Guilt-Free Homeschooling

These tips will be helpful to active students in middle school, high school, college, or beyond, who need to motivate themselves and control their own learning environment. Some lessons are inherently kinesthetic; if the lesson has a kinesthetic component, do that first (don’t sit on an exercise ball while watching a video about running, when you can just go run). If you are struggling to find a kinesthetic application, try some of the following suggestions.

1. Run, bike, rollerblade, etc. before attempting lessons, so your brain will be running full-throttle and ready to handle information. Take a break during lessons or studying and get some physical exercise to wake up your brain. Repeat as often (and as hard) as necessary.
2. Stand, walk, pace, etc. to help you think through a tough problem. The exercise will keep your brain functioning fully and will provide another memory key.
3. Do push-ups over your book, dumbbell curls, toss and catch a baseball, shoot a basket, etc. for every point or fact you review. The exercise will keep your brain functioning fully and will provide another memory key.
4. Vary your body position and/or “seating” arrangement while reviewing material for a test. Lie back on pillows on your bed, lie on your stomach on the floor, sit cross-legged in the grass, climb up to the treehouse, etc. Use a swivel barstool or rocking chair or balance on an exercise ball or skateboard. The movements will keep your brain functioning fully and will provide another memory key.
5. Make *BIG* flashcards (“TV-game-show” size) that require arm movements to hold and shuffle, not just hands; they can also use print large enough to be seen from a distance while using a stationary bike, treadmill, etc. Use heavy-weight cardstock, poster board, cereal-box cardboard, etc.
6. Floorcloths! Use permanent markers to turn a discarded bed sheet or tablecloth into a very large, reusable diagram for graphing rectangular coordinates, plotting graphs, periodic table, skeletal anatomy, etc. Poker-chips or Post-It notes work well for marking points or labeling the diagram. Fold it up and store it away between uses!
7. Use a white shower curtain liner and wet-erase markers as a large, reusable, floorcloth-style whiteboard. In some situations, this could also be attached to a large wall for a vertical writing surface.
8. Consider alternative methods to written papers: video presentations, dramatic re-enactments, personal performances, etc.
9. Stand at an easel with easel pad or paper roll to draw out graphs, diagrams, etc. for review or to re-write notes. The larger size and vertical orientation are both beneficial kinesthetic learning methods.
10. Incorporate learning methods from the other 3 styles to improve your overall learning abilities.

For further help, visit these links:
Learning Styles v. It’s a Syndrome
“Kinesthetic Learning” topic (including all of this “Kinesthetic Learning Week” series)
“Learning Styles” topic

These tips will be helpful for parents of younger kinesthetic students, who need help learning how to learn.

1. Exercise first, before attempting lessons. Kinesthetic learners need to warm up their muscles to engage their brains.
2. Forget about sitting still. Letting him use a swivel chair, rocking chair, video-rocker, or knee-chair (remember those?) can allow movement and use of muscles while sitting. Standing at a table or counter will work better for written assignments than trying to keep an energetic child seated. Use the floor as a work surface, instead of a table. Let the child sit or kneel on the floor or lie on his tummy to read, write, or do any lesson. Mom can still use a chair, but a child on the floor will be constantly in motion: reaching, stretching, balancing, and otherwise keeping those big muscles in use and warmed up, and by extension keeping his brain fully alert.
3. Act out lessons, from buzzing like bees during a simple science lesson to role-playing Paul Revere by shouting “The British are coming!” to walking through a math word problem by pretending to be a train going 30 mph. Sometimes he needs to physically put himself into the lesson to mentally understand it. Precision and accuracy are not as important as improvisation and movement.
4. An exercise ball, balance board, trampoline (mini- or full-size), jumprope, or any other activity can be used while the child answers questions or practices oral facts, such as math or spelling. A simple discussion while standing at the chalkboard/whiteboard can be completely transformed with the addition of roller-skates to the child’s feet.
5. Extend your classroom to outdoors. Do lessons on the deck, practice spelling or math facts in the pool, use the treehouse for reading time or worksheets (or any lesson that won’t require Mom’s immediate help), or draw hopscotch grids on the sidewalk or driveway for a variation on facts practice.
6. Run relays as “thinking time” before answering questions. Use balls, jumpropes, and other sports equipment as relay checkpoints: answer a question, spell a word, or recite a math fact at each checkpoint. Let him do it and make time for active movement. Place separate groups of flashcards or manipulatives in different rooms and let the child run back and forth to find pieces as they are needed in the lesson.
7. Take a break to get the wiggles out. A kinesthetic learner starts to wiggle and move when his brain is beginning to shut down. Exercising and moving will wake it up again. To prevent him from wiggling or moving is to let his brain run out of gas.
8. Make manipulatives BIG. Using flashcards made from full-size sheets of cardstock (or cereal box cardboard) will make them “TV-game show” size and require whole arm movements instead of just finger movements. Using an assortment of sports balls to represent a math problem in the grass involves arm and leg muscles, instead of using just fingers for small manipulatives on the table.
9. Use chalk on the sidewalk/driveway or crayons/markers on large sheets of paper to encourage large muscle movements for writing, drawing, or problem-solving.
10. Give him experiences in the other 3 styles to improve his overall learning abilities.

For further help, visit these links:
Learning Styles v. It’s a Syndrome
“Kinesthetic Learning” topic (including all of this “Kinesthetic Learning Week” series)
“Learning Styles” topic