And why it matters.

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As homeschoolers, we are quick to embrace the idea that there is no “one size fits all” approach to education. Our homeschool circles are known for their variety in approach, topics, resources, environment and even structure of school day. And all of these things are wonderful and freeing! BUT, from personal experience and observation, we are missing variety in one area – building systems and routines based on the child’s learning style.

Take a trip with me back to the summer, scrolling Pinterest, Instagram, blogs and curriculum websites, looking for the perfect curriculum for the upcoming school year. What was it that spoke to you? Curriculum with beautiful covers? Topics that made you say, “Ooooh!”? Short, ready-made lesson plans? If you’re like me, you were probably instantly drawn to the things that would have fit your own learning style when you were a student (which is probably still the same learning style now). And this is great, as long as each of your children has the same learning style and interests as you do. (As an aside, if you have multiple children who all have the same learning style, please drop your notes of wisdom in the comments below. How did you do that?!)

I have fallen and may continue to fall into this trap of picking curriculum that is perfect for me. That’s not to say that the curriculum shouldn’t be a good fit for both student and teacher; but I think sometimes we may overlook the needs of the student to fit what would serve us best as the teacher. Then, mid-year, we hate our homeschools. Everyone is frustrated. No one is excited to learn. Even this once loved, beautiful, easy, enriching curriculum that used to thrill us has turned into something we absolutely dread. And if we are dreading it, you know our kids are dreading it too.

So how do we pivot? Do we buy another alluring curriculum and switch things up mid-year? Do we press on and trudge through the now-awful curriculum? Do we throw our hands up, decide homeschooling is not for us and research local brick and mortar schools?

Understanding Learning Styles

Before making any rash decisions, we need to look at the facts. Our children are unique individuals with their own interests and learning styles. Before we haphazardly choose something new for them, we need to take these into account. Maybe you already know your child’s learning style – great! You can skip this entire section. But if you have no idea what learning styles are, then keep on reading.

When I was in school, learning styles were broken into 4 main types. Now though, it seems that learning styles have been broken into 7 main categories. It’s important to understand that your child(ren) may fall into more than one category. Don’t try to box them in to only one learning style if it appears that they may benefit from multiple styles.

1. Visual Learners

As the name suggests, these learners do best with visual aids like pictures, diagrams, maps, and illustrations. Students in this category may often draw their own pictures and diagrams to help them better retain information. Venn diagrams, mind maps, flow charts, color coded notes, infographics, and visual demonstrations are going to be their preferred form of learning and categorizing information. They may also love to read, keep neat notes, and benefit from flash cards.

Visual learners may struggle with noise distractions and audio learning (audio books or lectures without textbooks and presentations). They may also be particular about supplies. (Black ink for history notes, yellow highlights for dates, green folder for science, etc.) Depending on their age and maturity, it may be difficult for them to continue learning if they have the “wrong” supplies at hand.

2. Auditory/Aural Learners

Auditory learners learn best through spoken language, both words and songs. These learners may prefer audiobooks, podcasts, and spoken lecture rather than a traditional textbook. Many auditory learners will also consider note taking to be unnecessary (which can be frustrating to the instructor, as it may seem that the student is not paying attention). Auditory learners may study simply by repeating facts out loud and may not benefit from traditional flashcards. Auditory learners may also do well in group discussions and debates, as they are more keen to express themselves verbally compared to visual learners.

Like visual learners, they may struggle with being distracted by outside noises. They may also struggle to retain information from independent reading projects (like book reports) unless they are able to use an audiobook or other audio source.

3. Reading and Writing Learners

These students are unique from visual learners in that they may not necessarily learn from graphics and charts. Instead, these students would prefer to read only text; additional imaging is not needed for them to grasp most concepts. They tend to be prolific readers, completing required reading assignments with ease. These students are often naturally capable writers, and as such they may take lengthy notes and study simply by re-reading these notes. Writing assignments are met with enthusiasm, especially those that are paired with text to read (book reports or article responses for example).

Reading and Writing learners may struggle in learning environments that rely heavily on demonstration, such as lab heavy science courses or learning through documentaries and debates. They may also have difficulty with oral presentations, specifically those where a pre-written speech cannot be read.

4. Kinesthetic (Tactile) Learners

Kinesthetic learners learn by doing. The more senses involved, the more likely they are to retain information. They thrive in lab demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and real-world learning like apprenticeships. Kinesthetic learners may struggle to sit still and retain information through long lectures. They study best through interaction, be it re-inacting a scene, playing a game, or completing a project. Visual graphics like those used by visual learners may benefit kinesthetic learners too, especially if they have the opportunity to create the visuals themselves. It should be noted that experts believe that only 5-10% of the population are truly kinesthetic learners, making it the rarest of the 7 styles.

Kinesthetic learners will tend to struggle in most traditional learning environments, which are not geared towards heavy student activity in the classroom. As a homeschooling parent, you can still follow a written curriculum and textbook, but you must be prepared to supplement with hands on learning as often as possible.

5. Logical Learners

This was a new learning style to me, as the VARK learning styles were the only ones I learned in college education courses. Logical learners tend to be very analytical. They look for patterns to connect pieces of information that may seem random to others. Logical learners may rely on acronyms, number patterns and alliteration and typically do well in memorizing facts, statistics and problem solving.

Logical learners like order and structure in their learning environment and may struggle to work in unpredictable environments. They may also struggle with open-ended questions or questions that are open to interpretation.

6. Social Learners

I like to think that all students fall into either this category or the next one, solitary learners. Think of them as a learning environment or learning experience to be paired with one of the other 5 styles. Social learners do well in groups, be it group discussions, group projects, group quizzes, and the like. This can be a difficult environment for homeschoolers to create but consider using group subjects to create a “class” with all the siblings, outsourcing subjects to things like co-ops and online classes. If homeschooling an only child with no ability to outsource classes, consider bringing older family members in to create a teamwork environment. A video presentation created with dad, a round of interviews with ‘x’ number of family members, book report discussions at the family dinner table, etc.

7. Solitary Learners

Opposite to social learners are solitary learners. Again, this is more about a learning environment. Solitary learners would rather learn by themselves. They are self-motivated and may struggle to work in group environments. Traditional school assignments like independent book reports, research papers and projects are a great choice for solitary learners.

Uncovering Your Child’s Learning Style(s)

As you read through some of these learning styles, you may have thought, “Wow! That’s the one! This perfectly describes my child.” Or you may feel that your child falls between 2 styles. If so, then hooray! You’ve uncovered your child’s learning style. You can now begin to understand why certain subjects or tasks frustrate your child.

If you read those and still have no clue where your child lands, I would encourage you to spend one week trying tasks from each of the learning styles. Ask your student what their favorite assignments were and why. Sometimes we don’t know simply because we do not ask. You should notice at least one learning style that definitely did not fit your child at the end of the first week. Take that style out of the list of options and repeat this little “experiment” the second week. Again, ask your child what they enjoyed most about their assignments this week and see if they tend toward one or two of the learning styles.

Education isn’t about cramming information into your child’s head. It’s about creating a love for learning and uncovering strategies that will help them become life-long learners. You cannot teach them everything they will ever need to know. But you can teach them how to learn.

Your Children are Still Unique

After you have discovered your child’s learning style, don’t forget that they are still a unique individual – even if they have a learning style similar to yours. I’ll give a personal example here; both my oldest daughter and I are visual learners. This is something that was very evident to me as early as pre-school. I noticed that she struggles with noise distractions and “wrong” supplies though, and I do not struggle with these things. Watching her struggle with these puzzled me for a long time until I did a deeper dive into the strengths and struggles of the different learning styles. I learned that I am visual/logical/solitary and she is visual/social. So, even though we share the same primary learning style, everything else about our learning styles are different. Now I know that for independent work, she needs to be alone in a space with limited distractions. And she is going to need a particular set of supplies to succeed. (This is something that can and should be worked on; real life won’t always have quiet spaces and a yellow highlighter. But she’s only 6. We have a long time to work on overcoming this obstacle.)

Making a Plan that Works

I know what you’re thinking. “Now that I know what my child’s strengths are, I can create a custom learning plan and environment fit for them.” But please, please, please do NOT do this. One day, your child will be an adult and may have to work in environments that they get no say over. Creating the perfect environment so that they never struggle at home is not doing them any favors for the future. Instead, here’s what I recommend.

Make a list of your student’s absolute favorite subjects. These are the things they are naturally drawn to; where they’d spend all of their free time if they could. These are the subjects to hit with a variety of assignments from different learning styles. Why? Because your child loves the subject and will be more willing to overcome any obstacles in their way to continue learning in the subject. These are great opportunities to teach them how to adapt when information is given to them in a less-than-ideal format. Teach them how to take that information and turn it into something that better suits or “clicks” with them.

Next on the list, add your child’s struggle subjects. Go over these with your student. Explain that everyone has subjects and topics that they struggle with, so this is not a conversation meant to bring them shame or frustration. If you have a disliked subject from your school days, share that with them. (I personally hate Chemistry, but here I am as a homeschooling mom knowing that Chemistry is in my future at least two more times.) Go over these subjects with your student and see if you can get to the bottom of why these are so difficult. Is it hard? Is it boring? These are the subjects that you want to tailor for a time to fit their learning style, because there isn’t any self-motivation propelling them to get beyond the learning obstacles.

Splitting the subjects in this way creates a balance for your student. They need to be exposed to data and projects outside of their comfort zone. They need to know how to both work independently and work in groups. But removing barriers in the struggle subjects may give the encouragement that they need to keep moving forward. And who knows, you might find that their struggle subject this year becomes a favorite subject next year. Because of this your plan will need to be adjusted every year and maybe adjusted at the half-way point each year.

So that curriculum you bought may not be the problem. You might be able to make a few changes to it to better fit your student. Or the curriculum could be the entire problem if it is dealing with a struggle subject that is entirely outside of your student’s learning style and is not easily adapted. But now, instead of randomly ordering curriculum and just hoping for the best, you have a better idea of what your child needs. Skip the curriculum that speaks to you and go instead for the one that speaks to your child.

Conclusion

Your child is unique, so your approach to homeschooling needs to be unique too. And what worked for one child may not work for another. We need to be open and flexible to create happy learning environments, and in turn have happy homeschools.

I wish you all the best in your homeschool journey! Enjoy it, because it won’t last forever. Happy homeschooling!