Homeschooling a Left-Brain Child a/k/a Socially Awkward and a Bit Nerdy

Homeschooling a left-brain child has been a joy, but a bit of an adventure.

For example, right when the minister said we are assembled together in this funeral home for this sad moment of the passing of our dear sister, my left-brain child burst out in laughter.

Then, right before Kindermusik classes started, he asked the homeschool mom sitting beside me if she ever changed her baby’s diaper because he sure stinks.

Besides being moments where I wish I could crawl under the seat, I realized early on that I was homeschooling a child with a quirky personality.

Back when I started homeschooling, I didn’t fully appreciate the power of being informed about learning styles or personalities.

What I didn’t know immediately was that I was homeschooling a left brain child.

What I did know was that he had some of these traits:

1. He was perfectly content to be alone and was truly happy;
2. He preferred to read an encyclopedia for knowledge instead of a fiction book;
3. He read early and was advanced for his age and it was hard to tell others how advanced he was;
4. He had a hard time expressing his feelings in a gracious manner and he felt that unless he spoke his mind in a direct way that he was not being sincere;

And he had these 5 traits as well.

1. He thrived with details and did not like being rushed;
2. Routine was a comfort to him and he needed to be “warned” if I changed our routine suddenly;
3. He didn’t like loud noises or a lot of people talking at the same time;
4. He preferred his school area neat, cleaned up his room without me asking him and his written assignments were even neater;
5. He was seen by others as being aloof or “different”, which really meant a bit weird.

Knowing that my son preferred adult interaction or older children over friends his own age, I knew that I would have to educate myself to help him to be well-rounded .

One thing I am glad that I did not succumb to even at the coaxing of my family was thinking that something was wrong with him.

Having family members who are more laid back about deadlines, prefer to be outside or lap up music, art and craft activities, they just knew his behavior was not normal.  Well at least to them anyway.

It was not easy, but I had to find a common ground to not change the way my son came wired. But i wanted to help him see that certain behaviors are seen as rude and uncaring.

Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

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• How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
• How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
• A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
• Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
• Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.

Socially Awkward to Socially Acceptable?

I was not only concerned about helping him to over come social difficulty but to challenge him because he had an amazing memory and vocabulary.

Look at some of these things I did to help him socially and at curriculum I used:

1. I switched to a mastery based math to align with his strengths.

First, I switched from a slower pace math program, which is good for a lot of kids, to the mastery program of Singapore Math Practice, Level 1A, Grade 2. 

This fed his love of math early and as he got older I added in a spiral math program to help with review because I just wanted to be sure I covered all learning bases. 

However, as he grew older, it was evident that Math stayed as his favorite subject and a subject he stayed advanced in. He stayed with a master program through to high school.

2. In addition, I gave up an all-in-one program.

Moreover, I gave up boxed curriculum because my son needed to move to higher level chapter books.  But not just any chapter books. I had to feed his desire to expand on his knowledge and research skills and still read living books.

I came across a series call the Whole Story with books like The Hound of the Baskervilles (Whole Story) which were literally a life saver at the time. 

Each book has generous pictures, notations, diagrams and extra information throughout the side margin.  He could both read and research within the book and it kept him off the computer when I couldn’t supervise him.

3. Keep the social circle limited to a few persons.

Next, when he was younger, I limited the number of kids he played with. 

This allowed me to intervene when he felt that a kid was being “childish” (he was). 

I was able to use a fight as a teaching moment to teach my son how to be a friend and to give in to his friend even if my son was wrong. 

Being wronged builds character and more important, I wanted my son to learn to be peaceful and to relate to the feelings of his friends. 

For the sake of precious friendship, it is okay to not have to prove your point all the time.

4. Hone in on weak subjects to reduce a perfectionist mindset.

As he got older, I realized he needed help with creativity and particularly with writing

Unlike a child that loves creative writing, he did not. No, it wasn’t because he struggled with penmanship. Quite the opposite, he could write pages and pages.

The problem was he wanted specifically what I wanted from him in terms of content and form. 

I followed what Susan Wise Bauer said about giving kids concrete examples of what to write about and models to follow. I found Classical Writing Aesop and other similar type of beautiful copywork.

And again had great success with it because it used a model for my son to follow as he learned to write.

5. In addition, give your child an outlet for strokes of creativity.

Not only was I interested in his academic development, but I wanted to foster a love for his imagination through art.

He took art lessons, but I chose a teacher that would not only give him art, but would add crafts to his day.

Determined to help foster the creative side of his mind and to deepen his love for people, I organized a homeschool co-op.

I was not going to just invite friends over to our house but I was going to be sure he had interaction on a regular basis.

These are just a few things that I could change right away.

Focus on having your left-brain child accept himself and to be the kind of person that you want him to be and not whether other people will socially accept him.  Then, your parenting will be well worth all the effort.

Other Posts About Socialization and Tips

• Socialization – A Homeschool Hallucination?
• The Dos & Don’ts When You Hit a Learning Plateau