How to help a struggling reader

Learning Style vs. Learning Disabilities

I mentioned in a previous post, how when I was growing up I struggled with learning, particularly in reading and when someone from outside my immediate family would learn of this, their answer was always “That's because you're homeschooled” which was an outright lie that still infuriates me. Why? Because the people who say that know little about homeschooling and jump to conclusions.

Please do not get the idea that I'm mad as I'm typing this. It saddens me that people have been taught to think education can only happen one way, and that one way is through the school system. Why do homeschoolers have to prove to people that it works? It's been happening for ages actually. Shocked that it hasn't been only in the last 50 years? Research Thomas Edison's life. His mother taught him at home. And thanks to him we have the light bulb amongst other things.

First off, homeschooling is not the perfect solution. Neither, however, is the public school system. Both have failed miserably at times for certain people, in certain ways.

But let me introduce you to a book on my shelf. It's called “The Way They Learn” by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. I've been studying the book of late, though I haven't read it from cover to cover yet. It's put out by Focus on the Family, and I would encourage you that if you have a struggling child, who just isn't doing well in school, to get a hold of this book, find out what your child's learning style is, or if it's a disability, and go from there.

And yes, there is a difference between learning style and learning disabilities. A Disability can be in the form of dyslexia where words or letters appear backwards to the reader. Some see no breaks between words or have the line run off the page. This is not a disease, the brain works differently for them, but they are still very intelligent people.

There are many others, to which I know little to nothing about.

But here is something I do know from my own experience. Homeschooling is great for kids with different learning styles, because the school system does not always cater to their needs. In the home however, you can change your curriculum to suit your student. (And there is a growing amount of free resources on the web!)

Learning styles consist of

Reading and Writing

They take notes during lectures or reading

Often draw or doodle

Do well with hands on activities

Avid readers

Able to translate abstract concepts into words and essays

Visual

Like to see how things work.

Often recognize words by sight

Often remember faces but forget names

Often have well developed imaginations

Are easily distracted by movements or action in the room

Find it easy to learn through descriptions

Can be unaware of noise

Might remember pictures better than words

Auditory

Learn well with verbal instructions

Easy for them to learn by listening

Remember names better than faces

Enjoy dialogue, discussion and plays

Often work out a problem by talking it through

Love audio books

Kinesthetic

High energy levels

Think and learn best while moving

Often lose much of what is said

Have problems concentrating when asked to sit still

Do best when they can be involved

They like to do rather than listen or watch.

They may have a love to find out how things work (taking apart, putting together.)

Another way to look at the four learning styles is this way.

Concrete Sequential (CS)

hardworking

conventional

accurate

stable

dependable

consistent

factual

organized

Concrete Random (CR)

quick

intuitive

curious

realistic

creative

innovative

instinctive

adventurous

Abstract Sequential (AS)

analytical

objective

knowledgeable

thorough

structured

logical

deliberate

systematic

Abstract Random (AR)

sensitive

compassionate

perceptive

imaginative

idealistic

sentimental

spontaneous

flexible

I hope the above helps you categorize your own learning style, or that of your child's. And again, I highly recommend that book to help you further.

I do not know much about the different learning styles other than my own. So if your child is a Visual learner, here are some tips that can help you in teaching a struggling reader.

A visual learner may struggle with reading in the following ways.

-poor reading comprehension

-reads very slowly

-has trouble sounding out words

-may substitute for words

Poor reading comprehension is because, by the time they finish reading the paragraph or sentence, they put so much effort into getting each word right, that they lost the content. It's a lot of work to get it to process through the brain and out the mouth. Reading silently might be a better solution.

If they are reading out-loud to you, be sure to do the following.

Have a bookmark or ruler on hand.

Put the ruler under the line they are reading, blocking out the rest of the words below.

This breaks it down for them so it's not as overwhelming and they can concentrate on fewer words.

If they are having trouble sounding out words, try the following.

Using your finger, cover part of the word, breaking it up (in the proper place) so they can form the correct sounds and put the word together.

This may also help them stop substituting words.

Spell charts! Memorizing! Spelling tests! Word Flashcards!

I can't emphasize this one enough! Make a chart of the words they struggle with the most, or are using the most in an essay or story, and make sure they have that on hand to refer to as needed.

They need to memorize the spelling of the words they struggle with! This is where spelling tests and word flashcards can be helpful.

The computer can be very helpful for Visual learners. Spell check is a great way to help them learn where they are making mistakes, and how to correct them by finding the right word, or looking up definitions so they know if they have the right word, and they learn more about the words they are struggling with.

Writing!

Visual learners have good imaginations. They may have tons of stories in their brain they would love to tell, but because of their learning style, may have trouble getting it down on paper. However I would strongly encourage, that if they want to write, do everything possible to help them reach that goal.

My own personal story is unique in the sense that I wanted to write so bad, even though I could hardly read, that I set out to write a story, (which took 4 years to complete) but in the process of doing so, I learned to read!

Comic books!

Now I know there aren't a lot of good comic books out there. The graphic world of comic books can be horrific. But I found some oldies on-line for free. Old western ones can be downloaded off the archive.org site, and my brother, with the same learning style, loved reading these.

The reason visual learners love comic books, is for the pictures. There's more pictures than words. This makes it more fun to read. They don't get bogged down by long chapters and thick books.

Movies and audio books

Those with Visual learning probably love movies for obvious reasons. If they can learn by watching a movie, all the better. And their vivid imagination will love audio books, especially if they don't have to read them.

Read, Read, Read!

For someone who is struggling, they may not want to have much to do with books. In order to keep them interested and wanting to learn, it is important to read LOTS to them. Find the stories they like, and read!

And last of all, find a curriculum that works for visual learners. Look into “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” or the one I think is even better, “Teach your child to read in 20 easy lessons”

These ones are much more visual for them.

I hope this helps some Visual Learner out there! And please remember, encourage, encourage, encourage! They can't get enough praise in the things they do well!

S.L. Kliever

Craft for September

Playdough!

I don't have white flour in the house. I just don't. We're strictly Whole Wheat people, because it's just healthier.

So when it came to playdough, I had to go hunting for a recipe that didn't use white flour. We looked for a WW recipe, but only found one and it didn't look that great, but I kept seeing things like "Gluten-Free" and wondered what that was, and it turned out that was the very thing we were looking for! We had all the ingredients in our house except for the food colouring, and that we could buy easy.

Corn Starch Playdough!

1 Cup Baking Soda
1/2 C Corn Starch
3/4 C Water
Food Colouring

Place your baking soda and corn starch in a pot and mix well.
Turn on your heat to Medium.
Add the water.
following your food colouring instructions, add drops till you arrive at the colour desired.
Stir constantly, breaking up the lumps.
In less than 5 min, it will start to become solid.
Once it balls around, remove from heat, stir until it comes together.
Remove to waxpaper to cool.
Knead together.



And there you have it. This playdough is much softer than other kinds, which is kind of fun. I will say though, it dries on hands as you play with it, and feels very cornstarchy! STORE IN FRIDGE in a sealed container or ziplock.

I also read somewhere that if it dries out, all you have to do is re-heat it with a little water and you'll have playdough again!

Happy Crafting

S.L. Kliever

Preschool in progress! Part 1

Hello Again!

Come take a peek into our homeschool preschool! We have been going at it for 14 weeks now, (hard for me to believe!) and are doing a letter a week.

I recently read an article about regrets homeschool moms had, and things they would do different if they were to do it all over again. One thing stood out to me, and that was one mother's lament over not including more fun in school. So, that is one of my goals that I hope to be able to stick to. Learning doesn’t have to be a drudgery. 

So apart from focusing on one letter a week, I also selected some fun activities that we do during the week.

- Colour letter page (I found colouring pages and such on Pinterest, one for everyday)

- painting

- play-dough with play-dough mats. (I printed off colouring pages I thought would work well with play-dough, and then laminated them for mats.) (will post play-dough recipe on a future post.)

- lacing cards. (I printed off some pictures I liked, laminated them and hole punched them)

- magnetic toys (of any kind! this one is a puzzle I made from a free download I found on Pinterest.)

- preschool/kindergarten home workbooks from the Dollar Store

- stamping

-puzzles

 - learning everyday stuff (like, how to set a table with fun place-mats!)

- Bible stories in books and audio as well as lots of other story books.

...amongst other things. Lots of simple fun stuff that they can learn with and they don't even know they're learning.

The best part for me, was that most of it was free on-line, cheap at the Dollar Store, or stuff I have around the house.

I've looked into different methods of teaching alphabet letters/ sounds. I can testify that traditional methods do not always work. Each one of us has a different learning style. Traditional schooling only caters to one, maybe two of four learning styles. You can read more on this from a book Focus on the Family put out called "The Way They Learn" by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias.

Having grown up through homeschool, I often had people tell me, "You can't read because you're homeschooled" !!!!!!! Seriously??? These people are some of the most mislead about homeschooling. Struggling through school has nothing to do with public vis. homeschool.  Kids struggle regardless of what type of school they are in. The plus for homeschool is that the parents can up and change their method of teaching to cater to their child’s needs/learning style, where in the public school often what happens is struggling students fall behind or are just pushed through the system, often graduating with very poor reading/writing and other skills.

So, that all said, one of the reason's I choose to homeschool, is because I can teach my children in their learning style.

And...I as a mom get to have the fun of watching the light-bulb come on as they begin to grasp and learn!!! 

Stay posted for more updates on our homeschool adventures!

S.L. Kliever