Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Benefits of a Learning Style

I have always enjoyed watching my husband learn and conquer new things. He has an interesting and tenacious learning style where he repeats a task over and over again until he has completely mastered it. This learning technique may have come from his many years of playing musical instruments. After all the hours of practice, he has become a wonderful musician capable of playing many different instruments. He says it comes from the fact that he is an average guy and has always had to work hard to achieve anything. I don’t believe that having seen the many things he’s accomplished but whatever this learning style comes from it has benefited him in many ways. He is an accomplished teacher, musician, artist, gardener, husband, father and friend.

I have also benefited from his learning style. For example, recently my family came to a decision to share the job of cooking. It is a task I have completed for over 24 years myself and I am burning out. I’m stuck in a rut of cooking the same old things and have lost the desire to experiment. Now with both of my daughters taking one night a week each and Paul taking a night or two, I am left carrying much less of the load. And Paul has approached this task with his usual tenacity. He is always looking for new recipes to try and is working hard to improve his skills. He reads and studies and watches the cooking channel and my children and I are thoroughly enjoying the fruits of his labor. Also, his excitement for the art of cooking has had another positive effect on me. It’s become contagious and I’ve started to feel excited again about experimenting in the kitchen!

The greatest benefit from Paul’s learning style is the beautiful artwork he has completed. Over the many years he has been painting, Paul has strived to master many different styles and types of artwork. Each time he worked on something new he painted it repeatedly on many different surfaces and in many different ways. For example, when he wanted to learn how to paint roses, he painted all different kinds, styles and techniques for six to eight months. As a result, we now have many beautiful paintings of roses in our house and studio. Even more obvious in our home is his journey to learn Zhostova. He painted this style for several months and now our kitchen boasts a beautiful wall of Zhostova plates and trays as you can see in the picture. When people enter our kitchen for the first time, they are awe struck by the beautiful wall of art they see. I have never tired of this beautiful wall and will enjoy this benefit of his learning style for many years to come.

1 comment:

  1. Paul and Cathy - you are a wonderful team! Not only as art tutors but in the home too.

    Lovely post.

    Hazel

    ReplyDelete