learning styles

Waldorf Method

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

What is Waldorf?

  • This is be a very brief overview
  • Similarish to Montessori- lots of overlap
    • Montessori begins formal lessons much younger
  • Developed by Austrian Rudolph Steiner over 100 years ago in Europe
  • Now spread around the world with homeschoolers and Waldorf schools
  • A “gentle” way of learning
  • Very tactile
    • Focuses on engaging head, heart, and hands
    • Big focus on practical life skills, the arts, and citizenship
    • Lots of creating of things like maps, mini-books, journals, illustrations, tactile math, etc
  • Focuses on using natural materials and engaging w/ nature whenever possible
    • Waldorf materials are largely wood, paper, and wool
    • Avoid plastic whenever possible
    • No technology or screens at all for younger children and very little for older
    • Lots of focus on the rhythms of the seasons
  • Go at the natural pace of each child vs forcing kids into a mold to meet x standard at x time
    • Encourages an “unhurried childhood”
    • No textbooks until 6th grade
    • Document learning in journals
    • Writing taught before reading
      • Like a way to communicate with art
  • Students work in blocks
    • Focus on one main subject at a time w/ up to 2 hours per day dedicated to that subject & stay with it for about 4 weeks at a time
  • Big focus on subjects public schools often drop
    • Art, music, playing instruments, crafts like knitting, drama, etc
    • Also teach things like breath work, relaxation techniques, mindful movement, self-care, etc.
  • Founded on the basis that they believe children go through 3 stages of development, each about 7 years
    • Birth-7 is all about:
      • Sensory development
      • Observing others and learning through doing
      • Play-based education
        • Not giving reading lessons or formal lessons yet
      • Lots of art, play, crafts, and learning to care for themselves and others
    • 7-14 years old focuses on:
      • Beginning of more “formal” lessons
      • Reading is taught in 2nd grade / around age 8
      • Lessons focus on engaging wonder, creativity, and feelings
      • Lots of fairy tales and beautiful stories
      • Study other cultures and biographies
      • Elementary years have a lot of storytelling, drama, rhythmic movement, visual arts, and music – daily
    • 14-21 education looks like:
      • Students are given more autonomy over their education w/ teachers acting more as guides
        • Encouraged to work w/ experts in the field they’re interested in studying

Remember- any journal can work- Waldorf emphasizes documenting learning in journals and diving into kids’ interests. They all fit with a Waldorf-inspired homeschool. These are simply some of the more “Waldorf-y” ones:

Want to see how to combine Waldorf with your Fun-Schooling? Watch here!

Is Fun-Schooling for You?

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Fun-Schooling wasn’t designed to work for every family.

So, who does it work for?

Who does it NOT work well for?

Instead of having to give it a try and discover it was a waste of time and money, let’s first get a few things out of the way.

1. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who love testing, grading and correcting their child’s schoolwork in order to make sure their child is standardized.

2. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who believe that education is all about discipline and perfection, all work and no play.

3. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who feel that children should not be allowed to follow their own interests but must study a formal curriculum designed by professionals. If you believe that your child will never be able to teach himself and needs to be taught through rigorous memorization of facts, maybe Fun-Schooling will be a disappointment to you.

4. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who want to play the roles of “teacher and student” rather than “parent and child”. If you want to teach your child every lesson and recreate school at home, maybe Fun-Schooling will not be a good match unless you and your child are both “friend learners or followers”.

5. Fun-Schooling is not usually a good match for parents who plan out every minute of every day to make sure the child stays on task. If giving your child freedom (balanced with responsibility) scares you, don’t Fun-School. You won’t be comfortable.

6. Fun-Schooling doesn’t work well for parents who love teacher’s keys and multiple choice workbooks with answers in the back. Our journals are very open ended and there are no answers keys or teacher’s guides. Why? Because the books are based on research and curiosity so one page in a Fun-Schooling Journal will be one-of-a-kind when a child completes the activities. For example the Journal may prompt them to choose their favorite extinct animal and write down four interesting things about it. Trust me. An answer key would not be helpful because your child’s answer is completely unpredictable.

7. Fun-Schooling is not for parents who do not appreciate creativity, imagination and fun. Seriously there are zillions of parents and teachers who work hard to keep schooling serious. If you are this kind of parent/teacher don’t waste your hard earned money and precious time on Thinking Tree books.

Was this helpful? Is Fun-Schooling for you? Click here to learn more about How to Flip to Fun-Schooling!

Sarah’s Mom Tips: Strategies for Different Learning Styles

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 4 Comments

Recently a mom asked this question:

How should I handle a child who doesn’t put forth much effort on the Fun-Schooling pages?

The truth is, he was just hacking his homeschooling and doing the minimum, which is what kids do when they want to move on to doing something they feel is more important. The problem is that kids all have a different learning style. We make Fun-Schooling journals for all the different styles. Let’s start off by talking about these, and what I call the Five Learning Languages.

There are some kids who are Creators. The kids who are Creators learn everything for one purpose: to create something. All their education has to revolve around creativity. That’s what they are motivated by. These kids will not do normal workbooks. They need things that are open-ended, that revolve around their passions and interests.

Then you have the kids who are Detectives, who get really deep into the one thing they are passionate about. They love research and are not interested in anything that you want to teach them. They are only interested in what they want to learn. They are very difficult to give a standard education to because they aren’t going to remember anything or make any effort to retain anything that doesn’t revolve around their interests.

Then we have the kids who are Explorers. These kids will not sit still. They can’t. They want to be going from place to place. They can give maybe 5-15 minutes of focused attention to some sort of lesson, or activity and then they need to switch. They won’t sit at a desk, doing workbooks, textbooks, or even online school that makes them sit for very long. I developed a lot of materials for this kind of kid. We call them the “active kids”.

Then, the next kind of learner is the Friend Learner. These are kids who are motivated to learn through social experiences. They do not want to sit by themselves and do anything. They want to be with somebody collaborating, bonding, talking, or doing a project or reading with someone. If you ask this kind of kid to do something alone, they are going to get bored and distracted and wander off to find somebody to play with. Sometimes pets help.

Finally, we have the classic students, the little scholars, and we call them the Followers because these kids just want to please the teacher, the boss, the authority, the leader, the parent. They will do everything you ask them to do really well, step by step. They don’t put their heart into it for the sake of learning, but more for the sake of making somebody proud. They really like grades and scores and tests and multiple choice and ways to just prove that they are good at something and worthy. They are really good at “in the box” type of schooling, but a lot of times they don’t tap into their own creativity and curiosity. (click Page 2 to continue reading)

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Discover Your Child’s Secret Learning Language with Legos!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 3 Comments

Your child doesn’t learn like other kids. He has to be on the go. She is always creating something new. He just wants to play… ALL THE TIME. She’s not interested in textbooks, but she likes computers. He is in his own world. She loves field trips and hates sitting still. She can’t stop talking. He daydreams. She doodles. She is perfect. He is perfect. They just have a different way of learning.

You may feel like your child is failing in school, when in reality he or she can’t learn well in the traditional educational environment! Some kids have to learn through creating, exploring, asking questions and by investigating. They can’t just sit still and learn quietly in a desk, in a classroom, or with a teacher! You may not know how to discover your child’s optimal learning environment. You may not understand your child’s learning style, but figuring out how your child learns is easier than you think! Just watch him or her PLAY! By watching your child plays with Legos you can discover a lot about your child’s learning style and learning language!

I’ve found that most kids have a dominant learning language. There are five types of learners. You can understand what your child’s learning language is by the way he or she plays with, cares for, and uses his or her Legos.

The FIVE Learning Languages (or Personalities) include: Followers, Friends, Explorers, Detectives and Creators

You can’t really learn about your child’s learning language by the way they approach school work, because most schoolwork is geared toward one type of learner, the Follower. I have found that Legos give kids freedom to be who they were meant to be, so you should be able to really see their true colors shine when they play with them, sort them, collect them and build with them.

Typical education methods usually push kids into a mold that wants to make them into a Follower. Many kids fight with these learning methods because they can’t understand or enjoy such a style of learning. Once you understand how your child naturally relates to learning, you can give them the right tools, the right education, and the most efficient help.

I will explain each of the learning languages that I have observed in homeschooled children, because I have ten children of my own, and have worked with thousands of homeschoolers who are gifted or have learning challenges over the past 10 years. If your child is in school, or your homeschooling methods have been used to make the child into a Follower, you may need to remember what they were like when they were 3 to 5 years old. It’s not a bad thing to be a Follower, if you are a Follower in your heart. Followers actually enjoy school, but if your child resists normal schoolwork, he might speak one of the other 4 learning languages.

I call it a learning language, because we often only understand our own language, or the one we grew up with. We are all parenting unique children with unique needs, and we need to seek to understand how each child learns best. Once we learn their language we can change the way we teach them and we will be able to see and appreciate their amazing abilities. (Click Page 2 below to continue reading)

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