Give me a good reason (or not) to memorize Veritas Press cards as they do in CC

[bethben]

Is this a worthwhile thing to do? Memorize the Veritas Press cards - all of them every year? Why or why not?

Beth

[bethben]

:lurk5:

[Deborah]

here's one view

[HerdingCats]

We are doing this with a CC group. I think the benefit I see is that my dc are getting a good feel for the flow of history. As we study the different time periods they can say, "Oh! That's one of our cards!" Since I have been very inconsistent with the timeline notebooks and wall timeline, the VP cards are the main *pegs* they have for ordering events. I would think a benefit over a physical timeline is that this one is memorized.

[MindyD]

I think they're great memory pegs as well. We've gone over them for the past 2 years, although we lose steam halfway through. But more than once we've read or seen something that correlates with a card and my ds will comment on it. The more they're exposed to it, the more it will stick.

[AFwife Claire]

I think they are great memory pegs as well, which is why we have kept going over the timeline this summer, and will continue to do so even though we aren't doing CC next year. BUT the Veritas Press cards are very western-centric and America-centric, so basically if something happened elsewhere than America anytime after America was founded, then it isn't mentioned in the timeline cards. So that is kind of a drawback. Also, there are no dates associated with any timeline item (in the memorizing), so it still doesn't really help a child know where to peg something they didn't learn from the timeline.

 

We are going to do a small co-op (4 families) next year, and one thing we're doing for the younger kids is focusing on memory work--just hopefully better organized and not as random as CC stuff, LOL. I came up with a 30 point timeline of important events with dates, and the kids are going to memorize one event/date per week. I hope this gives them a better structure for evaluating new things they might learn about later, plus it includes things like Napolean's defeat at Waterloo and other non-American things that still really influenced the world!

[crazyforlatin]

Is this a worthwhile thing to do? Memorize the Veritas Press cards - all of them every year? Why or why not?

Beth

 

I just bought some of the VP history cards. Are you referring to those or some other cards? If you are talking about the history cards, do you mean having the child memorize not the entire description on the back, but just the event and the date, right? I don't have the CC guide, so I'm also wondering how to approach this.

[bethben]

here's one view

And this is my debate in my mind (focuing on the Bible and leaving the rest alone). I have a homeschool mom mentor who has graduated two merit scholars. She has enrolled her kiddos in CC because the memorization piece is what she felt her younger kids were missing to get them to a similar academic level. My husband doesn't see the importance of poetry memorization and we are covered with Bible memorization. I just keep going back to feeling like they should be memorizing a lot more.

 

Beth

[campmom]

Well, the type of memorization that CC does is not Bible (there is alittle) or poetry I haven't seen any of that. They are memorizing facts, science facts, math facts, english facts, history facts, and history timeline. The veritas cards make the history timeline easy- even fun for them to memorize. Look it up on you tube , you can see children reciting the timeline with handmotions, they enjoy it. In the book "The Core" Mrs. Bortins talks about taking facts from whatever subjects you are studying and having your children memorize that. OR you could just get the CC foundations guide and use it for facts to have your children memorize it even gives you instructions as to how to do it. I have previously graduated 2 dc, without doing this type of memorization. But I truely believe it would have been very helpful to them and I am doing it with my youngers. Memorizing is also just brain exercise-it's really good for you. So in order to exercise your brain use quality material that you will need to know in the future.

[Tracy]

You have to consider why you want your kids to memorize. We started memorization after reading the admonition in WTM to "fill your child's mind with beautiful language." So we memorize poetry and scripture. I don't believe that memorizing facts is terribly useful (although there are some things that they just have to know, like the year 1776). Our minds are designed to remember useful and relevant information. We will remember things as we use them. For example, we learn math facts more by doing math rather than just simply drilling math facts. I think my time is better spent teaching my children about dates in history by teaching about the events and applying them in our life.

[homeschoolally]

On the 4th of July at church, the pastor said "a guy named Roger Williams signed...." in a sermon about America. I wondered how many other people in the room could identify him--when I asked my kids they could instantly tell me he was the founder of Rhode Island.

I love hearing my toddler walking around randomly saying words like 'monotheism' and 'tutankhamon' for fun.

Can't say enough good things about doing this. Highly, highly recommend it.:001_smile: