I talk about the importance of  teaching to a child’s learning style all the time.  That it is one of the greatest advantages to homeschooling; that it makes all of the difference when a child is struggling with a specific concept; that the inability to do so is one of the reasons why our public schools are failing so miserably.

But this week, it was my eight year old who had to “preach” about learning styles.

I am an auditory learner.  Tell me something (when I am listening) and I will get it right away.  I can process that information; I can quickly problem solve; and I can use it in later conversations when necessary.

I don’t need a visual.  In fact, the new Microsoft Office drives me nuts because it is designed for visual learners and I just cannot navigate that system with the same ease that I could the old one.

So when I am in a hurry or when we have a time constraint on what we are studying, I tend to shift back into auditory mode.  In fact, just the other day I was working with my eight year old on math, trying to help her to understand basic pre-division concepts.  We had only a few more minutes before we had to head out for soccer so I was trying to get it done in as little time as possible.

She kept trying to draw out 30 objects and I kept trying to just get her to the answer.

“Amanda, just focus.  Listen to what I am saying.”

Her response:  “But Mom.  Drawing it helps me to understand it!”

Oops!  Talk about one of those moments when we hear our own words resounding in our heads.

Needless to say, I took a deep breath, pulled out the counting bears and counted out 30 of them.  We started by dividing them into 3 groups of 10, then into 10 groups of 3.  Suddenly, it all made sense and the answer to the problem was simple.

And we did all of that with only about two ”auditory” modes of explanation.

If you are finding yourself struggling with helping your kids to understand, step back and look.  Are you teaching in your own learning style or are you speaking their language?

It makes all the difference in the world.

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