Are you struggling with teaching methods in your homeschool classroom? Knowing how your homeschool students learn, can make it easier for you as a homeschool parent to teach them. There are two primary ways in which the human brain learns.
The one that we are most familiar with and one that as a homeschool teacher you are most likely to use is the Focused Mode. This is where the homeschool student pays attention to what you are saying and learns from that focus. It works well for common tasks that they need to repeat time and again. The whole thought becomes like a well travelled road in the brain and the homeschool student can remember what has been taught easily. As long as he has been paying attention and focussing on what has been taught.
What then happens in the Diffused Mode of learning? Here the homeschool student is allowed to look at the big picture after being introduced to some basic concepts. The homeschooling parent simply facilitates the student in areas where he hits a speed bumper. However the idea is for the student to think about the topic being learnt on his own. He figures out how things work, and if he can’t he creates and tests theories about this.This encourages the student to follow up on different aspects of the topic that interest him, ones which you may not have even included in your original lesson plan.
The Focused Mode is like having a fixed spotlight which can not be moved. It focuses only on the single object in the light beam and that is about all the student can pay attention to and learn. With the Diffused Mode, think about a hand held flash light. It will have a narrow beam of light which illuminates just a small area ahead for the student. However the student can move that light in any direction he wishes to go. Ideally a combination of both learning modes should be used in the homeschool classroom to give you a chance to understand what really works best with your student.
