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Maybe it is a gender thing…
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While I was reading the two other threads about writing curriculums and what to chose, I read Bookworm’s post and wondered if our approaches are a little different because we have different sets of kids – boys vs. girls. I had to laugh when Gina said that maybe her experiences were because it was a gender thing.
I have often read these posts and wondered if curriculum choices are chosen because some really do work better for a boy’s thought processes or a girl’s thought processes. Since we are people when we are younger, our natural learning (and thinking processes) are already there. Kinda like the idea that men are ffrom Mars, women are from Venus. I’ve never read that book, but sometimes I laugh because while my husband and I get to the same answer, very often it is by very different methods.
What do you think? Does gender and learning preferences end up affecting your curriculum choices in ways that it can’t be affected in PS? I very much think it does in our homeschool, especially since we have a dd with APD.
I can definitely see it being a gender difference; however, it may be more influenced by temperament. Dd#1 has a very different thought process than dd#2.
Well, I think gender differences have enormous implications on public education as well! Just ask your average wiggly seven year old boy how he likes school . . . .
But, yes, I think that there are a number of powerful differences that affect what specific things might work well for a given child (learning style, personality, and of course gender–there are probably more) I don’t have a lot of hands-on practice with the differences, having specialized in boys
but I’m sure there are things that work differently for (many or most) children of different gender. (There will always be outliers–there are sensitive poetic boys who love tea and girls with mathy brains who love to ride dirtbikes–lol) But yes, it affects my curriculum choices, and even my ways of implementing basic principles of CM. I was even frequently annoyed by certain CM writings which shall remain nameless that seem to depict CM as an eternal round of wildflower sketching and tea parties. That was not going to happen here. We are more likely to eat monster cookies after racing through the grass hunting snakes. The general principles—nature study, dictation, living books—can be the same, but the individual interpretations/needs can be considerably different in practice. And that’s OK.
hehe, I’m enjoying this thread. I vote yes, there is a real, defineable difference in boys and girls and men and women. God created the sexes with complementary, not identical, natures. And I agree that the boys and girls fall all along the range of those natures. I’ve got 5 boys and 2 girls and there are specific gender differences but I have boys along the range from ‘rough and tumble boy’ to ‘sensitive boy’. My girls are different from each other as well, though they have similarities they share just as my boys share some things.
It does affect homeschool at our house. Often. I’ll try to hop back on here and share specifics later but for now dinner is calling!
Well, we have a fair amount of water tea parties here, but we are much more likely to enjoy looking at the sunflower while hunting up the snake.
In fact I forgot to look for poison ivy while looking at the snakes a couple of weeks ago, until after I was in it, much to my discomfort. The embarrassing thing about that is that I am terribly allergic to it and it is the first plant I make my kids learn to identify. One of my dear friends has all boys and hates the nature aspect of it. I have all girls and we love the nature study bit. And she does CM homeschool too. I think that some of that is how much we have been exposed in our lives and our attitude about it. I really am not fond of snakes, but I don’t have to teach my children to be that way!
Your point about the “general principles of CM are the same”, I think of it as “glue”…and the “decoration” or curriculum we choose to put in our glue is what makes it all work for each of us. That is the point I often try to make when I am explaining how CM methods work to each child’s benefit to my family and friends.
You are right that temperament is also a big part of it – oldest dd loves challenge and enjoys all sort of things. Sometimes she wants the nuts and bolts right now, so she can get on with it. Another dd prefers slower approaches to things so she has plenty of time to think, practice and master.
There is a great series of books about this topic by Leonard Sax. “Why Gender Matters.” is the first. Then “Boys Adrift” and “Girls on the Edge.”. He talks about physical differences, such as how males and females see and hear differently. He discusses differences in how we learn and process information and how things like video games affect boys differently than girls. I reread them frequently as my children go through different stages. He advocates gender separated classrooms because the differences can have such an influence in the schools. Many of the challenges of coed classrooms wouldn’t apply the same way to homeschooling, but there are some things that might affect materials and methods you would choose.
Hmm. I think I need to remember who I lent my copies to and get them back to reread again as I plan to start integrating my DS in to more formal studies with his sister next year! LOL
Joanne
Joanne, I have read the book and found it very interesting. It really helped me in teaching our church classes full of little kids…I found myself telling our helper that it was okay if the little boy chose black, brown, or green to color the faces on his picture. I didn’t realize that there were more books in the series. I will have to hunt them up. =)
Michelle Miller also used to have an audio tape on how to teach history differently to boys and girls . . . I think it was called Hot Rods and Hope Chests. It really influenced me, long, long ago–I confess that my copy of the talk is on an AUDIOTAPE and I don’t even have anything that will play it anymore! LOL
Here is a free link to the audio mentioned above!=-)
Sounds interesting. I think I will have to see if there is a library that may have some of these books. 🙂
I have Kevin Leman’s books on birth order and I found them fascinating. So, birth order has something to do with it too….. 🙂 Never took into consideration all the other things that make up learning styles.
Great thread! 🙂
Well, I only have boys also, and I’m a girl. So, it seems to matter alot in this house. There are things I really want to do and ways that I do things that drive all of the men in my house crazy!! Then there are things I am forced to do that I’d prefer not to do!! Then, like mentioned above, one of my boys loves crafts and cooking (I don’t love crafts or hate them) but he would love nothing more than to do more of them; my youngest would do them, too, just for fun. My oldest would rather mow the lawn, read and do a written narration, or just about anything else, but a craft. He’s the “get to the point” kind of person (I don’t care for that personality too much, LOL), “just show me how it works” kind. My youngest would rather climb Mt. Everest, dig up worms (I hate worms)…so we have all kinds in 3 boys.
Then there’s me…I have to consider my learning style along with theirs…as we all do. What a challenge the ps has….we have it the same, but can really tailor our hs and have alot less kids.
Fun and interesting thread.
Good, because I am NOT a female who loves to keep things very orderly and I have no idea where the cassette is.
but I’m sure there are things that work differently for (many or most) children of different gender. (There will always be outliers–there are sensitive poetic boys who love tea and girls with mathy brains who love to ride dirtbikes–lol) 
The embarrassing thing about that is that I am terribly allergic to it and it is the first plant I make my kids learn to identify. 
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