Learning About Child Learning

 by: Mary Joyce

Being an effective teacher one’s child begins first with knowing how you child learns. Getting a grasp on your child’s learning characteristics is essential to homeschooling success. What is your child’s learning ability levels? Motivation is also an important aspect. What motivates your child to learn? Knowing the pieces of your child’s learning style come together to make up the learning environment. A child’s learning activity is as diverse as each one’s personality. As you can see, a one size fits all approach isn’t going to be conducive to a dynamic learning environment.

In the beginning the best way to learn about how your child learns is to observe everything they do in their daily activities. Take notes, written or mental on how the child learns and approaches new learning situations. For instance, do they appear to learn more by touching and feeling, do they seem to learn more by drawing or expression?  Do they learn by watching or doing? Today there are many child development tools, books, and software available on various types of learning styles to you to get you going in the right direction. Do some online searches regarding child learning, learning activities, children’s learning tools, child learning websites…. That type of criteria. You’ll find much information on all types of learning.

An often little thought of aspect to children’s learning is what time of day does the child learn best. When is their peak learning times? This is particularly more in play with younger children.

Again all of this discussion and now research that you have done is circling back to creating an optimal learning environment for you and your child. Knowing how they learn. What motivates children to learn? When do they learn best? All of these come under the heading of learning style. It’s important to know how to break the areas down into specific knowledge for yourself to insure that you create that highly effective learning environment so the learning experience for both you and your child is a wonderful road filled with much joy and discovery!