!

    

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