Homeschool Curriculum Based on Learning Style
Homeschooling can be so much easier and so much more fun when we’re able to choose the right curriculum for our students! Years ago there wasn’t much available to homeschoolers as far as curriculum. We had to do the best we could with what was available. Now the opposite is true! There’s so much available that it can be hard to narrow down our options and figure out what curriculum to choose for a particular student. In fact, this article is all about choosing homeschool curriculum based on learning style.
The first thing you need to do is determine your child’s learning style. If you have a young child (preschool through middle elementary or possibly even upper elementary school), your child’s learning style may not yet be developed. Many students of younger ages enjoy learning by being active. This is called the kinesthetic learning style, and most young children fit here.
For information about determining your child’s learning style, click here.
As children get older, their learning styles become more pronounced. It’s at this point that you may be able to determine if your student learns best by kinesthetic, visual, or auditory input. Many children develop one favorite learning style but also do well with at least one other.
These articles will help you determine your child’s learning style and narrow down curriculum options for him or her. It’s important to keep in mind, though, that you know your child best. If you see a curriculum listed as one that might work well for an auditory learner, for example, but you look in greater detail at that curriculum and decide it might work well for your visual learner, give it a try! In fact, you’ll see that quite a few different curriculum options are on more than one list. (Do keep in mind, though, that you’re trying to determine what curriculum your child will best respond to and not what curriculum you yourself like best. It is important for the parent/teacher to like the curriculum too, but it’s more important that the child likes it and is able to learn in the way the information is presented.)
Also, as you look at the articles listed below, remember that most of the unit study and all-in-one curriculum suggestions are found in the article with curriculum suggestions for the kinesthetic learner (the first article listed below).
Mine are so vastly different. The oldest is such an auditory learner. He learns best by discussing, discussing, discussing. My youngest is a highly visual learner (he’s also on the spectrum). For him, Time4Learning was a huge win. SO thankful for an animated and fun curriculum like that because so many other things didn’t work at all. 🙁