Homeschool Fiction

People learn in different ways. While I absolutely abhor labeling children, as a mother I’ve come to appreciate realizing that there are different EQUALLY VALUABLE ways of learning and being. All are correct, yet drastically different.

I’m a person who learns well from words. I read a lot and I absorb it. I’ve done quite well in a school environment where reading a lot is admired and encouraged. This made me appear smart. Yet, there is much more to learning than appearing smart in a school environment.

There are other people, like my youngest daughter, who learn well from physically doing things. She didn’t learn to read at age 3, like I did. Yet, that doesn’t mean she isn’t smart. She’s brilliant in a different and equally valuable way. Yet, were she in school (we’re an unschooling family), she might have been pestered in kindergarten and first grade. She would have been made to feel dumb, or at least “average” (which is highly frowned upon in a school environment). This would have been unfortunate since she truly is one of the most amazing and intelligent people I’ve ever met. She just doesn’t verbalize this brilliance to people she doesn’t know really really well.

Do you wonder how you and/or your children learn best? Check out the following various quizzes. I’ve listed them so you can go with the flow of who you are, not so you can shame yourself into being something else. There truly is no one right way to learn, nor one personality type that is superior. We are all unique and special in our own way! Celebrate this! Only take the quizzes if you feel they would help you gain insight. [If you like these quizzes, there are hundreds more out there!]

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Jung Typology Test); I’ve taken a variety of these tests over the past twenty years or so, and they always peg me the same – no matter how short or long the test, although the percentages have changed over the years. Overall, I find the assessments very accurate. Here’s more information about Myers-Briggs (check the links at the bottom to learn about the 16 different personality types).

• Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (Multiple Intelligence Test for Children); There are more ways to learn than just reading, hearing, and touching. Wow! According to Gardner, there are eight distinct intelligences and we all have different variations: Verbal-Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal/Extropersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic.

• Enneagram Tests and the Enneagram Test I like the most; I’ve found these to be the most difficult to accurately assess (the tests all have the same results for me, but they are different than I’d self defined). It’s fun to take a little time to think about your personality in relationship to the people around you. To me, this is the most important aspect of the Enneagram — figuring out how other people think and what motivates them to live the way they live.

• Highly Sensitive Person Self Test; Are you a “highly sensitive” person? This is very common amongst children and adults that have been formerly labeled ADD, ADHD, etc. Perhaps there really is nothing wrong with you!

Here are some great books for more information:

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Related Articles:

• What is YOUR Goal for Your Kids?
• Multiple Intelligences Simplified
• How to: Teach a Person to Have Fire in Their Belly
• “I could never Unschool because I like to learn and so do my kids.”
• You’d actually HAZE your kids?

By: Lisa