COVID-19 has changed nearly every aspect of daily life, especially if you have children. With many schools currently opting out of in-person learning, the responsibility of teaching has fallen on you as a parent. This is a daunting task if you’re unfamiliar with the different learning styles each child exhibits. With seven different learning styles commonly observed, your children may require a specific approach to help them best learn the material provided. Utilize online tutoring and learning resources to help address your child’s needs and cater to their strengths in the classroom.
Embrace the help of an online tutor
Online tutoring services help you accurately address your child’s needs and allow you to better handle the school work mandated by your child’s educational institution. Whether your child is in kindergarten or high school, it always helps to have a professional tutor or tutoring service available to address any problem areas. One of the best tools to embrace during this COVID era of homeschooling is Hello Thinkster. Hello Thinkster is an online math tutoring service that strengthens your child’s math skills by using a variety of techniques. From having your child complete a math worksheet to encouraging new ways of thinking through the use of math games, Thinkster is a great learning program for children of all ages.
Your child may encompass the logical and mathematical learner style, which means they’ll have an easier time grasping these concepts. When you create your Thinkster account, have your child complete a brief skills assessment to help you determine whether this is their displayed learning style. If so, all you’ll need to do is set your child in front of the computer or hand them a tablet and allow them to complete word problems, test prep, and other related exercises with the supervision and encouragement of a math tutor. This plays to your child’s learning strengths and allows them to complete their school assignments with ease and confidence.
Be sure to focus on your child’s learning style
As you continue to home school, it’s best for you and your child if you focus on teaching in ways that align with their displayed learning style. Instead of the logical and mathematical learner style, your child may have tendencies more commonly attributed to the verbal learner, visual and spatial learner, or auditory and musical learner styles. If this is the case, your approach to lending assistance is going to vary. In addition to setting them up with an online math tutor through Hello Thinkster, find ways of playing to their learning strengths. This means for a verbal learner, you’ll need to engage with them by speaking through word problems and lesson plans. A verbal learner best absorbs knowledge when there is a combination of writing and speaking during lessons, as your child needs to be able to verbally discuss information in order for it to stick in their brain.
For a child with visual and spatial learning tendencies, you must include images, maps, and other visual learning aids to help them retain knowledge. If your child is completing a tutoring lesson on Thinkster, be sure to select lessons with a worksheet, images, and data maps. Conversely, if your child is an auditory and musical learner, it helps to make up a song they can sing to themselves to help learn valuable information. Create a clever song incorporating math skills learned in their daily tutoring lesson and teach the song to your child. This makes learning fun for both of you and helps them stay engaged.
Customize at-home lesson plans on your own
As long as your child is learning the lessons mandated by their school, the way you choose to assist them in their studies is entirely up to you. If your child is a physical learner, this means they’re going to be more apt to learn through a hands-on approach. Instead of simply having your child sit, listen, and take notes, come up with a fun game they can play to help them better learn the information. Use props, models, and a whiteboard with different colored markers and have them actively use these items to answer questions and discuss what they have learned.
Children who are social learners benefit from socialization in a classroom environment, which is severely limited when learning from home. To ensure you’re playing to your child’s strengths, try out role-playing techniques to engage with their social learning style. Pretend you’re a student and your child is the math tutor and have them teach you the lesson they just completed. And if your child is a solitary learner, be prepared to take a step back and allow them to complete their homework alone. Solitary learners prefer to learn and interpret information on their own. The best thing you can do is let your child know you’re available to help when needed and then allow them to complete assignments by themselves.