Parenting the tactile-kinaesthetic learner

We’ve recently evaluated our family’s learning styles. While there is a fairly balance between visual, auditory and tactile, I have not a tactile/kinaesthetic bone in my body, being strongly verbal-linguistic, and slightly visual. Goldilocks, on the other hand, is highly tactile, with very little verbal-auditory processing. Moreover, I am slightly tactile-defensive, meaning that I neither like to be touched, nor enjoy touching certain types of things (anything dirty or germ-ridden, for instance).

For Goldilocks especially, and slightly less so for Papa Bear and Red Riding Hood, that is how the learn and interact with the world.

Mom-de-Plume (DeeDee and Dexter’s Topical Writer Mom) is a lot like me, while her kids are a lot like mine, so we’re working on a curriculum for teaching gifted tactile-kinaesthetes. Well, I say we, but I mean her. I am an avid cheerleader at this stage! I may perhaps get involved in the design side in days to come. I’ll keep you posted.

In the mean time, this quote from Benjamin Franklin is becoming my mantra as I try to navigate new and uncharted territory:

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Advertisements