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Multi-Level
Learning
Konos'
desire is to build relationships between siblings as well
as keep homeschooling mothers sane! That is why Konos believes
in multi-level teaching. Instead of one child studying frogs,
one studying sound, and one studying airplanes, the whole
family focuses together on the same unit at the same time.
After teaching each child his individual language and math
in the morning, Konos' moms can quit juggling kids and subjects
and teach everyone together the chosen Konos unit in the afternoon.
Mother
reads to everyone about Helen Keller. Older children read
about the ear and create an ear model under the dining room
table, through which younger siblings crawl. Then, older children
research causes of deafness, while younger children draw the
parts of the ear. All practive sign language and punch up
Braille messages.
Environment
can foster learning or stifle it. Therefore, the learning
environment we choose for our children should provide for
optimal education. Recent research has indicated that school,
i.e. formal group instruction, is best suited for later elementary
years. For primary age children, the home is the best context
for effective learning.
The
home provides a microcosm of the real world where a child
must recognize and respond to the various needs of different
people of different ages. He learns patience while listening
to a grandparent and learns responsibility in caring for a
younger sibling. His whole personality is being developed
as he shifts from leader, to follower, to one of the gang.
He is not in what Charlotte Mason calls the isolated "child
environment" which is totally child-centered.
Multi-level
learning within the home context allows children to learn
in ways that will prepare them to be well-equipped, life-long
learners, becoming productive, giving members of society.
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