SnMomof7 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 We now have seven children. Our morning time is fairly simple right now - we pray, sing a hymn, do some scripture memory work, read aloud, and sometimes do some poems. I'd like to beef it up a bit, particularly in the memory work department by including more topics - geography, grammar rules, list of prime ministers etc. For large families - do you keep everyone on the same page and just do your work on a rotational basis so you don't miss your littles? Or do you give everyone their own memory work and review system? How does that work for you? Also, if you'd like to share what you include, I'd love to hear it. I'd like to hit some more CM elements like picture study, folk songs, and composer study. My 2nd born has developed a love for Mozart! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Our memory was always done as a family, but my olders eventually cycled out when they had demanding high school schedules and outside classes. Actually, they continued to memorize Scripture with the family until graduation. Other than Scripture memory, most other memory work was grade/age related. Math facts, presidents, states and capitals, countries/continents/major physical landmarks. We did memorize the Gettysburg address together as a family, the first part of the shorter Westminster catechism and two creeds. My kids also have memory work from church -- verses for Sunday School and choir, hymns for choir and Awana verses. These were almost completely done independently I just did not have the time or brain capacity to systematically hold them accountable here. We do enough Bible memory work at home that I wasn't *depending* on church activities. Lisa 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I don't know if I count as having a large family as I only have five, but in the fall, all five will be "school age." I've actually changed our morning/memory time up a bit these last few weeks of school. It had just been dd#2 & dd#3's memory time, but I've started making it an all-children memory time since that's my plan for the fall. Eldest was supposed to be doing her memory work as part of her weekly schedule all year, but I know she's fallen completely down on it because she can't even find her box of notecards (that I put together for her at the beginning of the year) right now! Anyway, we aren't fancy. I have a card box for eldest with her work in it -- including The Bill of Rights (which she's working on memorizing), poems, science facts/terms/formulas, some measurement stuff she was having trouble with, literary terms, and logical fallacies. The next card box has everyone else's work. Eventually, I'll have one for dd#2 & 3 & one for ds#1 & 2. They do poems, sayings, some bible verses & prayers, science memory work, some constitution stuff (Preamble, working on the Bill of Rights & list of presidents), famous speeches (from Lincoln at Gettysburg to Shakespeare), etc. The youngest start on a list loosely based on Memoria Press's recitations, easy nursery rhymes, and very short poems. Everyone hears everyone else's stuff, so sometimes I have them memorizing different poems & sayings at the same time. I've found that even the less motivated kids (with good auditory learning ability) pick up the other kid's stuff after awhile. It makes it easier to get through a lot of material although not necessarily in a quick manner. Eventually, they can use the younger kid's learning it as review for themselves, although we're only just starting to get into that. I had a separate 'enrichment' time for the younger four where we covered more of a 'book basket' time including art, art history, and even reading from the Horrible Science Body Owner's Handbook. :lol: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I give them separate Bible verses, simpler for the little ones, longer ones for the orders, and for everything else, the little ones listen in as they are able and willing. If they get bored, they go off to play. I spend time reading poetry and such with them at other times. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 I don't know if I count as having a large family as I only have five, but in the fall, all five will be "school age." I've actually changed our morning/memory time up a bit these last few weeks of school. It had just been dd#2 & dd#3's memory time, but I've started making it an all-children memory time since that's my plan for the fall. Eldest was supposed to be doing her memory work as part of her weekly schedule all year, but I know she's fallen completely down on it because she can't even find her box of notecards (that I put together for her at the beginning of the year) right now! The youngest start on a list loosely based on Memoria Press's recitations, easy nursery rhymes, and very short poems. I would say 5 counts as a large family, especially if they are all in school! I will only have 4 schooling officially in the fall. My oldest drops her memory work I she does it on her own, as well. She knows 8-10 Psalms and I'm afraid she'll lose them if she doesn't keep reviewing. I'm thinking of setting up virtual boxes on Scripture Box for each child - I am SO bad at keeping physical boxes going, and the toddler (whoever it is at that time) always dumps them. I am definitely going to buy some of those MP recitation guide PDFs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 I give them separate Bible verses, simpler for the little ones, longer ones for the orders, and for everything else, the little ones listen in as they are able and willing. If they get bored, they go off to play. I spend time reading poetry and such with them at other times. Our Sunday School gives two separate verses each week - one for youngers and one for olders (sometimes that is two verses), so they already have some different work going on there. My youngers just hang out too :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 Other than Scripture memory, most other memory work was grade/age related. Math facts, presidents, states and capitals, countries/continents/major physical landmarks. We did memorize the Gettysburg address together as a family, the first part of the shorter Westminster catechism and two creeds. Lisa Thanks, Lisa. How did you facilitate the age/grade related memory work? Did you keep it reviewed somehow? I always fret about the brain space issue of keeping it all going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I'm thinking of setting up virtual boxes on Scripture Box for each child - I am SO bad at keeping physical boxes going, and the toddler (whoever it is at that time) always dumps them. I am definitely going to buy some of those MP recitation guide PDFs! We are not a techno-household, so I have to have everything in hard copy. It is so weird for my youngest to be as old as he is. I can finally have pencils down at grabbable level. :w00t: I'd start with one of the MP recitation guides in PDF & see what you think. I'm tweaking pretty heavily, but I really like that they have all the lists in one place to pick from. Saves what brain power I have left! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparrowsNest Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I am a newbie, just finishing up our first year with Morning Time. You might want to take everything I say here with a grain of salt. Or, maybe bring along an entire salt lick! Morning Time is my biggest single time investment in our home school. This year I have had 4 with me -- a 6th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, and, for half the year, a K'er. Here's what we do: 10-15m Music: Listen to a selection from our composer 20m Prayer time. I sneak in memory work here because we recite a Psalm and another meaningful passage (the Magnificat, the Nicene Creed, etc.) and a hymn. 2m Wisdom: Read that day's Wisdom passage (usually a Latin or Biblical phrase of interest) 10m Bible Study: VP Bible cards, 1 day read the back, 1 day read the Bible passage, 1 day talk about it, 1 day review 30m Poetry: So, each kiddo has a poem to read aloud for each week. On Friday, we discuss their poem (structural/thematic elements). 15m Cultural Studies: Here's where we go in depth on artists, composers, philosophers, literary greats 10m Shakespeare: A scene a day 30m Memory Work: CC, all subjects, poetry selection, Shakespeare selection 20m Read Aloud/Guided Reading I know it adds up to more, but somehow we are usually done in ~2 hours. Psalms, Hymns, and Composers change every month. We don't move on from a memory selection until it's memorized. Right now, I have a list of all the novels I'd like us to read, poems to memorize, Scripture, Shakespeare, etc., some of it taken from Living Memory, some of it just things I want them to know. I don't plan on rotating things really. To me, it's more important that you've memorized some Shakespeare, and less important whether you've memorized "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" or "Shall I compare thee." Everything is organized in our Morning Time notebooks. The kids have a copy of our prayers, the Psalm, the hymn, their weekly poems, and whatever selections we're memorizing. I keep everything, including all completed memory work, in my notebook. Every day I just flip to the section in my notebook and we review 1 old poetry/Scripture selection plus 1 week of CC from the two cycles we've done. I move the post-it note to the next poem or week, and I'm ready for the next day. My kids don't keep their past memory work in their notebooks. I have the hard copies, and when we review, I will give them a prompt if they need it. This basic system has worked well for us and when we start school again, I will only tweak it to add a weekly folk song (I took the list from the Core Knowledge series) and our artist of the month. This was supposed to have been happening in the afternoon, but it just got really difficult to gather back together and do it. Hope that helps! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlcc Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 No advice regarding the memorization. We are lacking in this area. We've been working on Genesis 1 all year. :) A few resources we tried this year that we liked are The Story of ______ in Words and Music (I linked to the Mozart one), and Simply Charlotte Mason's Picture Study Portfolios. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 I have found one hour of group time to be the limit here. We do a half hour of devotion followed by a half hour of memory work. We do our read aloud time earlier in the morning in my bed and I don't make them sit there for more than their chosen picture book or chapter book unless they want to but next year I may require it depending on how capable I feel of enforcing that based on my energy levels. At devotion I have them take turns praying. Then we sing the hymn of the month and one review hymn. If I have a story to go with the review hymn I read it. Then the oldest four each read a few verses from Psalms and Proverbs and we discuss them. Then I close us in prayer. For memory work we go by the day of the month. The first 24 days of the month we review all three cycles of CC memory work for the week that goes with the date. (Week 12 on May 12th for example.) We also do Our 24 Family Ways this way but we don't do the devotion part because we went through it before. I also read the manner of the day and the character trait of the month. We sing a catechism song we are learning and review one old one. We read about eight poems each month over and over. The last week of the month we don't work on CC and instead we are memorizing a presentation of the gospel and discussing it as we go. They do a drawing for me daily, but the last week of the month they have to draw a map and we focus on one continent each month but combine Australia and Antarctica so we do each continent for two weeks each year. At the end of memory work time I put on a long Scripture song and they sing it while transitioning to independent study time. I may make memory work more independent eventually but I do enjoy the together time right now. I do want to make each of my readers a folder to be able to follow along better. We try to put the toddler down for nap right before starting. I require the three year old to sit for devotion but not for memory work and I require the five year old to sit for the whole hour. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 I print out the memory selection and cut/paste it to an index card. As each kid says the selection from memory he/she signs the back of the card. I can pull the cards out for review any time and easily check who has already mastered each memory piece. My 5yo and 3yo are learning same things as the older kids. It wasn't my original plan to include them, but they started reciting what the others were learning, so now they are included. My 3yo memorizes more easily than my 16yo....:-P. And the little ones LOVE signing the back of the card along with the big kids :-). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 We do as much work as a family as we can. I "only" have 5 DC (4 are school aged). We somewhat follow Simply Charlotte Mason's free curriculum guide, but I substitute some materials. We memorize Bible verses and catechism and use SCM's scripture memory box. We also do daily Bible readings following a classic CM schedule of OT 2 days/week and NT 2 days/week. Once a week we have a Sunday reading (I alternate a couple of books for this). We also have a hymn to work on. I picked out 8 hymns at the beginning of the year to learn and we spend a month or so on each one. I don't expect my younger ones to have as much memorized as the bigger ones, but I figure they will learn more as we keep reviewing the verses. We like to cover geography through map drills, but haven't done them in awhile (we'll start them back up next fall). I print out an outline map for the continent we are working on. Each week they have a drill to see how many countries they can label. SCM has a "Visits To..." series that alternates map drills with literature based lessons using picture books or Material World to learn more about the culture of that area. This makes it very easy to cover. We also like Geopuzzles. We also do Latin as a family using Memoria Press. I teach it as a group subject by doing the lessons orally. I sometimes have the older ones copy the words (and we usually have new words listed on our dry erase board). We really only use the CD and teacher's manual. To be honest, this is going very slowly as it seems the first subject to get dropped! I've been making an effort to finish the book by early next fall and move onto the next level. For CM studies, I'm working on moving these to the afternoons...we previously did this in between readings, but as my DC have gotten older (and I've added more kids) our morning time has gotten shorter. My goal is to fit in one or two "extras" each day. We will be switching to ELTL next year and it will cover poetry and picture study on an individual basis...that will change those areas of our study. I try to use books that can be used for multiple ages and multiple years. We currently use Laying Down the Rails for Children (character/habits), Natural Science Through the Seasons (nature study), Handbook of Nature Study, The Young Reader's Shakespeare, Poetry for Young People, and various sources for music/picture study. I'm thinking of having a index card binder for each of them to keep their poems in. So far we haven't done much poetry memorization, but ELTL has them do quite a bit of memorization for poetry (and grammar). I think the index card binders will keep this information well organized. I'd still like to keep their Bible/catechism work as a family project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Can you tell me more about your Bible reading schedule, Holly Ann? Do you read one chapter daily and alternate OT/NT? I'd like to do more Bible reading as a family. I always do Bible stories with the littles and the olders have a curriculum they use. I was thinking one chapter daily an a Psalm for the month (I'm a huge Psalm memorizer, personally.) We are doing something new for prayer time, so far, so good. We have a prayer jar, people can write requests on blank slips and put them in the jar, then at prayer time we pass the jar and people pull out prayers and start praying. Spontaneous prayers are always welcome, of course. We used to have a lot of people passing on praying, but now everyone prays, many times, very exciting! I just switched this to breakfast so DH can participate, instead of after chores. I hope that continues to go well :). I have an overall plan taking form. I've been slogging through a lot of blog posts at Wildflower and Marble and Amongst Lovely Things. I'll post more about it when I get a few more things sorted mentally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 An idea from Living Memory, that you may want to adapt for your family, is to make a memory folder instead of a box. Boxes get dropped/knocked and spill in my experience. I was thinking you could keep a master folder instead of seven individual folders? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purduemeche Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 We have an hour of every day called "symposium" (credit to Sarah McKenzie for the name). This hour: 1. read aloud to all the kids (currently on book 5 of the Little House series) 2. memorizing poetry (currently on Dutch Lullaby) 3. study a famous artist per week (using the art cards deck) 4. listen to 10-15 minutes of classical music (currently on The Planets by Holst) It is wonderful time for our family to focus on things that are true, good and beautiful and to train my childrens' affections. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 purduemeche, What art cards do you use? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 I'd like to know about be art cards, too. Is it the Masterpiece art card set? Which hymnals do you all use? I have a hard time finding one with all my favorites. I've just been printing sheet music and putting in a duo tang so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 We have an hour of every day called "symposium" (credit to Sarah McKenzie for the name). This hour: 1. read aloud to all the kids (currently on book 5 of the Little House series) 2. memorizing poetry (currently on Dutch Lullaby) 3. study a famous artist per week (using the art cards deck) 4. listen to 10-15 minutes of classical music (currently on The Planets by Holst) It is wonderful time for our family to focus on things that are true, good and beautiful and to train my childrens' affections. I was thinking about your post this morning while running errands. Starting the morning out with beautiful literature, art, and music sounds lovely. I like the idea of putting delightful content at the beginning of the day instead of at the end where they may be skipped (at least in my house). This next part is in no way a critique of your symposium. Your post inspired the thought and I often type out replies on here to just flesh an idea out- have a complete thought. The phrase, "true, good, and beautiful," gets tossed about a lot in the Circe/Schole sisters realm- perhaps a bit too much. It almost seems a whole separate set of subjects: "Johnny, what did you do in school today?" "I had math and science before lunch and a session of truth this afternoon. Now I just need to study some good and beautiful before dinner." ;) They are what we are to seek and strive for in all things. Edith Schaefer talks about seeing beauty and good in how her mom plated food for some homeless men, cleaning and, well, all things domestic. There is truth and beauty in a math problem or diagramming a well written sentence (or diagramming a poorly constructed sentence and exploring how to improve it). I need to remember that is the purpose behind all subjects. To tie this thought back to this thread, an approach to morning time would be asking, "What do I want my children to feast on today?" Off to go create some beauty in my laundry room and think some more... Thank you purduemeche! :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Thanks, Lisa. How did you facilitate the age/grade related memory work? Did you keep it reviewed somehow? I always fret about the brain space issue of keeping it all going. Jennifer, To be honest, we do not systematically review memory work. Other than math facts and Latin declensions, which are used consistently, the other memory work is done and then we pretty much move on to the next. Now, we spend a lot of time on memory work. We may spend several months memorizing a long psalm or John 1. My two youngers spent the entire year (every Friday) working on Level 1 of Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, so that was reviewed every Friday. We often recited poems in the car or as they came up in life -- last week on our family vacation looking out over the summit of white cliffs on our hike, we recited The Eagle. We will periodically go back and review scriptures we've learned. But again, it's not systematic, it's more like, "Hey, I'm going to take this next month and review some scripture portions we learned rather than going on with a new one." Because we memorize large blocks of scripture and whole poems, I find that my kids are pretty good at putting it in the long-term memory. Interestingly, they have not retained the VP history timeline. But we didn't emphasize that as much as other things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porridge Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Are there good resources for memory work in science and history? We are not part of CC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Are there good resources for memory work in science and history? We are not part of CC. Veritas Press has a history timeline with cards which you could use as a stand alone or -- best -- alongside your choice of history curriculum for that time period. VP divides world and American History in a 5-year cycle. CC has an app for its cycles that can be purchased separately from curriculum. I haven't used CC at all, so I can't attest to it, but I know many that love its structure. Lisa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 We are not a part of CC, but have purchased the CD's. The history sentences come with songs. and the timeline is in song form. Those are the only 2 things we use from the CD's though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 I do believe I will use a combination of some ideas for memory work. I will set up a master binder with two basic sections, new and review. It is TOO much for me to set up multiple sections for each child :). We will put the initials of children who have the piece memorized on the front, so when we get a few kids who should learn it, we'll pull it out again. Every day we'll work on the active stuff and a few review pieces and just cycle through it for review. Thanks or all the ideas! As for the larger morning time, Bible has shifted to breakfast for listening and mealtime conversation; we sing hymns daily (either new or review), I'm reading poetry daily, and we are somewhat randomly cycling through our current read aloud (almost daily), cultural literacy readings, sayings, folk songs (those last three from What Your __ Grader series), poetry feasts where everyone can select several poems to hear, and Story of the Orchestra. I'd like to firm that all up a bit and add daily Psalm singing (maybe one a month), more memory topics, and picture study (composers will wait until after SOO). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Lyrical Science is good for science songs. They have lots of vocab in them. VP cards and songs are more Western Civ focused and CC cards are more globally focused which is why I like having both. Also CC's Timeline cards have a lot more info on them than VP cards do so they are more appropriate for older children so I also like having both so that I have one appropriate for different ages. They would work excellently for using two different sources on the same subject for an IEW paper because many cards have the same event. Has anyone used Living Memory by Andrew Campbell? I am thinking of getting this at some point and seeing if it would be good for self-study for the kids (I'm trying to make as much as possible independent over time). But it doesn't have manners or character or the gospel in it. And nothing is done by songs, which makes it easier to use individually but harder to stick in general. I am thinking of dividing everything into 24 weeks or less and then giving my kids that can read independently only the cards that go with #1 until they learn those (shooting for a month) and then the next month the next set and of course having them continue to review old cards (like on an odd/even day basis) until they end up with enough sets that they review the other ones on the day of the month it comes up. They would use the 25th to the end of the month to JUST focus on the new material. After two years they should know all the cards and just continue to review. I guess it could be done with pages instead of cards, but that might take a lot of typing on my part or a lot of flipping pages in their folder on their part. This would take memory work (besides hymns and songs we play in the car or during chores) off my plate. I'm thinking about it..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 A memory binder tutorial I have found very helpful: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/memory-work-binders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Very helpful! Thanks, Jennifer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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