I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. - Albert Einstein
Hindsight Diary of a Homeschooler:
They say hindsight's 20-20. (I hate cliches because they lack originality and creativity, but this one actually applies so I had to use it) I'm going to begin my Hindsight Diary of a Homeschooler. It will chronicle my mistakes,er.. adventures, as a new homeschooler. I hope you get a chuckle, but more importantly, I hope you learn from my experiences and chart your own course of adventure with less hassle than I.
Week one of homeschooling. My assumptions about how to bring school home were typical of most new homeschoolers: desk + textbooks + 8:00 a.m. = school
So what did I do? I bought a desk. A really hard, particle board desk with an equally hard chair. If I could have fit a large whiteboard or overhead projector in my bedroom where we did school, I'm sure I would have bought them too. I love all things visual, but more on that faulty presupposition later. For now, I'll just focus on the actual school area/learning environment.
We still don't "do school" at the kitchen table. I keep reading about how people do this in many homeschooling circles. I started thinking: that would mean my kitchen table, where we never eat but use as a staging area for mail, groceries and other items until they are put away, would have to actually be CLEANED OFF to do school! Which should now explain why we do school in my bedroom.
Positioned aforementioned hard desk facing the wall, of course. It never occurred to me to position it elsewhere, or even do away with the desk altogether and get a beanbag. Oh, how I would have LOVED to do school in a beanbag chair when I was a kid! Drug my young son out of bed promptly at 7:30 a.m., placed son in hard desk chair, handed him a textbook, and started "school". Can you feel the excitement building already? Why would anyone NOT want to homeschool? I would soon find out.
After a few weeks of inflicting academic torture on my child and myself in the name of homeschooling, I was ready to send him to the worst-rated inner-city school, convinced they could do better than I had been doing. After I regrouped, cried to some friends, and remembered the stress and financial burden of private school, I tried again. "Maybe it was just the curriculum I was using?" I thought. So, I ordered "better" curriculum. So much for avoiding the financial burden by homeschooling. I soon discovered I could spend as much in one month buying neato products through the numerous catalogs that landed in my mailbox than I spent in an entire year of private education.
After months of buying and trying curriculum than my son despised, I realized I had never thought about his learning style. As I researched and studied about homeschooling and resources available, I kept coming across articles and information regarding learning styles. I assumed his learning style was my own - wasn't everyone's? I knew I liked making lists, beautiful illustrations in books, neat columns, chalkboards, charts, presentations, and all things VISUAL. My son? Hated it all. Had he stayed in school longer I'm convinced he would have been labeled ADHD like many boys. Why? Because he is a kinesthetic learner.
What behaviors do kinesthetic learners do that drive teachers nuts? (most of which are visual by the way) Things like tapping their pencil on their hard desks or kicking their foot against the leg of their desk. (two more reasons beanbag chairs rock!) They might fiddle with papers or turn pages in books while you are talking. They don't do this to make you say, yet again, "Pay attention!" They do this to help them focus. Yes, it's true. Kinesthetic learners have to DO something while processing information in order to increase their ability to focus and learn.
So instead of fighting against this, I finally gave in and decided to make the most of my ACTIVE learner. The hardest part was convincing myself that he really could learn more effectively if I operated within his learning framework and didn't try to force my own upon him. Once I convinced myself, it was easy to think like a kinesthetic learner and ask myself: how would I want to learn?
Part 2, creating the kinesthetic (or visual, or auditory) learning environment next...
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