I was just given this label for my child, literally in my lap yesterday morning. We're in the middle of VBS at our church and Noah's 2nd grade teacher had her child there. She gave me a huge file folder and it was really a blessing. So, now that I know this, what do I do? What materials would be best for him? Are there any good curriculums that focus on a kinesthetic child? So far I have bought: Apologia Science Astronomy ( i think this will be perfect for Noah) Saxon Math (his choice...hopefully we'll be OK here) Any opinions on the other subjects would be greatly appreciated.
Have you looked at Konos? I think they'd be great for a kinesthetic learner. www.konos.com They do unit studies with LOTS of hands-on projects. Saxon has a lot of great manipulatives that he will probably do great with. If it doesn't work out, I hear Math U See is also really good and helps visual and kinesthetic kids "see" the math. If he has a hard time sitting still while he's working, Wal-Mart has some REALLY big inflatable balls. Blow one up and let him sit on it while he is working. Some wiggly kids find it really helps them to be able to rock and bounce a little while the rest of their body has to be still. It might not help his handwriting much, but I think it would help his "listening ears."
Marylyn, this is a side-track but your post made me think of the teacher my dd had for 3rd and 4th grade. She is a sweetheart that I am still friends with. Anyway, we were talking one day about how some many of the students would fidget. She said that one day she had gotten ready to fuss with one of the kids and realized that she was sitting at her desk fidgeting with her own pencil!
Only suggestions: unit studies, lap books, experiments, building things, Apologia, Math U See, music/art, you may want to check out Christian Light, books on cd while he builds stuff, some Charlotte Mason methods, cut & paste language arts, nature walks & journal. I'll add more later...gotta run.
Kinesthetic is more than just being 'hands on'. I found it used to help with things like spelling or grammar to attach a movement to what I wanted a child to learn. ie verbs ~ verbs are doing words; jump up & down. We used to try & make letters with our bodies too. Tables chanted to movement ~ skipping, hopping, etc. I'm not kinesthetic at all so I wasn't all that good at coming up with ideas but when I did it really helped.
I'm sorry I don't have any advice.. I actually didn't know what you were talking about so I had to google it I do have to say I love Marylyn's idea with the ball.. my son can not sit still for 2 seconds (unless he is lucky enough to be playing a video game).. I'm thinking the ball may be of a help to him, I think I will try it.
Great suggstions. Madison is a Kisnetic learner and for a while we had a rolling desk chair, worked great but my feet kept getting ran over. I might have to try the big ball. Would love to know what is in the folders she gave you.
Great suggestions...many I use for my kinesthetic learner. My dd cannot read more than 3 chapters of a book without becomming bored and forgetting what she read. lol. So, after each chapter she reports to me either orally, written, or through drawings what she read. That helps her retain the information. Also...depending on the subject...try hopscotch. Set up the board with say....pictures. Then throw a die that has letters. The child has to jump to the pic that has the same beginning letter sound as the die. that is just an example but can be used in a number of ways. Spelling...cut out individual letters for each word. Then scramble the words and have your child put the letters in order. My dd really enjoyed that and her spelling grade improved tremendously. Also, keep in mind, these types of learners need frequent breaks. If they work too long they will get bored and start zoning. A break from math could be a computer math game. Or take a break to work on a lapbook...or to draw a picture of what you read. Even brainstorm about characters or historical figures...like how would so and so handle this or that. These learners need to engage all their senses to truly get a subject. This does not mean the child is not smart or anything...just a creative, inquisitive, and active person. Their brains are moving a million miles an hour. I have one like that and one that is an auditory learner. I am a mix of both and so is my dh. An auditory learner is a teacher's dream. However, a kinesthetic learner is a load of fun!
It sure doesn't mean they aren't smart. Noah was in the top 95% of his class last year. He's going into 3rd grade. Reading/comprehension was tested at an 8th grade level. Math, 5th grade level. I am totally going to get that ball at WalMart ASAP!!!!! Thank you all for the great info. Melissa, they did a full interest study. Honestly, I haven't poured through all of the folders yet but when I do I'll give you some idea of everything that was in there.
I have the same type of learner who just started 1st grade last week. Math we're using Singapore and Miquon. Singapore is quite visual as well and we've made it handson so it suits dd well. Science we're using BJU but will be ordering www.noeoscience.com as soon as we're through with the BJU. The BJU doesn't seem handson when you look at it, but I've made it so quite easily. Our language arts aren't really hands on but the lessons don't drag out too long for dd's attention span. I'm using Horizons phonics and reading, spelling power, and First Language Lessons. History is very handson- or we make it so lol, we're using Story of the World. For spelling we write our words in the air, use our bodies to make letters, have used toothpicks, painted them ect.
English/Language arts is the hardest for me to think about in kinesthetic terms. My k-learner is only a preschooler, so I'm interested in this thread as well. I read on some things with the Montessori school, such as cutting letters from sandpaper for preschoolers, that make a lot of kinesthetic sense, so that might be one resource is to read more about their methods for your son's age. My own 3rd grader is highly visual, and also auditory. He understands English just fine, but actually stopping to DO the work is like pulling teeth. What worked for him was to pull out either a c halk or dry erase board. We've also done some things with sidewalk chalk - if he has to write it, let him write it on something "fun". Also, it seems to me that maybe diagramming sentences will work for a kinesthetic learner as far as parts of speech and such go? Again, my 3rd grader is a visual person and this has been great for him.... Maybe you can bounce off of diagramming somehow though. We're using both manipulatives and computer games for math. We have this one game called "Math Workshop" that's really great! For reading with my little kinesthetic learner, he's been doing things like making the noise of each animal in Charlotte's Web as I say it. (When I say pig or Wilbur, he oinks. When I say sheep, he baas, and when I say goose, he honks, etc etc.) This has also worked with my oldest for certain things. We had a really hard time getting him to stop and clean his room for a long time. He would watch the tv instead. We would pick out certain words (when watching blue's clues, for instance, we'd pick words like "blue" and "clue" and "steve") and each time he would hear a specific word he was to perform a specific action. (When you hear the word "blue" pick up two toys. When you hear "clue" pick up three toys, etc etc.) Even maybe having him draw while you read TO him, or allowing him to underline or highlight key phrases in each paragraph as he goes along. (Actually, that's good - I might try it with mine too. LOL) A good idea might even be to have him read out loud, even reading each sentence more than one time and then going BACK through the story and reading it in its entirety. I'm brainstorming kind of myself right now. Hopefully that might spark something fo ryou, and I'll be keeping up with this thread too!
Kim, we used Miquon for math, also. At least, it was one of several that we used. The cuisenaire rods worked with other programs, too. The most kinesthetic program that we found for teaching grammar is "Winston Grammar." It uses different colored cards for the different parts of speech, and the child can "build" sentences with them. Ava Rose, I like your idea for hop-scotch! All the ideas shared here are so creative! I would park our 3-yr old "baby" beside her very active brother on the bottom step of a stairway and commence the spelling game of "Going to Grandma and Grandpa's House." I would pronounce a word for ds to spell, and if he got it right, they would both hop to the next step. Certain steps symbolized going through the towns along the way, and when we reached "Grandma's," we'd have a snack, and then hop back down the stairway with more spelling words. We also have a mini trampoline in the house, which is great for bouncing to in time to repeating math facts.
