Learning styles and structure

Okay, here's the question of the day: How do you structure your "school time" and what is your child's learning style? If you don't have a child, then what is YOUR learning style and structure? I know not all of us homeschool, but all of us DO indeed teach our children, so the question still applies.

For our family, I prefer working on a schedule. That's not to say that I'm usually successful at it, though. I just find that we get more done when we have a general time frame to work by. The kids know what to expect and I don't worry all day about when I'm going to get other necessary things done. Our plan went much better before #4 was born. :-) That's okay... he's certainly worth every interruption!!

As far as learning styles, Isabelle is like me. She could read books and do worksheets all day. We are seat-learners, I guess you could say. Ethan, on the other hand, prefers to work with his hands. He needs visual aids, too. The more reinforcement the better, and learning better be fun or he's not going to pay much attention. He's getting better at doing some of the necessary writing, but it's not his favorite by any means. At first I struggled with not having as many papers in hand for him at the end of the day. Silly, I know. We do a lot of science, history, etc orally and use our maps, and so forth. I'm all for handwriting practice, but I'm learning that I don't need a paper for everything he does!

Trevor wants to be loved on all the time. He wants to be in my lap, or touching my hair, or crawling over my back. If he's physically on us, then he's paying attention. At first I thought this drive to be near us must stem from him needed more one-on-one time. Maybe that is the case at times, but it seems like his attention hole is a bottomless pit. It's a black hole. He just wants us ALL the time. If I bend over to get something, you can be sure there is a monkey ready to latch on my back! Sometimes that drives me a little nuts.

I could go on and on about what we do with our day, who likes which subject best, and how we do our experiments... but I will save that for another survey!
Signing off!

another Survey!! I was gonna call it Saturday Surveys, but I can't wait 'til then. ;-)

Well, I must say that I'm surprised by both results of my on-page surveys! I am happy about the last post, though. It feels good to know that my own child isn't the only one going through a tumultuous 3-year old transition phase away from naps.

But, back to me. heh heh. I'm surprised that most of you guys think I should go back to red. Do redheads really have more fun? Fred LOVES that color on me. That's the way it was when we met, so I think he has it forever etched in his mind. I guess I like that in a way. I feel like I've grown and changed so much since then, though, and it's hard for me to go back to that look. Jerri pointed out how strange that is. A link between personality and hair color. Hmm... And, of course,she's right. I love honest friends!! So, if any of you have a specific color in mind, please feel free to email it to me. And, Mimi and Papaw, I know you love my natural color ...but I don't even know what that is at this point. ;-) Aren't grandparents great?

I also just assumed that my kids squealing "MOOOMMMMEEEE" was the norm. But I didn't expect so many "Mommas" (Mamas?) out there. I tried to get Trev to switch today (thought it might sound less whiny, like Adelia said), but he would have none of that. Oh, well.

Now, for a cute toddler saying and baby milestone before I get to the survey part! Wen the tornado sirens were going off the other night, Trevor started to get very nervous about those "tomatoes" in the sky outside. That's all he's been talking about for days. "Mommy, it's windy, is there a tomato coming?" I answered, "yep, there's one in your salad." He just looked at me like I was going crazy.

Baby milestone: Oliver got his third tooth yesterday!! But it's NOT on top. It's on the side, like a fang coming in. How weird is that? All of my other kid got their bottom teeth and then progressed normally to the top ones. Oliver is very much his own little person, though. He's such a sweet, happy, easy baby, thank You, Lord!!

And now for the part you've all been waiting for...Ba-Boom...the survey question of the night is:
Do you let your kids spend the night with others? Kids spend the night with you? We don't do it at all. I think my kids stayed one night with my folks when I was in the hospital having my third. Or maybe my Mom stayed here, I can't remember now. I'd just rather keep it simple and say no to everyone, then try to pick and choose and explain. The only time we've ever had kids stay here is when a friend had her third baby. And that was different. Friends in need can always stay.

And, if you do let your kids spend the night, at what age did you start? I ask because we're being pressured by a relative to let the kids come stay. I'm dead set against it, and Fred is on-board with me. So it's just not gonna happen. But I'm still curious what the rest of you do!