Learning styles

[4kidsandadog]

Well, I must say I am JEALOUS!  My 10yo daughter is at a stage where asking her to participate in worship by singing (and she loves to sing, has a wonderful voice) is a drag for her. Actually listening to a sermon and writing things down would be tantamount to abuse.  Our preacher actually provides everyone with an outline to his sermon with places to fill in the blanks with key words and phrases.  We often ask her to do this and she acquiesces with great reluctance.

That is great, Jeff!  I would encourage him as much as possible!

Karen

[Jeff]

Ok, this is going to sound like a proud father yammering about his son.   That's what it is, basically  :D

My 9 year old is pretty typical during our morning assembly.  Minimal participation, says he's tired from Bible class, sits quietly, occasionally doodling in his notebook while waiting for church to end so he can get on to what he is really interested in --- lunch!

Today, however, I looked over and noticed that in addition to the doodles in his notebook, there were signficant phrases and words taken from the sermon that was being delivered at the time (great lesson on evangelism using Jonah as text.)  As I watched him, I was really impressed with how quickly he had key phrases written down... I struggled with this process in college!  He was continuing to doodle at the same time -- drawing boxes around some of the words and phrases, connecting others with arrows and lines.  Of course, there was no order to what he was doing... no sequence, outline, etc., but he was really getting some information down!  

After church I encouraged him about his new-found skill and showed the paper to my wife (she was at the end of the row and hadn't seen what had transpired.)  I had to be careful not to make too big of a deal about what I had witnessed  (I try real hard not to embarrass my children, but it happens anyway  :) )  I told him he was doing college level work just sitting in church!

I've done some reading in the past on auditory vs. visual vs. tactile learners so maybe that's why I found this so interesting.  My wife and I frequently talk about our children's learning styles and try to adapt our teaching to those strengths.  I guess I can just start lecturing to my youngest!!

[Jeff]

Well, before you get too jealous, maybe we better wait for next week and see how he does.  This same child fought with my wife about his \"reading time\" this evening, so let me quickly eliminate the idea that he is a perfect child.  He and my youngest daughter are both in the 3rd grade at our local public school and sometimes they come home pretty tired (especially on Mondays!)  Hopefully that's the reason for his resistance today...