Managing Classical Conversations Memory Work

[everlastingstarflower]

We have just completed our first year of Cycle 1 Classical Conversations. We homeschool year round and I am planning to have the kids review 6 weeks of memory work each week so that at the end of one month's time they have reviewed all 24 weeks of memory work. Then, we'll repeat it so that between May and September they will have reviewed all 24 weeks in 4 times to keep all that juicy info fresh in their minds.

 

My question is this...how does your family continue to review previous cycles once you begin a new cycle in September? I don't want my kids to "forget" cycle 1 so that when they take cycle 1 again, they will be better prepared to try for Memory Masters. I'm just not sure how we're going to juggle remembering cycle 1 with learning cycle 2 AND doing our home curriculum. Plus, looking ahead to cycle 3 and trying to manage 3 cyles at once makes my head spin! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Mom0012]

I did CC at home for a number of years and this is the main thing that finally made me give it up. It's easy to do the memory work at first and even reviewing a year's worth of work is manageable, but after that, it gets pretty cumbersome and time-consuming.

 

That being said, I think your best bet is to make sure you have all the cycles on cd and play through each cycle once a week in the car or something and then let it go. That might keep things fresh enough so that they don't lose a lot of the info from one year to the next.

 

I think this method might have worked for my kids except I tailored the memory work to our needs, so I couldn't use the CC cds. I made my own memory tapes (which took forever), but the cassettes kept wearing out really quickly and then I got a car without a cassette player. I never could figure out how to burn audio onto a cd without it skipping.

 

Lisa

[kelfro]

I try everyday to have my son remember and sing for me one of the history sentences that he has learned throughout the year. I will usually do this in the afternoon after he is done with schoolwork and just playing or helping in the kitchen. If we can't remember it together we will go to the computer and find that particular one together and play it. I just do this sporadically like a pop quiz! Makes it fun and not laborious.

[Pster]

We just finished our first year of CC so I don't know that my plans will work....

 

But... I am planning on using our CC break time to continue to review the CC facts and stuff learned throughout Cycle 1. I think I figured on 2 weeks of work per 1 week of "school". We won't spend as much time per subject studying as in depth but the review will help them. We will read about the topics and listen to our SOTW cd's and maybe do a little more science exploration. We will have more time to spend on those things that we didn't get to the 1st time around...(like math and latin declensions).

 

Maybe we'll branch off some of the science covered to learn something new or maybe I'll have them do a narration or lapbook on one of their studied science or history topics.

 

We'll just have a little more time to spend it on things we may not have had the chance to earlier. I will only focus on the cycle for the year - and not so much on previous learned cycles. History timeline cards will be reviewed year to year but that is about it.

 

hth

[LND1218]

We just have a system for doing it that really helps. Any system will work.

When they are trying to learn it, they need to review it more often. Once it's solidly memorized you just review it less often. We have a cycle that we do review and new memory work that works for us.

 

We also sing the songs all the time when we are in the car - they have them on Mp3 players. I got them each a $6 Disney mix stick.

 

We play games.

 

Once you set up a system, it's not hard. Sometimes we do a subject a day.

Monday is Latin, Tuesday is timeline, etc..

 

Once it's systematic, it's really not bad.

[everlastingstarflower]

Thanks for the ideas. We have a great system for learning the new work and I know that we'll have no problem with summer review, I just am struggling to know how to come up with a system to incorporate the old with the new in addition to not having the old memory work become laborious. I'll definitely be mulling around the ideas you've given to me.

 

I also made a big boo-boo by not having the kids find the geography locations on the map. It wasn't made clear that in order to go for Memory Master the locations would need to be found as well as the geographical names to be memorized. By the time I found out, we were already too far into the year for us to go back and try to memorize all those locations and I didn't want to burden my kids by making them go back and be basically memorizing double at once. So I just let it go. The kids were a little disappointed because if they would have memorized the locations, they would have made Memory Master this year.

 

I am not going to make them find/memorize the Cycle 1 Geography locations now, either. I figure if they keep the names memorized, they will do o.k. next Cycle 1 round with memorizing the locations and that's good enough for me but, we'll make sure to incorporate map finding in our Cycle 2! :001_smile:

[dannyray402]

Hi! I have just finished my third cycle in CC and am about to start over again! While I applaud your efforts to keep reviewing everything, I believe you are doing more than necessary! You will be amazed at how much your kids will remember from the previous trip through the cycle! I pulled the flashcards out for next year and my sons began singing the history songs word for word! I would recommend that you pop in the cd every once in a while as a refresher, or have a review game, but don't stress about it. The best thing you can do to help them be prepared to achieve Memory Master is to help them learn the timeline. That is the hardest part of the memory work and it is the same for each cycle. I would suggest you get the timeline learned over the summer so they can focus on learning the fun stuff during the year. I got the opportunity to hear Leigh Bortins speak about her vision recently, and she reminded me that it is less about the pieces of information that they memorize and more about the big picture of training the brain TO memorize. Enjoy your time in CC but don't let it consume you :001_smile:

[AngelBee]

:lurk5:

[everlastingstarflower]

dannyray thanks for the great advice! My kids already know the timeline but, I'm planning to continue reviewing it over the summer. They did pretty well with the timeline for it being only their first year. Actually, my younger one did better with it than my older one. Maybe we'll work on review over the summer for the whole cycle 1 and then put it to bed with the exception of an occasional review when cycle 2 starts. That sounds a lot easier than trying to actively juggle more than one cycle at once.

[Woodland_Mom]

I too, just finished our 3rd cycle of CC. This fall we'll begin cycle 2 for the second time.

 

You will be surprised to see all that your children remember--especially the history songs. When we hear a song on the radio for the first time in years, we are able to sing right along. Your kids will be able to do that even better than we adults can!

 

Another thing to keep in mind: the timeline and math memory work is the same each year. They won't have to spend the same time, effort and energy memorizing those things each year, so it will make it a little easier to devote time to the other subjects.

 

I don't think continuous review of the previous cycles is necessary at all. It would just be too much.