Archive for the ‘Benefits of Homeschooling’ Category

We’re big believers in creativity. We think that traditional education has gotten on the wrong path. There’s a lot of emphasis on learning facts, on passive listening to lectures, and on verbal learning. Sadly, very little emphasis is placed on encouraging students to become thinkers and leaders – to ask questions and find answers to their questions. Students are not encouraged to create, and in fact creativity and free thinking are often actively discouraged, becuase there’s a curriculum to follow, and that curriculum leaves no place for creation or for imagination.

We are especially sad for children who are creative, visual learners. You know the type – kids who like to think for themselves, who always have lots of questions that the teacher can’t answer. These are our future leaders, free thinkers with strong personalities, but the traditional schooling system typically cannot handle them. These students are often labeled as “problematic students,” as troublemakers who don’t follow the rules, or worse – they are diagnosed as suffering from ADD and are given medication.

We love these creative students. We love their imagination and we know how excruciatingly boring traditional text-based learning is for them. We also know that these students, who are labeled as “difficult” in a traditional school, usually flourish and thrive when they are allowed to create, explore and express themselves using our 3D online homeschooling program.

For these bright, creative students, the ability to learn in a 3D virtual reality environment, to create their own unique avatar and other 3D items, and to work on independent learning projects, is absolutely priceless. Suddenly, they are not “difficult” anymore, but instead they become accomplished students with a very bright future.

Traditional education works beautifully for a very specific type of student. The students who flourish in a traditional school setting are usually verbal learners – they prefer learning through text, and so the passive learning style of sitting through lectures and memorizing textbooks is easy for them.

To do well in a traditional school, you need to be able to sit quietly for several hours each day. While this is challenging for almost all children, some children have an easier time being quiet and passive than others. Those kids do best at school. Their teachers adore them because they listen quietly, absorb the facts being taught and rarely interrupt. They also don’t move and bounce and fidget the way that more active students do.

Other types of students may manage the traditional system and may even learn to do fairly well, but they most likely will not flourish, and they will definitely not enjoy their learning.

The type of student who has the most difficulty in a traditional school is the creative student. You know these kids – they are bright, full of spirit and imagination, and very active. They love to create and build and invent, and they really dislike sitting quietly and listening to lectures, or memorizing facts. These students are often visual learners – they learn best when they can view visuals of the subject material. They are also often very active, so when forced to sit quietly for many hours, they develop habits, which the teachers find annoying such as bouncing around in their chair or fidgeting.

Active, creative, and visual learners can learn to tolerate the traditional school system, but if you want them to thrive and to flourish and to avoid the inevitable label of a “problem” or a “difficult” student, you should look into an alternative schooling system such as 3D homeschooling.

3D online homeschooling is a unique, interactive homeschooling program that fosters creativity, keeps students engaged and utilizes active learning rather than discouraging it. It makes learning fun for any type of student, and is especially suited for creative, active students who find it difficult to accept the rigid limitations of a traditional school setting.

Photo by Rob Shenk

During the learning process we use our senses to process the information and understand it. During this process, most of us tend to use one sense more than the others. The sense that we use most determines our learning style. According to researchers, there are three basic types of learning styles, which we’ll discuss below.

One of the problems with traditional schooling is that it shows preference towards reflective, sensing and verbal learners. Homeschooling is much more flexible and so can be better adjusted to all kind of learning styles, and is especially helpful to students who tend to have a hard time with the constraints that traditional schooling places on their behavior and on how they process new information.

Active and Reflective Learners

Active learners retain and understand information best by doing something active with it. Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.

Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes is very difficult for anyone, but is particularly challenging for active learners. Active learners are often labeled as hyperactive by traditional schools, simply because they have a hard tome sitting quietly for hours.

Active learners love 3D online homeschooling because it enables them to do and to create as part of the leanring process, and so they rarely feel bored.

Sensing and Intuitive Learners

Sensing learners like learning facts. They like details and prefer a slower pace of learning. Intuitive learners prefer discovering possibilities and relationships. They like innovation and really dislike repetition. Courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations are very hard on intuitive learners. Just like active learners, intuitive learners are often labeled by traditional educators as “difficult” students.

Honmeschooling in general, and 3D online homeschooling in particular, is perfect for intuitive learners because it focuses on discovery and avoids repetition.

Visual and Verbal Learners

Visual learners remember best what they can see, such as pictures, videos, and diagrams. Verbal learners like words, including written and spoken explanations. In traditional schooling there is a strong emphasis on words and very little visual information, which makes learning tough for visual learners. 3D education is perfect for visual learners because it provides them with the visual stimuli that they need in order to truly understand what they are learning.

The beauty of 3D online homeschooling is that it’s very flexible and can adapt to any learning style. When homeschooling, the pace can be slower or faster, visuals or text can be emphasized, and emphasis can be placed on active creation of material or on learning and memorizing facts – whatever works for the student.

Because it’s a fun, game-like way to learn, 3D education also keeps all students engaged, regardless of their learning style.

However, if your child is an active, visual or intuitive learner (or all three – they often go together), chances are he suffers in a traditional school setting. 3D online homeschooling can be a lifesaver for such a student and transform him from “mediocre” to “bright.”

Photo by nikon_d90man