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If you have a daily memory time...


Jane Elliot
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We do our memory work every day at lunch. Right now we are working on a poem called "The Seasons of the Year" by Samuel Wilderspin, 1st and 2nd noun declension endings, 1st conjugation verb endings: present tense, and the sum (I am) verb chant. We do a lot of poetry. We also have memorized all the definitions for the parts of speech from FLL, plus the definition of a sentence. We've memorized the continents (Australia in this house ;) ) plus where they are located on the map. I plan on memorizing the countries of North America, the Great Lakes, and major water ways in N. America (and where to find them on a map) this year as well as more poetry.

 

I'm not big on memorizing things for the sake of memorizing them (except poetry - I don't tie our poetry into anything; we just memorize wonderful poetry); I try and make sure the things we are memorizing is related to what we are studying - history, geography, grammar, Latin.

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Our big push right now is on the states & capitals of the US. We've taken some time off of new poems as we are reviewing all the poems we memorized the last four years. We have memory work in each of our subjects, but not just for the sake of memorizing. (Math facts, latin vocab words, science terms related to what we are studying, etc.)

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Here's what we do:

http://myobviousfamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/memory-work.html

 

I usually do it whenever I remember, but having the white board in the kitchen has helped a lot. I put down Language Art stuff as they learn it - also math stuff as needed. My husband is an everything in context sort of guy. Sometimes at dinner, they start a Veritas Press Card chant and can't stop until they've gone through the 30-40 they already know. The poetry is the IEW poetry kit.

 

Beth

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Could you tell me how you go about doing the memory work?

I put together a binder based on Andrew Campbell's Living Memory book. We have four sections:

1. current memory work (things that we are working on memorizing but that are not perfected yet)

2. future memory work (where I keep things that we are going to eventually do - right now I have a few things for the upcoming holidays in there so I don't forget)

3. weekly memory review (things that we have mastered go here for a few months - it's set up M-F, but since we sometimes forget to do our memory work, I'm just "looping" through the days by doing whatever day was next even if it does not line up with the current day of the week)

4. monthly review (things that are firmly planted in the memory go here to be reviewed once a month (right now it's once every 15 days or so as we haven't filled that section yet).

 

I'm guessing next year I'll probably have to add a "seasonal" review of some sort - where we review things a few times each season to keep them fresh but not going through them every month. The system is working well for us as the boys still remember things they memorized 1 1/2 years ago. :) Each day at lunch we first work on our current memory work (usually only 2 pieces on average). Then we review our weekly section and then our monthly section. In all it takes about 10-15 minutes as we have not yet amassed much review yet. Hope that helps explain it a bit.

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We do our CC memory work (everything from history facts, timeline, latin conjugations, skip counting, etc.) right after breakfast, along with scripture memory and bible reading. i am considering adding in poetry along with this starting in the next week, when we will be starting our study of Shakespeare and the Renaissance. It takes us about 1/2 an hour to get through it all.

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We do daily memory work in our morning meeting, which is the start of our school day.

Sparkle is memorizing skip counting by 4's.

Glitter is memorizing the months of the year.

I am memorizing a poem.

 

We all work on something different, although we do end up memorizing each other's stuff too.

Our group memory work time is only for memorizing new material.

We review material separately. Flashcards for Glitter. Anki for Sparkle. Nothing for me ;-(

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I purchased the flashcard PDF for Cycle 1 from Classical Conversations, and we're working on memorizing the information on the cards. We're also memorizing from the book Sword Fighting. I need to pick some poetry and add it in, and at night we're memorizing longer passages from Scripture as a family.

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We memorize scriptures, songs, and poems. This is our first year doing this. I just type up and print out their current memory work and put it into their personal folder.

 

I help them memorize one line at a time. We work on one or two pieces at a time, spending around 5-10 min. on it for each child (ages 6 & 4), depending on how interested they are. Some days we just do review.

 

Currently my dd6 is working on the poem/song "All Things Bright and Beautiful" and the song "Our Savior's Love". Dd4 is memorizing "The Cow" by Robert Lewis Stevenson and the song "A Child's Prayer". They are both memorizing 1 Corinthians 3:16.

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Guest TheBugsMom

For my 5 yr old, we are memorizing the poems in FLL Level 1 and the Months of the year. We will continue memorizing the poems in FLL but after the months we will begin working on US States and where they are on the map.

 

Our memory time is in the morning when we do FLL and right after for the things that are not FLL related.

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I just started getting more serious about memory work. We loosely follow CC things... we don't belong, but I did purchase an older edition CC manual. We are memorizing the history timeline using the VP cards (done at the beginning of history each day). We also are working in some science memory work, using the information that applies to what we're learning in science (done during science time). We also memorize Bible verses through AWANA. We are working our way into American History. We will be memorizing states and capitals as well as presidents.

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I guess it depends on your kids, but we started "memory boxes" this year (I read about it on a previous thread about memory work) and it has been fantastic for all 3 of my kids (3rd, 2nd, and pK--he needs help though).

 

So far they have learned Bible verses, poems, state capitals, latin vocab, geography facts (oceans, continents, etc.) and other information I want them to know. Seriously, until this year, my kids were hard-pressed to remember even what grade they were in! They love doing memory boxes independently, and so far they have learned everything very quickly and well. I also love the built-in review system so they periodically review. Not to mention the other side-benefit that my pKer has learned even & odd, days of the week, and now he's figuring out the dates of the calendar as well.

 

I would strongly encourage you to consider it. It does take some work to set up, but for me it has been WELL worth it.

 

Sarah

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What are you currently memorizing? I just finished reading The Core. It got me thinking and now I'm wondering if I'm covering all the bases I want to be covering.

I haven't read The Core, but all of our memory work is tied to what we are studying. We usually have a science card, a history/geography card, a math card, and a language arts card. Although occassionally we don't add a new card to a subject or occassionally we have two cards in a subject. Also, one week we took a break from everything except science. This month I have added poetry.

 

We use the large index cards. We leave them in for daily review until known with immediacy and then move them to the back where I pull them from for periodic review.

 

Week 11

2nd grade

Who was the first person in space? (science)

Yuri Gagarin

 

Tell me about Julius Caesar. (history/ geography)

A superb general and politician, Julius Caesar, who lived from about 100 BC - 44 BC and reigned 46 - 44 BC, changed the course of Roman history.

 

What do exponents indicate? (math)

Exponents are used to indicate repeated multiplication.

 

List the 5 parts of a sentence. (language arts)

subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, subject complement

 

Witches' Chant fro Macbeth (poetry)

 

5th grade

Who was the first person in space? (science)

Yuri Gagarin

 

Tell me about Julius Caesar. (history/ geography)

A superb general and politician, Julius Caesar, who lived from about 100 BC - 44 BC and reigned 46 - 44 BC, changed the course of Roman history.

 

Tell me about angles. (math)

An angle which is like the corner of a square is called a right angle.

An angle which is open less tha a right angle is called an acute angle.

An angle which is open more than a right angle is called an obtuse angle.

 

Witches' Chant from Macbeth (poetry)

 

Week 12

2nd grade and 5th grade

Who was Jesus? (history/ geography)

Jesus founded Chrisitanity. He was born about 4 B.C. in Bethlehem and lived for 33 years before being crucified by the Romans. Love and respect for others were at the heart of his teachings.

 

What are the names of some common polygons? (math)

triangle - 3 sides

quadrilateral - 4 sides pentagon - 5 sides

hexagon - 6 sides

octagon - 8 sides

 

Witches' Chant from Macbeth (poetry)

 

2nd grade

List the four kinds of sentences. (language arts)

declarative- states.

interrogative- asks? imperative- orders.

exclamatory- exclaims!

 

5th grade

List some common prepositions that do not indicate location. (language arts)

about after against before down except off until

 

HTH-

Mandy

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My four older kids spend time each day on their memorization but they do it individually, and come and recite to me every so often. I do daily memorization with ds6 and dd8 in their one-on-one time. When they have a memory piece mastered, they write it or type it out for their memory books.

 

I am also planning on making Friday afternoon a 'concert day' where they all recite memory and play instruments etc for Dad. This can be combined with yummy afternoon tea ;)

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I decided we needed to be better about memory work this year. We are doing the poems, grammar rules, lists, etc from FLL (levels 2 &4), history stuff (SOTW 4), memory verses from CBS, I just started doing latin verbs for my oldest and am thinking of adding skip counting/mutiplication facts.

 

I read each thing into my mp3 player (it records voice), transfer it to my computer, rename it (so I know what is what) and put each one's memory work for the week onto an mp3 player. They each listen independently each day. They don't do a set time, they listen 3 times through (sometimes more) and then are done.

 

It has really helped them all 3 to work this way - and most imprtant - it ACTUALLY get done!

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We do: Bible, creeds, catechism, hymns, poetry, seasonally appropriate things (for example we did the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner around the 4th of July and the Buckeye Battle Cry before football season started), skip counting, other memory work as desired. We do most of this memory work during our Circle Time which is the first thing in our day.

 

M-girl memorizes with FLL when we do those lessons. Next year (January) we'll add science, history, and Latin and Spanish as they fit into our schedule.

 

We use the SCM memory boxes in a binder to keep everything coordinated. (One of the ladies put together a beautiful binder Mnemosyne, here)

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We work on Bible verses (Psalm 23 at the moment), catechism question, history sentences, geography (currently the continents), and a Latin phrase (from Song School Latin). We'll be adding a new poem soon, and I'm thinking about adding a hymn. We may also add some science info as appropriate. Our memory work has grown very organically, which is probably why it's getting done. If I had sat down and decided ahead of time all that we were going to do, I might not have ever gotten started!

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A month or so ago, I decided we would work harder on memory work this year because, honestly, it's always been the first thing to go when we get overloaded. My kids get tons of bible memory at church, so for now, I'm not doing a lot of bible memory work at home. Right now the older two are memorizing The Apostles Creed. It is a beautiful thing to hear them recite it.

:001_smile: I want to do a simple catechism next, I think.

 

For poetry, Anna is memorizing "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and Emma is memorizing "The Morns are Meeker" by Emily Dickinson. I am going to focus on American poets this year because we are doing American history, and basically, just let them pick any poem they want to memorize and work on it every day until they know it from heart. I think Fridays will be review days for what they have memorized.

 

My oldest is memorizing a lot of math and grammar rules that just go along with what she is learning in math and grammar at the time. IOW, I don't pick out a list of math and grammar rules and have her memorize them separately from her lesson. Same goes for science. We are studying the human body right now, so they are memorizing the systems of the body, types of cells, etc. For history, I don't have them memorize lists of dates. As we study, they get the dates in their heads. But I don't drill dates, or at least I haven't up to this point. I don't know if we will do that or not.

 

I am going to add some geography next. I think Anna will work on the states and capitols, and Emma will work on the continents and oceans.

 

I just bought Living Memory, so I am super excited to pick out some memory work from there. It is a great book!!

 

I know we don't do nearly the amount and intensity of memory work that others do, but we do what we can.

Edited by Nakia
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"Memory Work" here means poetry. Memorization for other subjects (e.g. Latin chants) are covered under that subject. My kids tend to pick up things that are used frequently, so I don't drill everyday stuff.

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We do memory work right before lunch as a fun wrap-up to our morning session (the kids love memory work). Every three weeks we memorize a poem. Right now we are working on four-stanza poems but will me moving on the five stanzas after the holidays.

 

We also memorize prayers from our religion, grammar and science definitions, math terms, and any history lists or important items we come across.

 

Each memory session begins with the kids reciting a memorized poem of their choosing, and then they recite a memorized poem of my choosing. Then we go over whatever it was we memorized the previous week, and then we work on whatever we are memorizing now. We finish up with a quick review of something we memorized at any time in the past. I try to make sure that everything we have memorized thus far in our 3+ years of homeschooling gets recited at least once a month.

 

Memory work takes 15-20 minutes.

 

The kids want to memorize The Raven and The Cremation of Sam McGee this year.

 

Tara

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We do memory work each day, using the SCM method (someone already posted a link).

 

Right now, dd is working on:

Personal info - working on family phone numbers

Poetry from FLL and a few others

Scripture (just finished Psalm 23, now working on Matt. 6:9-13)

French - days of the week

History - 7 wonders of the ancient world and first 20 emperors of Rome

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We do: Bible, creeds, catechism, hymns, poetry, seasonally appropriate things (for example we did the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner around the 4th of July and the Buckeye Battle Cry before football season started), skip counting, other memory work as desired. We do most of this memory work during our Circle Time which is the first thing in our day.

 

M-girl memorizes with FLL when we do those lessons. Next year (January) we'll add science, history, and Latin and Spanish as they fit into our schedule.

 

We use the SCM memory boxes in a binder to keep everything coordinated. (One of the ladies put together a beautiful binder Mnemosyne, here)

 

Wonderful links! Thank you so much.

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My kids really liked learning the verse too (we didn't do the second verse). Plus, to help out, you can download the band playing it to sing along with. All here.

 

Glad I could inspire you ;)

Thanks for the link to the band! :) And sorry to hijack the original thread ... we are honorary Buckeyes here and I know my boys would love to learn the Battle Cry!

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We have our memory time at breakfast to warm up our brains (and get me out of my morning fog while I drink my coffee). It works well and we get it accomplished this way. I have a binder but it's primarily blurbs from Living Memory (thank you Drew).

My little guy has his own section of stuff we continually work on (seasons/days/months, address/phone info, 7 continents song, learning the oceans).

My older 2 have the L.M. memory work which this year is a hodge podge of: the presidents, state capitals, regions and their states of the US, US mountain ranges, 9 major rivers, basic measurement, poems from FLL3 and also the memory work from FLL3 (parts of speech, the chants, etc...). That's where we are right now but I add to it continually from LM as items are mastered.

 

Then we have a quick review time of what I've noted on looseleaf highlights from our science (Apologia Anatomy) and we sometimes play Simon Says for bone names. Then we review our VP history cards.

 

In my binder I keep the newer memory items to the front, older items to the back. Not majorly organized in the binder because it's such a mishmash of items and I keep adding to it to give us the "pegs" to remember our current work.

Edited by cjbeach
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We do flashcards every morning with the younger children and older children do it on their own. It takes about 5 minutes to review older material and 5-10 to discuss and memorize new material. Over the years memory work has come from: Catechism, bible verses, Memoria Press books (e.g., Greek Myths guide) list material to be memorized, vocabulary, Foundations Guide (from author of The Core), poetry, spelling rules, obvious material in other subjects. We use this sytem http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

Everything goes on a flashcards in the box and at any given time they are memorizing and reviewing material for at least 2 or 3 subjects. We've used a system like this for 15 years, but the link above is superior to our older system.

Edited by love2read
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My dad has The Cremation of Sam McGee memorized and has since I was a very little girl. Our annual Halloween tradition (yes, I know that it takes place on Christmas Day) has always been to listen to him recite it. My sister videotaped it a few years ago so that when my dad "goes to the great catbox in the sky" (as he puts it) we will still be able to hear him recite it. I have much of it memorized just from listening to him over the years, and I think it's awesome that when I recite parts of it, my inflection is exactly the same as my dad's. I think that this annual tradition has been a real gift from him to me, and I am glad my kids love it too. :)

 

Tara

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