Action4Canada - Discovering Learning & Teaching Styles

00:00:00.000 good morning good morning it's uh 10 a.m where i am it might be 11 12 1 or 2 or 2 30 maybe where

00:00:12.060 you live in canada but it's great to have you here my name is doris livingstone i'm the action for

00:00:18.760 canada homeschool lead and we've got a great session here we're going to be learning about

00:00:25.460 learning styles of our kids and teaching styles of um us as parents and how we interact with our

00:00:34.020 kids anyways this is an exciting moment we are going to um introduce and bring our speaker in

00:00:42.800 and uh lori go ahead yeah we're excited to have patty marler she is a government and media relations

00:00:50.760 representative for hlsda canada promoting and protecting homeschooling her advocacy work

00:00:57.220 has resulted in many post-secondary institutions creating specialized home education submit

00:01:03.240 admissions policies and has helped lay the foundation for the notification only option in

00:01:09.460 alberta in addition to her advocacy work patty provides direct support to home educating families

00:01:16.380 across canada and her passion and home education experience have made her well received at

00:01:22.100 conferences as a speaker across the country patty is passionate about helping homeschool parents

00:01:28.480 build a quality education and seeing home educated children flourish patty holds a bachelor of science

00:01:35.620 major in psychology and has worked as both social worker and a career counselor she is also the

00:01:42.640 co-author of nine career planning books previously patty was the president and government liaison of the

00:01:49.900 alberta home education association ahia and a founding board member of parents for choice in education

00:01:57.660 alberta patty and her husband jeff homeschooled their four children from kindergarten through grade 12

00:02:03.580 knowing each child and teaching to their way of learning required a variety of teaching methods and

00:02:09.980 education resources so welcome patty i'm excited to hear what you have to share with us today

00:02:15.580 oh thank you so much i'm so glad to to be here um and you know you were um uh talking about

00:02:24.640 socialization and i recently heard uh i think his name is michael knowles talk about socialization

00:02:32.140 and he said you know students um people used to say that socialization was one of the main

00:02:39.540 reasons people had concern about homeschooling uh but now it's the homeschooled students who are the

00:02:46.340 most socialized and the most prepared to be in the world and um to to work well and fit well within the

00:02:55.520 real world so that is off topic today um because we're talking about learning styles but i but i was

00:03:04.140 really impacted by that when i heard that recently um so yeah so thank you so much for inviting me to

00:03:13.420 be here today we are uh today talking about learning styles um i have some information uh prepared but

00:03:23.040 i'm gonna we're gonna share just some of our own personal stories as we go as well um homeschooling um

00:03:31.420 the learning style of your child and of you and of your family can really have an influence on your

00:03:38.540 approach to homeschooling so your educational method can impact your homeschool it can influence

00:03:47.300 your child's ease of learning their sense of accomplishment their peace the peace that you

00:03:53.740 have in your home and the enjoyment that you have with homeschooling ladies i'm not sure about

00:04:00.220 you guys but i know there have been times in my life where what we have been doing doesn't fit

00:04:07.700 with my you know one or several of my children's way of learning um and uh uh so um i i just realized i

00:04:20.740 jumped ahead here so it doesn't fit with my child's or um way of learning or our family's way of

00:04:27.760 learning and things just really don't go so well um oh have you guys found that in your homeschooling

00:04:38.220 as well i would imagine everybody would nod their head especially if they're new and it's their

00:04:47.360 third weekend or fourth weekend and they're going okay what's going on or even as they grow and develop

00:04:54.180 i've found that things change and you got to make adjustments yeah for sure and you know when we

00:05:01.940 started homeschooling you know the reason we we chose to homeschool was because i didn't want my

00:05:08.780 kids to fall between the cracks i i didn't want them to you know to not be able to learn i didn't want

00:05:15.120 them to be overlooked and sorry not be able to read i reading was really key for me uh so i didn't want

00:05:23.420 them to fall through the cracks so to be very honest when i started homeschooling it was a it was a

00:05:28.400 temporary thing um we were going to do it for a few years try it out just see and make sure that our kids

00:05:36.440 could um uh could read well um fast forward a few years and there was no way i was leaving homeschooling

00:05:46.100 uh the family benefits the uh benefits to being able to tailor the education to each child and their

00:05:54.400 way of learning uh the the ability uh for us to um uh to homeschool with god at the center of what we

00:06:03.620 did for uh us to be able to focus on uh our values to be able to um speak to speak to um our children

00:06:14.760 in their hearts to help them learn how to resolve conflicts all of these things became a very

00:06:21.780 significant component of why we homeschooled and god ended up you know you know how god plays these

00:06:28.860 little you know uh i won't say jokes because he doesn't play jokes on us but he he provides us with

00:06:37.180 opportunities to to giggle sometimes well one of my children my my goal was to make sure

00:06:44.740 my kids knew to read and one of my children had such struggles reading that it took us you know

00:06:52.740 years into into their homeschooling in order for us to be able to grasp you know the reading concept

00:06:59.740 which you know had me completely changing that approach to homeschool uh otherwise my child never

00:07:08.700 would have learned anything she never would have had a sense of accomplishment the peace in our home

00:07:13.980 would have been absolutely gone and we would not have enjoyed homeschooling if i had just stayed doing

00:07:19.760 things the way we were doing them before so um yeah so the the other component to that is

00:07:28.440 understanding our teaching preferences as well so i think in a very specific way and i know how i had

00:07:37.060 one child who thought very similar to me their learning style their way of thinking was so in line with

00:07:45.200 mine that i could just almost off the cuff make a make a comment and they could just very quickly be

00:07:52.800 tracking with me but we had other children where that did not happen and so my way of thinking i had to

00:08:01.580 adjust that in different situations to make sure that i was communicating with my children in a way

00:08:07.820 that accommodated their way of learning and not just my way of thinking

00:08:13.020 so um how does a child learn well um you know we're going to just take a look at a few different

00:08:24.280 learning styles just because i think it's important that we're aware of how different kids learn

00:08:30.900 um but it's important to know that it's not just one way you could have a visual learner who also

00:08:37.040 learns you know in several other ways so we don't want to limit our child but sometimes kids lean heavily

00:08:43.660 on one or two learning styles so some kids will learn visually they'll you know they'll they'll learn a lot

00:08:51.840 of seeing pictures or uh by looking at diagrams and images and they have this great spatial representation

00:08:59.760 of things um one thing that that we did with our kids that helped our visual learners a lot is that

00:09:08.660 whenever we traveled i would go to my uh to my local uh ama and i would grab four maps of wherever we were

00:09:18.460 going and i would give one to each of our children and they had to follow along where we were going if

00:09:26.540 you know a two-week vacation is or a one-week vacation or a two-day vacation is a wonderful opportunity to do

00:09:34.520 this where you follow along on a map where you go and you write uh the different interesting things that you

00:09:42.540 see or do along the way and this just this isn't just about vacationing this is about being able to

00:09:51.480 solidify the places that you've been to follow a map to be able to to write down um the different

00:09:59.720 experiences that you have and be able to locate them on the map that was something that i really loved

00:10:06.820 uh that was a visual sort of learning component uh for our kids i have to just interject here that

00:10:16.280 we did a trip back east we rented a motor home and headed west and uh this was just on the when we were

00:10:25.840 moving away from paper maps to gps and because it was a rental um they offered the gps program in

00:10:34.700 the rv and i denied it because i wanted my kids to learn how to use a paper map well my oldest took

00:10:42.380 it on and i said well whoever has the paper map gets to sit in the front because i have to hear what

00:10:48.060 you're saying and the other two were like i don't want to use a paper map they were like completely

00:10:54.560 overwhelmed and i realized at that and they were in their teenage years and i realized like even though

00:11:00.560 we don't need a paper map today so much although sometimes there's some there's value in laying it

00:11:06.040 on the table to see the big picture um what a skill still to learn because it it it's a skill you learn

00:11:12.980 you use for other things not just maps right and um anyways i love patty i love that idea of actually

00:11:21.180 going further and beyond that and writing things down because they're learning as they write they're

00:11:26.700 going to remember things and uh it could be uh one of their best trips ever and then they'll remember

00:11:33.920 their landmarks where you were driving yeah yeah yeah it's wonderful and and my uh our children um

00:11:42.080 just recently pulled out some of their maps and saw that highlighted route that we took and we were

00:11:47.920 we were all talking about that and then our our children now are uh they're all graduated we homeschooled

00:11:54.200 from kindergarten to grade 12 and and our youngest is uh 22 and the oldest is 31 but but those things

00:12:03.180 that we did those activities those you know some of those visual things that we did really have stuck

00:12:09.040 with them and and it's been really wonderful yeah okay so on to number two which is this is great

00:12:18.220 because it helps us think about our kids and the way that they think and the things we can do

00:12:22.800 so um a next oh and just to go back the visual uh the visual way of thinking uh charlotte mason has a

00:12:33.260 wonderful uh approach with a lot of visual learnings uh charlotte mason there's a big outdoor exploration

00:12:41.420 component nature drawing so seeing things is a big component of say that one style of of of teaching your

00:12:49.840 children so the next way that kids can learn is auditory they like to hear they like to uh listen

00:12:56.880 to podcasts they like to listen to lectures you know they like to have you talk about things have group

00:13:03.620 discussion um music and rhythm can be incorporated you know skip counting for learning um multiplication

00:13:12.180 tables all of my kids learn their multiplication tables to a rhyme to a rhythm and at times i actually

00:13:19.800 still hear them uh i i may not hear them but i see them humming in their heads so and they have let me

00:13:29.620 know at times that or recently that they still use um those rhythms to help them remember um certain

00:13:37.500 things we learn the books of the bible through you know a rhythm that i created so all my kids can

00:13:43.980 recite the books of the bible to to a rhythm so music and auditory processing uh can be a wonderful way to

00:13:52.760 learn but you know in the same way that it can be a wonderful way to learn sometimes it can be a barrier

00:13:58.460 as well um we i was a big reader to our children huge we read all the time i read novels to them

00:14:07.620 and i had one child who i would ask questions you know of what we read and they could not answer the

00:14:15.340 question you know just could not answer could not answer and finally said to me i cannot hear the things

00:14:22.900 that you are reading to me when you read to me like this or when i listen to an audio story it's too slow

00:14:30.700 and i get lost in the distraction of my own thoughts so i have to stop reading to this child and just give

00:14:39.180 them their own book to read and they could process it much better it was really difficult for me but it was

00:14:47.820 how they learned so you know we have to recognize that some of these can be skills but some of them

00:14:53.820 can be real challenges for our kids as well i love that dialogue like just even that you had that dialogue

00:15:01.020 with your child and they were self-aware enough to be able to to say it like that that's great

00:15:06.180 yeah

00:15:08.280 well another way that people use is you know pants um kinesthetic body movement you know and

00:15:19.620 and we often say that like boys are often much more kinesthetic uh some you know that's not to say that

00:15:28.840 girls aren't but you know very often boys can be very busy they need to touch things you know and

00:15:35.840 some of them you know i have both so some girls and some boys they had to touch things they had to

00:15:41.680 you know move uh i've heard of families i never did this one but who who teach their kids to read by

00:15:48.960 drawing in sand or drawing in cornstarch um you know very kinesthetic i had one child who while we read

00:15:58.420 they had to throw a ball against the wall you know the whole time quite distracting but it

00:16:05.760 it was what they did to you know to stay connected to stay engaged with what we were doing

00:16:13.120 um so you know and and they remembered but if they had to if that child had had to sit still while we

00:16:19.580 read they never would have been able to sit as long to hear as much to be able to incorporate as much

00:16:26.040 because they had to be moving while we were doing that reading yeah i had one of those

00:16:31.380 me too yeah so so lots of the key is to be able to adapt to some of these learning styles

00:16:41.400 verbal you know so the the child who didn't want to hear wanted to read you know wanted to write

00:16:47.820 wanted you know things in writing give me that i'll process it myself some some kids are just

00:16:55.000 verbal learners and and some are very logical thinkers as well using reasoning uh to learn

00:17:03.260 debate you know um and that's one thing that i really encourage families is um when your child

00:17:10.740 um you know maybe disagrees with you or questioning questions you these are really important skills

00:17:18.300 for you to help them build on some kids learn by debating their reasoning in their head

00:17:23.920 there some are just trying to be the devil's advocate to help to have you help them understand

00:17:30.440 why your position may be right and why another position may be wrong and they may be using these

00:17:37.440 argument or like it sometimes it's safer for us to call them debating skills uh so that they can

00:17:45.180 use their logic and their reasoning skills to grow and understand to be able to make associations for

00:17:52.960 themselves and for them to be able to build on their learning and understanding of things

00:17:59.180 um and then you know many kids uh will like to learn in in social settings um when our kids were older i

00:18:14.180 would get our kids together in groups and you know once a week we may study biology together we would

00:18:21.080 have a curriculum that we would use uh the kids would do most of the work at the home at their homes but

00:18:28.260 once a week you know the parents and kids would come into my home we we talk about a topic we'd look at

00:18:35.120 relevant youtubes you know we do experiments together then we'd snack and have popcorn and play in the

00:18:42.580 backyard for a while during our 15 minute break which often went longer um but you know it was it was a

00:18:52.100 way for for our kids to learn in groups and to be able to to be together and and do some group work

00:18:59.860 together um but not all kids like that not all kids learn well in groups some learn much better

00:19:08.640 on their own and get completely overwhelmed in group settings so even even when we did you know

00:19:16.100 say biology together that's you know when when you're learning you know grade 12 level biology

00:19:22.680 um and you do it as a group sometimes it's not the group that is the best part it's that scheduling

00:19:28.920 that keeps you committed to that program that's completely valuable so so some kids in those

00:19:37.540 groups still were solitary learners and didn't you know want to participate in those group activities

00:19:43.840 and that's okay you know that's the beauty of homeschooling is that they don't have to they can

00:19:49.580 learn the way that they want to so yeah so these are you know these are some individual learning

00:19:56.580 styles that i think it's important for us to think about and you know there are some kids who have um

00:20:05.040 uh you know exceptional uh exceptional abilities um perhaps they have dyslexia um and you know have a real

00:20:16.960 hard time thinking in in terms of words but are incredibly astute at um visualizing

00:20:26.080 and conceptualizing and conceptualizing and they can take like a flat image and in their head turn it

00:20:32.720 into a 3d picture um or they can manipulate um like mechanical parts and think about what it would look like

00:20:43.060 if you did something to to um you know made some sort of manipulation to it so when we um look at

00:20:52.560 those strengths of our kids then we're able to teach to those strengths instead of you know just

00:21:00.440 teaching the way you know everyone um perhaps in a brick and mortar school learns and missing out on

00:21:07.660 those unique opportunities and skills that our kids have um and that's the same with like auditory

00:21:15.020 processing challenges as well some kids you know may be able to hear but they may not you know they

00:21:21.480 may have to have things provided to them in a very structured organized manner in order for them to to

00:21:28.260 move on and if one piece is missing you know they may have to have that missing piece reintroduced in

00:21:35.180 order for them to move forward so understanding our kids can really you know i'm just gonna throw back

00:21:42.900 here oh too bad that takes so long but throw back here to that child's ease of learning their sense of

00:21:48.700 accomplishment the peace within your home when you're not having to argue with them because

00:21:53.140 they're enjoying what you're or understanding what you're doing and then just their enjoyment in

00:21:58.100 homeschooling too yeah it's definitely more exciting when um you you start uh tapping into

00:22:09.560 the different styles because uh i mean i was raised in the public school so i had to learn how to

00:22:17.980 understand this the different learning styles and out of frustration with one of my kids

00:22:24.900 i moved over to music and i'm a musician so i resonated with that and then like the songs were like all

00:22:35.160 about the alphabet and uh there were songs in the whole program and wow did she ever take off after

00:22:41.720 that so um and then i used it for all of the kids because they all in the background i just played these

00:22:49.400 songs and they're listening over and over it it's in there um and i also wanted to say like this was

00:22:56.220 pretty important to me in the beginning about why i chose to homeschool um i i couldn't see it at the

00:23:04.820 very young age that they were very different but as they turned six five six seven eight i'm going

00:23:10.960 wow they're really different and i was so grateful that um you know even then that was one of the

00:23:18.580 motivators for me to to make sure like you were saying patty i wanted my kids to learn how to read i

00:23:25.160 didn't want them to fall through the cracks and tailoring to their learning style was a game changer

00:23:30.560 that's one of the best parts of homeschooling isn't it that they're not in a classroom of 30

00:23:37.000 kids they're they're at the kitchen table they're you know like in the yard there we can cater to them

00:23:44.020 as much as we can that was a breakthrough for me too i had a kinesthetic learner that i i knew from day

00:23:50.540 one it was everything had to be a game everything had to be i had to figure out how to make everything

00:23:56.300 creative she needed to jump on it she needed to throw it she needed to yeah she got me she really

00:24:03.900 challenged my creative skills for sure yeah yeah and i think through those experiences is when we

00:24:11.460 started to realize our teaching style and anyways i'll let patty go into that because uh you've got

00:24:18.720 all that prepared for us yeah yeah doris i love though what you said about knowing your style as well

00:24:24.860 knowing our learning style is very important too because sometimes we don't even think about the way

00:24:31.780 that we learn and we just assume that everyone learns the way the way we learn and so when we

00:24:38.160 understand too that the way we learn uh and teach um you know may or may not work with our kids

00:24:47.880 and it's important for us to be able to adapt as well okay so the family learning style how do you

00:24:57.180 approach education you know with all of these things so i you know when i'm talking to to especially

00:25:03.460 you know a new family or a family who's you know wanting to change the way they do things because

00:25:10.040 things aren't quite working you know the first things that i'll say is you know figure out the way

00:25:15.860 your child um uh the way your child learns and then look at how you want to approach um education

00:25:25.660 with oops with your children there are so many educational methods that are available you know i have

00:25:33.100 some listed here and you're going to go but um they don't have to be overwhelming so what i suggest

00:25:41.740 is that uh families head over to homeschool.today and take the your homeschool quiz so this homeschool

00:25:54.060 quiz is going to have a whole list of questions here things like i want my child to be involved in

00:26:01.580 choosing what we learn and then you say yes that's important to me or well whatever um or no that is

00:26:09.000 absolutely not important to me and it goes through a list of about 20 questions or so and then based on

00:26:18.400 your answers for how you would like to approach um you know your family's learning it's going to pull

00:26:28.680 out a learning method one of these uh uh one of these learning methods is going to sort of pull up it out

00:26:38.420 in this case uh it was unit studies and it's going to give you some information about unit studies and

00:26:45.860 what it looks like to approach homeschooling from a unit study perspective um and and so that is so

00:26:54.660 wonderful but you might be going you know some of those questions i answered you know not important but

00:27:01.460 you know it kind of is important and i wasn't sure you know how to do that well the beauty of this is

00:27:08.440 just play it again you know at the bottom here you play it again you re-answer those questions and it's

00:27:15.480 going to give you a summary of another um method of home educating that may be good for you and so take

00:27:24.880 this sort of quiz a number of times see the various methods that are suggested for you and and and maybe

00:27:32.900 one of these will work um now if you provide completely different answers every time it's going to give

00:27:39.320 you you know uh completely different approaches what which um which are good to look at but you know when

00:27:46.720 you find a few or a couple or a few that are you know more most consistent with the way you think

00:27:52.880 i think it's going to be very valuable now still on the homeschool.today website um you know under

00:28:00.820 resources all of the educational methods are outlined here so you know charlotte mason a very nature uh

00:28:09.400 nature drawing approach classical where it's very um you know uh there's there's a lot of road there's

00:28:16.880 different levels of of approach in a classical approach very very good solid education you know

00:28:25.180 rigorous education very methodical you know you may be interested in an eclectic approach where

00:28:31.460 you know you take a this was sort of my way of doing things uh you take a little bit from charlotte

00:28:37.060 mason you take a little bit from classical you take a little bit from independent learning you

00:28:42.160 do a little bit of project based and you kind of mix together to to form your homeschool you know

00:28:48.700 all of these different ways of learning um when you click on each one you're going to get some

00:28:57.020 information about the learning style and you're going to get the strengths of it some things to

00:29:04.300 consider you know like if your family is you know you have you know a spouse who works um uh shift work

00:29:14.400 and you like to vacation a lot you know you're going to have to work really hard to fit in say a a a

00:29:22.120 classical approach i'm not saying it's not possible but these are things to consider you know and and then

00:29:28.640 find some resources for it so each method educational method is going to give you a breakdown somewhat

00:29:34.800 like this so you can take a look at them um yeah uh any thoughts from from you ladies on you know sort

00:29:44.720 of how you approached homeschooling um sorry one one other thing i'm jumping in after asking you but

00:29:52.600 there's one thought i have my approach to homeschooling you know was not consistent over

00:29:59.320 the uh the decades of homeschooling that we did either you know sometimes we may have taken more

00:30:06.480 of this approach sometimes mayor of this approach you know we did more of a classical approach when i

00:30:12.640 was wanting our kids to understand languages and look at latin and you know there and and high school

00:30:19.320 was a completely different approach and for each child high school was actually a completely different

00:30:25.160 approach so um you know you're not locked into one if you choose a method um but there are certain

00:30:33.780 subjects where it's good to remain consistent so like k-6 it's really good to remain consistent you

00:30:42.900 know when you're choosing a math program that's what we'll talk about a tiny bit a tiny bit later like

00:30:48.880 the math program um or and the english program but some of the other stuff can really be you know

00:30:55.120 manipulated more yeah i'm almost identical to what your journey has been um i actually when i discovered

00:31:04.720 the charlotte mason approach it actually almost was a relief um it made uh teaching a couple of my kids

00:31:14.080 a whole lot easier um and then of course i was eclectic it was a little bit of everything depending

00:31:19.660 on the subject sometimes we did unit studies sometimes it was with two kids sometimes it was with three

00:31:26.100 um and then like your kids as two patties they got older mine too like i found by about grade seven

00:31:35.080 they became almost self-directed they just knew the drill they went okay if i get up at whatever time

00:31:40.820 and i get all this done you mean i can be done by lunch instead of you know like come back because

00:31:47.220 as soon as i was on the phone this is before cell phones and we had a home business as soon as i was

00:31:52.920 on the phone the kids were gone they knew mom was going to be on the phone and they took off so

00:32:00.400 yeah we just figured it out you just figured out but they too learn after a while especially if they

00:32:07.580 started in the earliest years that uh in high school there is a little bit more um i think

00:32:14.240 consistency and diligence required uh depending on again the subject you know and and each child again

00:32:22.320 is different yeah it's really good i'm i'm very similar yeah it had to be a little more creative in the

00:32:30.360 in the younger years but as they got through high school it i i found that one of my children was

00:32:36.200 fairly self-directed by like about grade seven but then the other one was probably more like grade nine

00:32:41.320 or grade 10 like she just needed some more help so yeah it just varies with each child too and being

00:32:48.020 able to go okay well what worked with one child actually doesn't work with the other and and being

00:32:53.240 willing to to rethink some of our our teaching styles or our curriculum or okay well this worked

00:32:59.320 with uh you know with this kid but maybe not with this one so yeah very good i love that you've

00:33:05.700 outlined all of those two because it took me a lot of years to try to figure out what's charlotte

00:33:12.000 mason what's this what's this but it's okay it's okay to you know combine or to make adjustments as

00:33:20.420 we go i think that's really important you know and i think what you said there is really important

00:33:25.660 because sometimes people will look at stuff like this when they're starting homeschooling

00:33:30.420 research it and go okay this is the way i'm doing it but we forget that what we're doing how

00:33:36.600 we're doing changes and it is really good to come back to this stuff a couple years later and then a

00:33:41.960 couple years later and then a couple years later and revisit and go you know are there modifications i

00:33:47.560 can make based on where we are now that's going to make our homeschooling you know run smoother

00:33:53.300 um you know work better for our family yeah so okay so sort of the the last um kind of thought um it's

00:34:05.360 it's somewhat um somewhat different um but you know in your homeschool program development

00:34:13.600 you have your ways of of thinking but when you're developing your program i i think these things are

00:34:21.500 are really important i think it's important for you to decide what's most important to you

00:34:27.520 and for your child's academics and for their life so you need to choose because every child is going to

00:34:33.840 be different you have an exceptional needs child your academic goals for them are going to be different

00:34:39.940 than you have if you have an academically gifted child you're going to expect way more for that

00:34:47.040 academically gifted child than for a child who you know struggles to read um um

00:34:54.960 you know what i'm going to take that back you're going to have a different way of approaching it i had

00:35:03.540 very high goals for my child who had struggle who struggled to read she just had to do it in different

00:35:09.360 ways um okay and then teach from your worldview perspective you know your values you know your

00:35:16.720 beliefs make sure you teach from that worldview perspective and uh teach in ways that are important

00:35:25.340 that that develop your child's character what's most important for your child's development do you need

00:35:31.040 to focus this year on on uh commitment on focus on uh uh you know a value like um i was going to say

00:35:43.800 not lying but you know that's something we should always work on perhaps um but you know different

00:35:48.440 character traits and stuff like that and then finally there's a lot of information available on

00:35:54.400 that homeschool.today website there's a lot of workshops and at hslda we also have a lot of

00:36:01.680 uh workshops and support um and things available to families

00:36:06.740 that's great i love your hlsda the homeschool legal defense association i i became a member just before i

00:36:18.800 started homeschooling and didn't regret it one day all the way through i just love the

00:36:24.160 organization love supporting them yeah me too i was a member right from day one and uh always glad to

00:36:32.140 know they were there yeah well uh on that note i will um i will chat just a little bit about hslda

00:36:42.160 and what we do then um so uh hslda homeschool legal defense association um our mandate is uh

00:36:54.080 to enable empower and protect canada's homeschool success so we provide legal protection homeschool

00:37:01.520 support and advocacy um we we have a you know our lawyers say prevention is the key so a lot of legal

00:37:11.920 guidance is given right up front when when our members join a lot of information to help you make

00:37:18.560 sure that you have a solid protected homeschool right away you get this notes from hsl's legal team

00:37:25.680 that provides a lot of information on how to protect your homeschool and there's a protecting your homeschool

00:37:31.280 series we provide legal uh guidance uh so current and reliable information with helpful resources so for

00:37:39.680 example when education policies in in in in your province uh we notify families uh right away um we

00:37:48.800 provide current advice and assistance on notification or or registration or what's required in in your

00:37:56.720 province and provide links and fillable forms when when that's possible um we uh we talk about homeschool

00:38:05.280 documentation recommendations so uh in many provinces they're going to provinces they're going to say

00:38:11.040 you have to provide us with an evaluation well we provide recommendations on what that evaluation might

00:38:17.200 look like what your reporting might look like to uh to the legislators or the the bureaucrats who oversee

00:38:24.400 this um so uh so we help to provide um all of that so you know how much how little you know what what should i be doing

00:38:33.920 um when when families have homeschool challenges like for example police or child welfare um

00:38:41.760 investigations when there's medical interventions and you know communicating with health care providers

00:38:49.040 you know becomes tricky because they start asking you know uncomfortable questions about your homeschooling

00:38:54.400 um or you know when families have kids some who are in school and some who are not there can be social

00:39:00.400 social relations that um uh require you know advice from from a lawyer fostering adoption you know other

00:39:09.440 situations as an hslda member you have 24 7 access to uh to a lawyer in emergency situations and and the

00:39:18.160 lawyer will respond to your questions you know all for a fairly minimal uh a minimal fee you know you have

00:39:26.240 you have access to to to legal answers to your questions um and then non-legal services some people

00:39:34.480 have cra reviews or citizen applications or cpp or jury duty letters that they need that our lawyers can

00:39:42.640 provide um and then the support the support for homeschoolers we have expert homeschool support for

00:39:49.840 every stage of your homeschooling getting started preschool elementary high school post-secondary

00:39:56.240 just a little notice for everyone we're working on homeschool careers and colleges guides

00:40:02.800 that's going to be coming out very soon that's going to be very helpful for the high school and into

00:40:08.400 post-secondary years um we provide exceptional needs consultations curriculum consultations you have

00:40:15.600 access to liability insurance um and homeschool groups have access to um to information uh to to the

00:40:24.720 insurance um groups um can get rebates for families all sorts of things um and then in terms of

00:40:32.320 resources that you get there's a biannual um homeschool review magazine um you have access to our portal of

00:40:39.840 resources templates trans fillable transcripts student and teacher id cards um post-secondary guides uh record

00:40:48.800 keeping information we created a homeschool planner that uh you know with there's over 50 years of

00:40:56.720 homeschool experience and input from lawyers on this homeschool planner to make sure that you meet all

00:41:03.360 the needs uh for your province and the needs for your family um not in a you have to do way but in a this is

00:41:11.440 how you know we're going to help you plan your home school with all these different things in mind so

00:41:17.680 this is an incredible resource um and then our digital library we have over 2500 you know e and audio books

00:41:27.600 available uh to our members in our digital library so if you think about how much your books cost you

00:41:33.840 um you can save more than that much just in uh by using the digital library and then our homeschool

00:41:41.440 advocacy you know we have many people who just are members to say we know that you stand up for

00:41:47.440 homeschooling uh for a parent's um freedom to choose their educational method their curriculum their

00:41:53.920 evaluation choices where they teach and how they schedule in their peer associations um and we monitor

00:42:02.480 um laws we monitor um what's going on in the education world we build coalitions with other

00:42:10.160 like-minded organizations and we connect with media so that is what we do so yeah it's uh definitely

00:42:22.400 expanded and i love the whole library that uh that's pretty phenomenal to have that at your fingertips

00:42:29.120 yeah that wasn't there in my you know until uh the very later day latter days of my homeschooling and

00:42:39.760 i'm thinking man if i'd had access to all these books then you know there's so much money i could have

00:42:47.600 saved in purchasing my own resources and even just accessing them at your fingertips like i just love that

00:42:54.240 yeah yeah no it's a it's a tremendous resource and same with homeschool.today that website is loaded

00:43:02.160 and that is um for those listening and that is on our website both links are on our website if if you

00:43:07.680 ever need to go back and try and remember all this um and our videos are also recorded and usually uploaded by

00:43:18.240 the weekend and they're also on rumble so you can re-listen to all of this and um you can share these

00:43:24.880 videos with other people who uh uh may find this very um important and relevant to their lives and

00:43:31.920 helpful at this point um patty let's go back to talking about math yep yeah and your your thoughts

00:43:40.160 about math about math about math oh don't get me started i love math

00:43:50.560 math you know but most people don't or many people don't right so uh you know what i think math is one

00:43:57.360 of to be honest one of the easiest subjects uh to teach you can um there's so many good curriculum

00:44:06.160 um to use for math i do encourage you to uh perhaps stick with one jumping between math curriculum

00:44:14.080 homeschool math curriculum any math curriculum can be challenging because each curriculum is going to

00:44:20.160 approach things uh in a specific seek sequential way so some may approach like some approach

00:44:26.960 multiplication you know as early as say grade two or age seven somewhere in there whereas others may

00:44:32.880 even delay it until like the end of grade three or grade four so if you're switching math curriculum

00:44:38.960 you may miss out on some really important concepts because you're just jumping in at grade four

00:44:45.120 um but having said that you know people do change but but um just be aware of that when when you do it

00:44:52.480 there's a lot of math games you can do you know uh very natural approaches to math and then the high

00:44:59.600 high school math there's so many good correct good curriculum you can you can get into calculus you

00:45:07.440 know geometry you know a very advanced subjects um through self-directed um homeschool curriculum

00:45:16.560 that uh you know where students learn online um you know i'm good at math but i still didn't feel the

00:45:23.600 need to uh relearn how to do derivatives in calculus um so you know i would just you know use an online

00:45:31.440 program for that for my kids yeah and the online options are definitely there now um we we tapped into

00:45:39.840 that uh probably more than the senior high era for my oldest who wanted to take on the calculus classes

00:45:47.520 and uh that worked for her uh but that would have really done in my other kids so we didn't do it that

00:45:55.760 way for them and again that's all those years of learning your child's uh learning style um let's also

00:46:04.080 talk about um so you need to it's beneficial to understand your learn your child's learning style

00:46:11.120 also your teaching style before you go spending all this money on curriculum yeah what are your thoughts

00:46:20.960 about that yeah i i really i agree with you completely on that one you know i one one thing that really

00:46:28.400 concerns me is when people go on facebook and say what's the best math curriculum you know what's the

00:46:33.680 best english curriculum and i think ah that's you know a really dangerous way for a family to approach

00:46:40.640 that um because of those things that we've already talked about what if your child is you know

00:46:46.320 completely a manipulative you know kind of student who needs to touch things and all of a sudden they

00:46:51.840 have a workbook that they have to complete where there's where there's no color you know it's just

00:46:57.680 very rote you know how are they going to function in that um they probably will but they they could

00:47:04.720 function very better with a program that has math manipulatives that they could

00:47:09.280 manipulate that has color in the pages that's going to capture their attention and their you know

00:47:15.280 their sensory um uh way of learning so um you know and that's why we provide the curriculum consultations

00:47:24.160 as well you know um i always say figure out the way your your kid learns the way you want to teach and

00:47:31.600 then talk to a curriculum consultant because you can provide them with a lot of information that's going to

00:47:37.840 help them to help you choose something that's really good for for your child and i think with the just

00:47:45.200 going back to the math um mastery is really important like that's that's one of the biggest parts of of

00:47:51.920 homeschooling is that you don't have to move on until they understand sometimes you have to kind of come back to a

00:47:57.840 a certain um uh concept if they if their brains just aren't quite ready to receive it yet or you can go

00:48:05.520 at it from a different approach but but making sure they actually fully understand what they're learning

00:48:11.840 before moving on was so key for us because if if they only get like maybe 75 of their questions correct

00:48:19.760 that's 25 of their questions that they didn't understand so being able to to make sure that

00:48:26.400 they fully understand that before moving on will set them up for success yeah and um um

00:48:36.560 curriculum providers do do an excellent job um i i agree with with uh i'm trying to figure out how to say

00:48:46.800 this in an inoffensive way to curriculum providers i help my child learn to competency and then we move

00:48:54.560 on so um i also don't feel beholden to curriculum when when they provide a lot of opportunities to learn

00:49:05.040 via many many questions um if my child's learned a concept i'm you know moving on yeah absolutely that

00:49:14.320 actually ignited one of my daughters when i said okay well if you get a hundred percent in you know

00:49:19.840 this day's work of the new concept then you can go on to the next one and she flew after that

00:49:26.880 yeah yeah yeah yeah and i i find a lot of curriculums at least the one i used um

00:49:33.280 it usually gave four or five pages in within the unit and like you were saying well both of you were

00:49:40.240 saying is if they've mastered it on the first page and it was built up already in the previous unit or

00:49:49.920 units prior and now it's they really get it there was three or four pages i said you don't have to do

00:49:56.640 those if you want to you can but we can move on to the next one and they were excited because for them

00:50:03.840 it's it's also a sense of completion and success that they need to feel um i know as as teachers moms we

00:50:14.400 like to know that oh um because we covered the unit today i feel good i can check my box but that doesn't

00:50:24.560 mean the child mastered it and so when there's three or four pages of repetition it's there for a reason

00:50:33.840 but if you know the child gets it and they're almost bored it's okay to move on and um

00:50:42.720 and how do you learn that i guess i can only speak from my own experience is um

00:50:50.240 when they're when you're young when they're younger you have time to learn their uh learning style and it

00:50:58.880 may work for that one in the second one or the third one fourth whatever it it's like uh they

00:51:04.080 need more they need something else um but the beauty of it is and i this is going to be true for when

00:51:11.360 they're older is if they don't get it in a week if they don't get it in a month there was one time i went

00:51:17.920 okay she's just not ready this is way beyond her we're just going to sit here and we're just going to

00:51:25.760 whether it's math or something else we're just going to do this and stay here for a while because

00:51:31.600 there's something about her physiologically maybe it's just her development she's not ready

00:51:36.880 to take on this and so i either put it away for a month and we just get into something else and bring

00:51:43.840 that into our homeschool for a season a short season or seasonal the seasonal ones are fun

00:51:50.080 thanksgiving christmas easter you can work your homeschool themes and topics around those as well

00:51:59.920 um and then as she got older i went okay she's ready we can go back to where we were

00:52:05.280 and continue on and they've had a mental break too sometimes they're just taxed yeah and they cannot take

00:52:13.120 anything else in and i mean i do a lot of hindsight now all these years later i'm going oh nutrition was

00:52:21.840 a big part had i known that she wouldn't have had this brain fog after lunch you know it always happened

00:52:30.240 after lunch so those those are other things they're not just schooly things but these are things i've

00:52:38.480 learned over the years and so as parents and as moms you will learn how to do all that it all you have

00:52:46.640 time you've got you've got a whole week you got a whole month you got a whole year and then you get

00:52:51.600 another year after that my goal was as long as they're reading by the time they're 10 or something

00:52:57.040 you know you just set these big goals and then you break it down and then yeah just keep going yeah

00:53:04.080 there's more to homeschooling than just the academics yeah and not pushing your child to

00:53:09.920 frustration too because you know like i'm i'm saying 100 on your math well it might not be for that

00:53:16.320 child but but just being able to understand okay they're not ready for this or this isn't their thing

00:53:22.560 so maybe this is okay or just understanding your child and knowing when you need to switch things up

00:53:28.560 and when you need to take a break that's that's great and you know and kids will learn different

00:53:34.880 things at different speeds and at different levels i was having this conversation this weekend actually

00:53:39.600 where someone says well how do you know if they're a grade level well i'm their parent so i'm going to

00:53:43.760 have a pretty good idea where they are i mean i may i may need to look at curriculum to sort of see what

00:53:49.440 what grade level might be um but they said well what if they're behind in math and i'm like well you know in in a

00:53:58.000 a brick and mortar situation they would be jumped up to like grade six if they're um performing at a

00:54:05.600 grade four level but that doesn't mean that they understand the grade you know four and five information

00:54:12.000 it just means they're pushed up to grade six so i can teach as you guys are saying to a level of

00:54:18.320 competence and build and help them grow and and it may be at a faster pace or it may be at a slower pace but

00:54:25.840 it's at the right place for that child for that subject at that time yeah it's actually really fun

00:54:33.280 to see in the child because you can have them excel in i don't know let's say reading and they can be

00:54:43.600 miles ahead in reading but yet they don't want to do other parts and so that's okay you cater to their

00:54:53.040 reading you keep pushing them forward and then you still work on the hard stuff and you plot along it

00:54:59.200 eventually evens itself out and we're all wired that way even as adults we all excel in different things

00:55:07.120 and we're not very good at other things and you know i'm not a mathematician i never was i don't desire

00:55:14.480 to be but you know i love all the other things right and and i think of you know the bible verse

00:55:23.360 when god says some are hands some are feet you know well we all have to use our hands and our feet and

00:55:29.120 our eyes and our ears but some of us excel at being hands you know some of us excel at being feet and

00:55:36.400 doing you know things so while there's many things we have to know the areas that we excel at let's

00:55:44.080 highlight those and let those kids excel absolutely yeah yeah that's actually a really good point

00:55:53.840 um because sometimes we can get so fixated on the academics of something

00:55:58.800 um in the child and then they still need the groundwork for life they absolutely need to know

00:56:05.280 how to read they need to count and let me tell you when you start introducing money and how to save and

00:56:10.720 how to set up a bank account and uh you working and having a job oh if you have fifty dollars in your

00:56:18.960 bank account now you can have whatever you want to buy whoa suddenly math becomes very relevant

00:56:25.200 and you can teach that in grade two already like you know if you i don't know i mean like i take

00:56:34.800 my grandkids and i take bags of cans and bottles in bc we can take them to the bottle depot and get a refund

00:56:42.800 and that can add up fast and uh so i give them the choice do you want to go to the dollar store and

00:56:49.200 spend it on candy do you want to go to the dollar store and buy a toy or do you want to

00:56:54.800 do half and put the rest in your piggy bank or do you want to put all of it in your piggy bank

00:57:00.400 and they start to learn and realize oh uh if i have like they learn how to what a dime looks like

00:57:08.960 and a nickel and because a lot of times they think the nickel is worth more because it's bigger

00:57:12.880 it's really funny to watch actually um but those early math concepts you start talking about money

00:57:19.920 wow the world just kind of becomes more important and and you know we we had one child who overspent

00:57:27.760 uh when we went away somewhere and we we didn't realize till afterwards and then she owed us money

00:57:33.120 she was like six years old but she owed us money she owed us twenty dollars well do you know how many

00:57:38.880 bottles you have to collect um to to make up twenty dollars and how many you know five dollars is taken

00:57:46.960 out of your um uh your birthday money and stuff uh that lesson has lasted her her whole life to this

00:57:54.240 day where she's like i am never she she was like eight years old or no she it was it was during that

00:57:59.920 time so she was still sick she walked up to someone and she said i never want to be in debt again and i'm

00:58:06.480 like what a concept for a six-year-old to learn fabulous it really is well i think we're gonna

00:58:15.360 wrap things up because um we've done a uh lots of chatting here we've had some good interaction

00:58:22.720 we've had some good questions go through and um again if you are listening and you have any more

00:58:30.800 questions you can contact me at homeschooling and action for canada.ca and uh you can reach out to

00:58:38.720 hslda and become a member there as well um patty do you have any closing comments um

00:58:48.480 you know what we were talking about this earlier homeschooling is a great life uh doesn't mean

00:58:54.320 every day is a great day uh but homeschooling is a great life and i really encourage all of you and

00:58:59.680 your homeschooling journeys um your passions and just may god bless each of you um in in your journey

00:59:08.000 may you just lean on him and and go strong

Action4Canada - September 26, 2024

Discovering Learning & Teaching Styles

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