Ok so I briefly mentioned in my last post how I'm planning for 1st grade for Emilie...
I had a major AHA moment recently about the way she learns.
I always knew Emilie was a "Visual Kinesthetic learner", but it never occurred to me
that she
thinks in terms of pictures -- and not
words, the way Auditory Sequential learners process information. This is totally foreign to me, because I am an auditory-sequential learner. And so that is how I naturally teach. So when I read the description below, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course! That is why when, for example, I asked her to copy the word "milk", which she did, she immediately
had to draw a picture of milk next to the word. Here is a comparison between Auditory-Sequential and Visual Spatial learners:
| AUDITORY-SEQUENTIAL (eliz) | VISUAL-SPATIAL (emilie) |
| Thinks primarily in words | **Thinks primarily in pictures** |
| Has auditory strengths | Has visual strengths |
| Relates well to time | Relates well to space |
| Is a step-by-step learner | Is a whole-part learner |
| Learns by trial and error | Learns concepts all at once |
| Progresses sequentially from easy to difficult material | Learns complex concepts easily; struggles with easy skills |
| Is an analytical thinker | Is a good synthesizer |
| Attends well to details | Sees the big picture; may miss details |
| Follows oral directions well | Reads maps well |
| Does well at arithmetic | Is better at math reasoning than computation |
| Learns phonics easily | Learns whole words easily |
| Can sound out spelling words | Must visualize words to spell them |
| Can write quickly and neatly | Prefers keyboarding to writing |
| Is well-organized | Creates unique methods of organization |
| Can show steps of work easily | Arrives at correct solutions intuitively |
| Excels at rote memorization | Learns best by seeing relationships |
| Has good auditory short-term memory | Has good long-term visual memory |
| May need some repetition to reinforce learning | Learns concepts permanently; is turned off by drill and repetition |
| Learns well from instruction | Develops own methods of problem solving |
| Learns in spite of emotional reactions | Is very ***sensitive to teachers’ attitudes*** |
| Is comfortable with one right answer | Generates unusual solutions to problems |
| Develops fairly evenly | Develops quite asynchronously |
| Usually maintains high grades | May have very uneven grades |
| Enjoys algebra and chemistry | Enjoys geometry and physics |
| Learns languages in class | Masters other languages through immersion |
| Is academically talented | Is creatively, mechanically, emotionally, or technologically gifted |
| Is an early bloomer | Is a late bloomer |
I just about fell out of my chair reading this. The description of Auditory-Sequential learners fits Elizabeth to a TEE, and the same applies for the other category to Emilie.
So what does this mean for me? Well, for starters, I am so glad I discovered this about Emilie now, so early on in our homeschooling. For phonics instruction, I'm going to focus more on associating pictures with individual phonograms (like drawing a BEE for the phonogram "ee", etc) and for new sight words she is learning. We'll be making a lot of books with pictures in them. I'm going to make sure we do more lapbooking for books we read, for history, and for even some science topics as it applies. And also for history -- we'll be covering the Ancient World/Egypt (mostly via Old Testament studies) from
My Father's World. I'm not big into history documentaries and youtube clips, but seeing as how visual learners learn best this way -- that will definitely have to be on the plans as well.
Elizabeth is a totally different ballgame. She learns the way I learn, so it's very intuitive for me to pick curriculum for her. She is the kind of student who does very well with workbooks -- and that is super easy to plan (i.e. there is not much planning necessary for "school in a box" type curriculum - like
this one, which a good friend of mine uses and which I might use with her as well). Just buy the sequential workbooks and go through them! Easy. Done.
With Emilie, I feel like the planning is never done, because there is always this lingering question in my mind: "How can I make this topic as creative and engaging to her as possible?" I am not the most creative person, so it takes a lot of thought and energy to present material in a way that engages her and is fun. Emilie takes after Jee -- my very creative husband. She is like him in so many ways, especially this learning style.
When you add in the kinesthetic component to her visual learning (i.e., she needs to be physically engaged - move around, touch things, using her hands to make things, draw, color, create) -- it adds a whole other dimension. I recently bought
Cuisenaire rods to add to her math curriculum and it has been a HUGE hit with her. C-rods are wooden (or plastic) rods of varying lengths and colors, in increments of 1cm. So the 1cm cube is white, the 2cm rod is red, etc etc. All of a sudden she was getting the basic math addition facts: What color rod + yellow rod (5cm) = orange rod (10cm)? And she'd instantly reach for another yellow rod. I was shocked at how quickly number bonds (for example: 9 = 4 + 5) all made sense to her. As in, 1 week of working with the rods and she can easily figure out her math facts up to 10. Just like that! It blew my mind because I am NOT a visual learner, and it took me a lot longer to figure out which color rod corresponded to which number. LOL.
So all this to say, I've really been enjoying learning how to teach Emilie this year. There is definitely a learning curve learning how to teach (haha) but it's been good for me. I am so thankful for this opportunity to homeschool!
