How Do You Teach Memorization?

[PachiSusan]

I have a child who can memorize a TV theme song after hearing it 1-2 times, recite entire episodes with her friends, but dissolves into tears and "Why can't I DOOOOOOOOOOOO this????" when asked to memorize in school.

 

Yes, I know she CAN. Yes, *I* know it's a motivation issue.

 

How do you motivate a kid to memorize something that is not "fun" to them?

[RootAnn]

My question back to you is how is she motivated? You need to know her 'currency' if you want to deal with her. What thrills her? What type of small reward would get her going?

 

Mine are not really "school is fun" types. However, they like the challenge of memorization. This year, we have a 15 minute "memory" block of time four times per week for all the kids to work on their poems & other memory work (science or prayers). I think it would be harder with just one kid because my kids *compete* with each other for how much they remember of a poem. (On the other hand, we wouldn't have the huffiness that can sometimes occur if another kid gets to recite the poem THEY want to do.)

 

Since it is only 15 minutes and we only add one line at a time, it isn't overwhelming. My kids also enjoy it when they take the poem/list away from me and see how much *I* can do without my cheat sheet. (Beat-The-Mommio!) Let's-surprise-Dad is another thing they enjoy ... showing off how well they do with a poem they've memorized since the last time he listened to them. (I bolded their currency for this subject. They like challenge, competition, and showing off. I cater to that for memorization. It doesn't work for all subjects, but I don't have to sell this one because the way we do it speaks to them.)

[PachiSusan]

My question back to you is how is she motivated? You need to know her 'currency' if you want to deal with her. What thrills her? What type of small reward would get her going?

 

Mine are not really "school is fun" types. However, they like the challenge of memorization. This year, we have a 15 minute "memory" block of time four times per week for all the kids to work on their poems & other memory work (science or prayers). I think it would be harder with just one kid because my kids *compete* with each other for how much they remember of a poem. (On the other hand, we wouldn't have the huffiness that can sometimes occur if another kid gets to recite the poem THEY want to do.)

 

Since it is only 15 minutes and we only add one line at a time, it isn't overwhelming. My kids also enjoy it when they take the poem/list away from me and see how much *I* can do without my cheat sheet. (Beat-The-Mommio!) Let's-surprise-Dad is another thing they enjoy ... showing off how well they do with a poem they've memorized since the last time he listened to them. (I bolded their currency for this subject. They like challenge, competition, and showing off. I cater to that for memorization. It doesn't work for all subjects, but I don't have to sell this one because the way we do it speaks to them.)

 

 

 

It's hard for the challenge because I only have one child and there's no one but me to challenge. And now that you mention it - she'd LOVE to see me struggle through memorizing it too. That might actually work!

[Kuovonne]

I find the key to memorization for my kids is understanding followed by repetition.

If they don't get it right away, that's okay, they just need more repetition.

If they can't remember even with repetition, I go back and make sure the understanding is there.

 

Eventually my kids realized that they can memorize anything if they simply keep repeating it. It might take several days, weeks, or longer, but as long as they keep it up, eventually it will be memorized.

 

I also have my kids working on several things in different subjects at once, so

if something is hard there is always something easy.

 

Oh, and I don't give my kids a choice about doing memory work. We have been doing it every day for so long that they know it is one of their non-negotiable subjects. I don't give any rewards or penalties.

 

I also try to avoid pressuring the kids to memorize something on a schedule.

Even on our memory work co-op it is okay if they don't have last week's work memorized when the next class rolls around.

[laughing lioness]

Is she auditory? dd10 can memorize stuff she hears with like, NO effort. Stuff she reads, however, is a whole 'nuther ball game. She has parts of SOTW memorized from listening to it on CD. She is memorizing Horatius at the Bridge this year and really struggling with it because it's all in print.

 

If she's auditory, get stuff on CD and MP3.

[PachiSusan]

Is she auditory? dd10 can memorize stuff she hears with like, NO effort. Stuff she reads, however, is a whole 'nuther ball game. She has parts of SOTW memorized from listening to it on CD. She is memorizing Horatius at the Bridge this year and really struggling with it because it's all in print.

 

If she's auditory, get stuff on CD and MP3.

 

 

Hmmm, she IS a very auditory child. The only thing we really do memory work with is her Baltimore Catechism. Maybe I can find that on CD!

[Tracy]

I just have my dd7 read (to me, out loud) what they are memorizing once per day. It only takes a few days to memorize a single line that way, and it is painless. Ds4 memorizes just by listening to her. They both have memorized the whole first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence that way, and it didn't even seem like work to them.

[RootAnn]

Ah! Catechism!

 

I do oldest's Catechism with her as a challenge. When we are in the active memorization phase (as opposed to review), I will sometimes close my book & she will ask me the questions. (She sometimes does it out of order & it messes me up bigtime.) She doesn't want me to know the answers before her, so she works hard on them. (I have an advantage as I'm going through book #1 with kids 2 & 3 while I'm going through book #2 with her. Some of the questions are identical with only slightly different answers. I get double the reinforcement. :coolgleamA: )

 

I encourage you to add in some "fun" poems. She'll see memorization more favorably, IMO.

 

My oldest is very visual (pictures). When she has trouble with some of the lengthy answers, she draws a picture of each part and looks at it when she's answering the questions. Eventually, she "pictures" them in her mind.

 

Do you have a recordable device? (There is a recorder on oldest's mp3 player, for example.) You can record the questions/answers for her to listen to in her spare time. See which one of you can memorize the answers most perfectly & quickest. :ph34r:

[PachiSusan]

Ah! Catechism!

 

I do oldest's Catechism with her as a challenge. When we are in the active memorization phase (as opposed to review), I will sometimes close my book & she will ask me the questions. (She sometimes does it out of order & it messes me up bigtime.) She doesn't want me to know the answers before her, so she works hard on them. (I have an advantage as I'm going through book #1 with kids 2 & 3 while I'm going through book #2 with her. Some of the questions are identical with only slightly different answers. I get double the reinforcement. :coolgleamA: )

 

I encourage you to add in some "fun" poems. She'll see memorization more favorably, IMO.

 

My oldest is very visual (pictures). When she has trouble with some of the lengthy answers, she draws a picture of each part and looks at it when she's answering the questions. Eventually, she "pictures" them in her mind.

 

Do you have a recordable device? (There is a recorder on oldest's mp3 player, for example.) You can record the questions/answers for her to listen to in her spare time. See which one of you can memorize the answers most perfectly & quickest. :ph34r:

 

It certainly can't hurt for me to learn the catechism better too, eh?? LOL

[Michelle My Bell]

we utilize youtube daily. I have info about it on my blog. i made a bunch of skip counting videos also.

 

http://homeschool-chalkboard.blogspot.com/2011/11/learning-through-memory-work.html

[CatholicMom]

My kids have memorized scripture using Sing the Word audio cd that Sonlight sells. I would say it was actually pretty easy since my ds is very auditory and good at memorizing tunes. Because it was to a tune, it really stuck. We just had to practice every day and I think we learned a line every week (?) and we didn't move on until they could sing the whole song from the beginning with the new part for a few days in a row. Then we would move on to the next line. I would explain what each line meant so they knew what they were memorizing and I'd write the line on the white board as well so I could point to each word as we sang it. Eventually my boys memorized the entirety of Psalm 1, and a few other verses, and they actually loved it because of the music/singing. I think it was probably the favorite part of their day!

[Marie131]

We are using this system for our Bible memory. It totally works!!

[violamama]

My kids are younger and I'm a less experienced hs'er than you, but I have noticed that my boys do better when I make the memory stuff really dynamic. When I get in a rush and just read it blandly or quiz them on it rather than working on memorizing it then they get frustrated, too.

 

So with a 10 yo you probably don't have to run around the couch three times while skip-counting 15's or whatever, but you might check out reading stuff aloud to her with a lot of expression in your voice.

 

When we memorize poems or scripture without songs (most of our stuff is in songs, to tell you the truth), then I try to make it very emotive. I say it 3 times, then they each say it 3 times, so that's 9 times among us. I've noticed they mimic my inflection so if there's some part they tend to forget then I make it the high point. I use funny voices if they start to get fuzzy on the passage. I add gestures. On the second or third pass, I intentionally put in a wildly wrong word. I try saying the passage but "forget" their favorite parts and then I "let" them take over. I bet you could adapt all of this for an older more mature child like yours.

 

Consistency will prove to her she can do it, too.

[Georgiana Daniels]

I'm not sure we do anything special to "motivate," other than requiring the kids to do whatever needs to be done. LOL, sadly I am probably better with consequences than motivation.

 

As far as memorizing long passages, we read through them several times first, discuss what they are about so they have context. Then we break it down into smaller chunks and work on memorizing that chunk while just reading aloud through the rest. Then we add another chunk, read aloud the rest, and so forth. Does that make sense? (Only on 1st cup of coffee after just a few hours sleep!)

[PachiSusan]

Thank you ladies for all the suggestions!! I will let you know as the weeks go by what actually works for us. I have a feeling I'm going to be memorizing catechism with her as a challenge! LOL :boxing_smiley:

[weederberries]

Something I've implemented is a Memory Book. It's a way to get all that repetition in and keep it up long term. We changed the book this year. I'll tell you how I started it and how it is now. The basics are a binder, page protectors, dividers and all of our memorization pieces typed and printed on color coded paper (yellow for math, green for poems, etc). I also recorded my voice on the computer saying each piece slowly and clearly.

 

When I first put it together, I had 4 sections in a binder: 1) daily, 2) rotational, 3) weekly storage, and 4) monthly storage. The daily (1) section was the most recent memorization piece in a page protector. An item was added to the notebook after the initial introduction and a week of practice within context. When we sat down to practice with the Memory Book, we read it once, said it together twice and my student said it independently twice.

 

The rotational (2) section was 5 tabbed page protectors. Each protector had different mode of practice written on the tab -- Read it, say it, hear it, write it, draw it. I chose the items to put in these page protectors daily from the storage sections behind them. Read it and say it are self explanatory. Writing it by memory took some work and I tried to choose shorter passages. "Hear it" meant that they pulled that audio file on the computer, listened to my voice once and then said it with the recording. The recordings have been a valuable resource for making our memorization more practical without my constant involvement. "Draw it" meant they illustrated the item.

 

The weekly (3) storage tabs held other more recent items or things we needed the most work on (math facts, long poems). There are 5 tabs, Mon-Fri, and we practiced all the items behind the tab for the corresponding day of the week. I'd simply pull them from behind the tab and slide them into one of the 5 page protectors for practice. I try to distribute the memory work so we have one of each subject (by color) behind each weekly tab.

 

The monthly (4) storage section had 31 tabs. We began by practicing the items behind the number of the corresponding calendar date, so each item would be practiced about once a month. Again, I took the items from behind the right tab and assigned them by placing them in the page protector up front.

 

This system started out smoothly, but I grew tired of rearranging the items from behind tabs to the page protectors up front. My kids also didn't appear to enjoy the drawing, etc. So, we streamlined this year.

 

The structure of the binder remains the same, but I've removed the 5 assignment page protectors. The most current selection still has a place of honor in a page protector at the front and is practiced every single day. Behind that, we simply turn to the day of the week tab and recite the items there, no other fluffy stuff. We do the same with the numbered tabs in the back, except we reduced the number to 20, being the approximate number of days we have school in the month, thereby making it more likely that every item in the book will be practiced once a month.

 

In your case, it might benefit your daughter to engage more of her senses by illustrating, make her own recording, listen to your recording, write it out, etc.