Learning Styles Seminar

I attended a Learning Styles seminar for parents last Friday, held by TMA Homeschool (mostly for those enrolled with them). The turnout was really huge and it was super great to see at least 15 kids brought by their parents who were homeschooled and doing their schoolwork there and then. Certainly one of the advantages of homeschooling. And talking to the parents who are homeschooling couldn't help but also make me look forward to the time i'd be doing the same.

Nobody said there weren't struggles, but they also all really like it. And those who had kids attending traditional schools all say their kids prefer their current setup. :)

Anyway, here are salient points that the speaker Ms. Maria Luisa Adviento (professor of Multiple Inteliggences in Ateneo) imparted:

~ There are many learning styles and there is usually one or two that works best for each person
~ Before we can be sensitive to our child's learning styles, we have to know our own first so we we can separate it from our child's
~ Recognize your child's strengths and interests first before exposing them to other opportunities or before developing their other learning styles
~ The important thing is for your child to learn how to learn, so that they would enjoy doing so even after growing up
~ Each learning style has age-appropriate strategies (e.g. don't explain in paragraphs to a verbal toddler or pre-schooler)
~ Suspend your expectations and let your child tell you how he wants to learn
~ Your house is either a museum or a learning center, you decide
~ Early on, separate your own opinions from your child's
~ We will never be special in God's eyes if we insist on being like everybody else
~ Our child/children do not stress us. It is our desire to control them that stresses us.

It was only now that I made the connection why sign language worked for my son. He seems to be physical, verbal and auditory generally (while I am solitary, social and verbal). So now I know that i really have to be creative with our play and that he'd probably learn more if we learn new things doing physical stuff (like counting steps instead of pictures).

The really amazing thing for me about this is the fact that somehow, you already know these things about you or your child... but certain tools can help you really understand things enough for you to do something about them.