Classical Conversations- Ideas for Memory work practice?

[hsmomshutterbug]

Hello-

For anyone out there using classical conversations foundation memory work either on your own or in a community- how have you found success reviewing the memory work, beyond things like listening to the CD's or watching the iPad App? When do you fit it in? How many times of day or how much total time on average do you spend working on it (outside of the community day)?  thanks for any feedback! 

[moskitoe]

HI, During the four years we were part of CC we treated the memory work as the cornerstone of our day. My son began in first grade and was achieving memory master by third and fourth grade. He enjoyed our memory practice time because it was oral and it did not require him to hold a pencil. Some days it was the only academic thing we did but I feel it was substantial. We would get to it first thing in the morning and just drill through all the subjects. If it was week 5, we would go through the first five weeks in each subject. It took more and more time as the year went on. In the beginning of the week I would ask the question and we would repeat it together three times or he could read it aloud three times. By the end of the week he would have it memorized. With the timeline we would go through the whole thing everyday. I would hold up each card and he would say it aloud. Eventually, he would know it bit by bit. During our time off from CC in November and December, we would keep drilling so that we could be several weeks ahead by April and comfortably with reach of Memory Master. For us it was an important goal because memory work was the bulk of our day. But I know many people that treat it as a complement to their schooling and may do only one subject per day. It all depends on what your goals are, for me, I felt that the grammar years were the perfect time for this plus my child was not really crazy about doing a lot of writing. This year he is in fifth grade and we have taken a break from CC for a new baby that will be here soon and because I wanted him to make the shift to more bookish independent work. But I do plan to keep integrating memory work. I am just not sure where to put it now that he has a more formal and longer school day. 

 

It would take us about 45 min to get through the memory work. He liked to do it quickly and did not like the sings because he felt it slowed him down. I will say that I feel it was time well spent as I see now that he is not afraid of memorizing long pieces of information and he has great retention. 

[hsmomshutterbug]

Thanks for the feedback moskitoe.  It was helpful for me to hear the amount of time you spent….I was wondering how much time is needed for review in order to not forget the stuff from past weeks.  

[MeganW]

We had Week 10 last Tuesday.  Wed-Fri, each time we got in the car we reviewed Week 8 once, Week 9 twice, and Week 10 three times.  Then on Monday, we will review everything we have learned so far this year, and spend a little extra time shoring up anything they missed. 
 

Geography - as part of their daily independent schoolwork, I have my kids trace a map and label all the places they have learned so far this year in CC.  It usually takes them about 15 minutes.  They each have 4 laminated maps in their folders - World, Europe, Central Americas, and Asia - each map has the applicable weeks' locations printed on the back.  Each kid also has tracing paper & blank white paper.

- Mondays they blob a world map (including compass rose, prime meridian & major latitude lines, continents/oceans, and the week 8 stuff (cape of good hope, etc.). 

- Wed & Fri they trace the map that has the new info (last week they traced Asia, adding Afghanistan & so on).

- Thurs they can trace either Europe or Central Americas (which we had learned in prior weeks) - they choose the one they think they need more work on.

They do all the tracing, and then using a list of places, try to label them without looking at the labeled map.  (They can look if they need to, but try it first without.)
 

Timeline - each of my kids has a half-size 3 ring binder filled with plain notebook paper.  Each day they get one timeline card and copy the title on a page, then attempt to draw the picture from the TL card.  Then they read the back and copy their favorite "fun fact".  (For my son, it is always the shortest sentence he can find, but the girls actually make a little more of an effort!)  Their knowledge & understanding of the timeline has really gotten a lot better this year!  I still don't think they could tell you about every event without looking, but they know more than they did!!

The only other thing I can think of - I encourage my kids to do their presentations on either the history or the science they learned the week before.  It really does help that stuff stick when they know a little about it!

 

[MeganW]

Oh - one more thing.  Each of my kids has a "story-player" (Walkman CD player with headphones) that they use at night after lights out to listen to audio stories or music or whatever.  I made each kid a CD with the semester's memory work.  It has silly songs from CC Connected and other things that aren't on the regular CC CD that we use together.  I made a coordinating notebook for each kid with all the material in subject order.

 

The kids are welcome to listen to the memory work CD or not.  I have found that they use it a lot the night after CC and the night before CC, just reviewing the new material. 

Our community also encourages "Mini Memory Master" practice proofings (with their moms) after each 6 week period, and those who make it are recognized.  So my kids are VERY motivated right around proofing time and listen to those CDs & use their notebooks nonstop during that time!

 

[Staceyshoe]

We did CC Foundations for 3 years and used the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory system.  I photocopied from the Foundations Guide and put the Q on one side of an index card and the A on the back.  (The Memory Cards from CC would be the same thing without the prep work.)  We reviewed cards every day while my son ate breakfast.  This was we didn't waste time reviewing what he had already mastered and didn't let memorized material slip between the cracks to be forgotten.  We spent a max of 20 minutes/day on it (during breaks also), and he learned all the memory work each year.  We just treated CC as a separate subject instead of coordinating it with our other studies.

[edeemarie]

I am not in CC (though it has always intrigued me!) but I know that A Journey Through Learning has lapbooks to help review some of the memory work. [url=https://www.ajourneythroughlearningaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=203_11_3_4]

[kateingr]

I'm new to CC this year and have been pondering the same issues, especially as the weeks to review accumulate. What I'm doing right now is based off of the Simply Charlotte Mason system.

 

Daily: review current week

Monday and Thursday: review previous week

Wednesday and Friday: review two weeks ago

(Tuesday is our community day.)

 

Then, I photocopied and cut up the foundations guide for the first twelve weeks, divided the stack into fourths and glued each fourth to a sheet of paper. We are now reviewing one of these sheets each day, up to whatever week we are on (since it includes some weeks we haven't done yet.) I like how this makes review more manageable, and we can either just plow through it together on the couch or we can do a game if that's a better fit for the day.

[fourisenough]

Up to this point (week 10), we've reviewed everything (all subjects, all previous weeks) orally on our days at home (3 per week).  In addition, we listen to the timeline song and sometimes the audio memory work by week CD in the car.  Now that we have so many weeks to cover, I'm just doing a couple subjects each day (again, 3 days per week), but always reviewing all the weeks.  It is time consuming, but she is succeeding and enjoying it so far.  I have recently found two review games to use at home over the December break: Jenga (http://antiquatednotions.com/tag/jenga/) and Sequence (http://www.livingouthislove.com/2013/07/cc-memory-review-cc-sequence.html). They are printed and ready to go, so hopefully they'll be a fun change of pace over our holiday vacation.