Homeschooling with Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

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by: Lisa Preston Total views: 0 Word Count: 455 Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 Time: 11:15 PM 0 comments

Gearing your homeschool lessons around Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences heightens both motivation and skill mastery. Also, using a child's strengths when planning lessons offers a greater opportunity for learning to sink in and become permanent. So let's take a closer look at how certain children learn and how you can plan lessons around their strengths!

If your child shows exceptional skills in math, then capitalize on that strength by having him/her make graphs, gather and organize information, or explain how a problem was solved. Involve calculation, logic puzzles, and planning in your lessons for the child with mathematical intelligence.

Children with musical intelligence can be heard a mile away. They're creating their own rhythms and music, even unconsciously -tapping their fingers, drumming on the counter, humming tunes as they walk through the store. Capitalize on this strength by having your child listen to different kinds of music for each historical period you study, have him make and play his own musical instruments and put new knowledge to music.

Some children love spending time alone, reflecting and pondering life. They keep journals, notebooks, and wonder about the meaning of others (as well as their own) actions. Activate their imaginations, utilize their creative writing capabilities, and they're on cloud nine!

Some children bounce as they go through life. (kinesthetic learning) They don't walk, they skip. They don't just run, they gallop full speed ahead. Movement is the name of the game and while it can be distracting for the parents, the moving helps cement the learning. Plan lessons for these children that involve role-playing, inventing, exercise, sports and hands-on experiments.

No doubt about it - some learners need others with whom to bounce ideas around. These children with interpersonal intelligence think with their mouths and need to process aloud. These children will learn best if you plan team activities, lessons that involve talking, listening and relating to others.

Children with exceptional visual intelligence need activities that involve drawing, imagining, designing, building, painting, and watching.

If your child shows great verbal skill, then you'll want to design learning around reading, explaining, writing, drama, and storytelling.

Some learners excel when they're outdoors. If you have a nature lover, then plan lessons around growing, planting, observing the environment, investigating the outdoors, and recycling. Check out Charlotte Mason's education methods if your child thrives in natural settings.

When you plan a lesson around a child's strengths, chances are, he/she will grasp the material more easily and retain the information longer. Gardner's multiple intelligences make the learning more fun and highlight those awesome talents God designed in your child.

About the Author

Lisa Preston taught public school for 17 years before becoming a Homeschool Evangelist! Pick up her free book Why You Should Homeschool Your Child: A Public Schoolteacher's Confession at http://www.homeschoolhelper.com

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Topics of Interest:

Montessori and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences Montessori Life 

Although working in different cultures and different times, Montessori and Gardner came to many of the same conclusions regarding human development. First, both Montessori and Gardner derived their theories based upon daily, firsthand observation and experience working with people, both normal and with exceptionalities. Montessori worked first with retarded, then urban, deprived children. Gardner focused his attention upon adults with various forms of brain damage, as well as normal and gifted children. These experiences enabled them both to understand and appreciate the wide range of abilities and capacities found in human nature and to challenge rigid and narrow beliefs about human potential.


Second, as a result of their shared understanding and appreciation of human nature, both Montessori and Gardner noted the uniqueness of each individual. They observed that individual differences begin to be revealed in the earliest years of life, and that individual strengths in one area of ability do not necessarily ensure or predict strengths in other areas. Montessori writes, "little children soon reveal profound individual differences which call for very different kinds of help from the teacher" (1964, p. 23 1). Gardner ( 1997, 1999) states that in the area of intelligence, no two people have exactly the same intelligences, nor in the same combination, and that understanding and valuing these uniquenesses and differences and utilizing them for the benefit of society is of utmost importance. He states, in fact, that taking human differences seriously lies at the heart of Multiple Intelligence Theory.