The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias
The Four Combinations of Your Learning Style and How to Homeschool Better
I strongly connect and relate to this woman’s tale as she explains her experiences teaching in the classroom, feeling the frustration of trying to communicate and help students. While some moments were annoying, she realized those “annoyances” were actually different learning styles conflicting with her learning style. Ever feel like you are speaking to a wall with your child? Maybe you aren’t fully understanding one another. This book helps us as teachers and as people to understand better.
How do you Concentrate? Remember? Understand?
Learning Style – CR
Tell me what, not how
Learning Style – AR
Give me the opportunity to help others
Learning Style – CS
Be consistent and use common sense with me
Learning Style – AS
You must have specific goals when dealing with me
A bigger and broader understanding of how we are all smart in our own ways..
Observe
I spend a lot of time watching my children. We all observe in our own ways. Maybe it is when you are at the restaurant when that baby is screaming and the parents are shushing the child and feeling awkward. Or perhaps at the park when other kids are clamoring around.
We all observe people and some of us do it naturally and more in depth than others. The best way to begin learning about what personality type your child is by watching them and making a mental tally of what they do, how they react and their daily behaviors. Better yet, what were the steps that led them to that reaction?
Listen
We are told to listen a lot in life. As parents, we often tell our kids to “just listen” but there are many different types of listening. You may be speaking the same actual language but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the expression is communicated. The key is to listen to how your child words phrases and their body language.
Experiment
Life is a fluid motion and has a lot of give and take when it comes to kids. As you learn about your child and homeschool them, take different approaches to your child’s learning. What makes sense to you may not make sense to your child.
Focus
Every person has a goal, a rhythm and a pattern in life. It’s easy to get hung up on the thing the child doesn’t do. But focusing on what they are good at – music, math, analyzing, reading, writing etc. will make a much stronger foundation when trying to teach them anything.
Learn
As a homeschool parent, parent, or soon to be homeschooling family, you know that each child is so different from the other. Sometimes learning about how you learn will help you explain it better to your child. This can be tough somedays in the daily tasks because it means you have to understand yourself enough to know how to “change it up” and reach your child’s learning style. As I have said many times before, when you homeschool, you learn just as much if not more than the child.
What do these learning style letters mean?
| Concrete Sequential Child May: -Ask for a schedule -Be conventional –Factual -Need accuracy -Be reliable/dependable | Abstract Random Child May: -Sentimental –Sensitive -Compassionate -Idealistic -Flexible |
| Abstract Sequential Child May: -Write a list first/systematic -Ask for explanation -Be deliberate -Be logical first -See life objectively | Concrete Random Child May: -Quick on their feet -Curious/Adventurous -Solve problems themselves -Instinctive -Realistic |
The bottom line is…this is a fun read
How do we concentrate? Understand? Remember?
This author breaks down all the different learning styles and how we concentrate, understand and remember in a fun, easy to read format. There are little quizzes along the way and fun photos/visual descriptions to show how our brains think in many different ways.
A small section at the end describes learning style vs. learning disability. I can personally appreciate this section because she gives concrete and fun examples through stories about how the learning style can come through differently if you have ADD or another aspect to your learning disability. As a parent of a child who struggles to focus, I love this.
Another fun aspect of this quick read is that she always makes a point to show that every learning style is different and not a single one is wrong or worse than any other. The point is to understand eachother and make sense of the people around us. There are some parts of the book that she explains visual/kinesthetic learning which is another of our family favorites.