For years I have been in search of just the “right books” for our homeschool curriculum. I have been homeschooling for 11 years now. You would think that I had it all figured out. One can only wish.

I will say that over the last three years I have been quite happy with just about every book I have purchased for my children.

Maybe I am slow, but I had never really paid much attention to the articles I would come across from time to time regarding different learning styles. I knew each of my children were unique. I knew each of my children had different passions. But I never really stopped to think about how they learned differently.

I have one child who doesn’t seem bothered by anything, she reads whole novels in a hour, and she retains information like a sponge. She hated lapbooking the few times I tried doing them with her. She loves math and spends hours drawing, cross stitching, and reading.

I have another child who is very creative. She loves reading, creative writing, drawing, and music. She hates math and has a difficult time processing equations. She needs the room to be very quiet so she can concentrate because she is easily distracted.

My youngest child is only six and just now beginning to do regular school work, but as far as I can tell, she will be much like the first child I mentioned. She spends hours drawing detailed artwork, loves to paint and sketch in her nature journal, loves to sit down and read aloud to me.

I have another child who is fascinated by nature – anything to do with the living world around her. She collects bugs, and toads, and mysterious seeds like other people collect stamps 0r figurines. She hates handwriting, likes to draw, but never takes her time and she just cannot sit still for any length of time. She hates having to sit down and work on phonics because it is “soooo borning!” Yet, she is a whiz at math.  She loves any kind of adventure such as camping, obstacle courses, and roller coasters. She likes “action!”

This child is a Kinesthetic Learner. You can read more about this learning style here. She loves lapbooking but can’t stand cutting stuff out. Instead of having her cut and paste all of the mini books and pockets, etc. I am now doing it for her! Talk about a freeing experience! She has for the first time enjoyed making a lapbook! Our first lapbook that I cut out for her was on Owls. Like I said earlier, she loves anything to do with nature. She loved the Owl Study that I found over at Lapbook Lessons. We are now working on a study of Australia and will be completing a lapbook for that unit as well. One thing that really help her focus is to take frequent breaks. She just can’t sit still for longer than 10 minutes at a time. And that’s okay!

I am on the hunt for great products to help me teach my Kinesthetic Learner. Do you have any suggestions?