visual-spatial learning

So I was looking around at some other unschooling blogs yesterday and I found this wonderful site called Throwing Marshmallows. Her quote is really appropriate for unschooling- "Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he’s not interested it’s like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating.” - Anonymous.

She had some great information on visual-spatial learners. I recognized my Samuel in her description of her own son and was off taking the quiz she has listed to determine my own learning type. Turns out I am also a visual-spatial learner, which I suppose explains a lot. From what I have read about different learning types, I know that most people have a couple of ways to learn that are basic to them. This doesn't mean they can't learn things other ways. In fact, most adults have learned how to *learn* in many ways. The problem lies in how schools typically teach things to kids ONE way, mainly the left brained way, or through auditory-sequential learning. Which is fine if that is your primary way of learning. I managed just fine most of the time and adapted to this type of learning but boy do I remember some frustration. I also remember 4th grade as being fantastic and now I know it was because the teachers had us up and out and learning many different ways creatively and hands on. I suffered in Russian classes in college because they believed you had to learn the language by listening only and would not write the words on the board for me- the still unknown visual learner- to better understand. I didn't fully figure it out until I started birdwatching and lo and behold found it is easier for me to see the bird and identify it than by just hearing its song.

The long and short of it is that unschooling for me is partly about helping my kids understand how they learn things so they can better understand themselves and what they love to do, how they love to be. There is no one right way to do things and that includes learning.

Off to the library to get some more books about learning styles, oh and a couple of books on fairy tales too!