Think Outside the Coloring Book

The discussion of cuddlebugs and flibbertijibbets leads us to a very important issue - learning styles. If you're watching, clues to your child's learning style can begin to be apparent when they are mere babes. A very active baby is likely to be a kinesthetic learner, but maybe not exclusively. I won't delve into profiles and definitions here. If you are homeschooling and you haven't looked into learning styles, there are lots of books available on the subject to help you. Do look into it because it is important and it is one of the educational components that homeschooling can address better than practically any other method of schooling (unless you have lots of money and can hire private teachers who specialize in your child's learning style.

As your child grows and develops you will want to be watching out for the ways that he learns best and capitalize on those preferences by finding methods that meet his madness. It's important, especially if you are an inexperienced homeschool mom, not to freak over things that your child doesn't like doing. Not all children enjoy coloring. Some kids (I have heard) can be happily engaged in long periods of time coloring in a coloring book. Others would rather make stick figure cats (pages and pages, notebooks and notebooks full of them).

Yes, you do want your child to learn find motor control and hand/eye coordination and all that stuff. Just remember, there's more than one way to skin a stick figure cat. Think outside the coloring book.