Memorization

[DJB]

I feel like I need to be convinced of the benefits of this. I'm getting there, but it feels like force-feeding my kid sometimes. She's resistant to it, and it's hard! Help!

[Rosie_0801]

What are you trying to make her memorise?

[PeterPan]

18 hours ago, DJB said:

She's resistant to it, and it's hard! Help!

How old is this dc and what are you trying to memorize? Can she *repeat* the content after you?

Sometimes when things are hard you're seeing indications of ADHD (which affects working memory) or language issues. I would definitely want to consider whether something more is going on before assuming it's a behavior problem. Most kids *enjoy* memory work at a young age and almost anyone enjoys doing what they can do well. 

Has this dc ever had speech therapy or issues with hearing or other things that might play a part? Any issues with noise, attention, sensory?

[Emily ZL]

I think memorizing long things or seemingly pointless history facts etc can be daunting, especially for older kids who aren't used to exercising that muscle. A younger kid can be expected to enjoy it while an older kid (3rd grade) starting for the first time might be more against it. Starting with something short and fun like a short Robert Louis Stevenson poem, and celebrating somehow when you are done, can get it going as a fun thing.

 

The benefits depend on your goals and what you are memorizing. I'm not sure how much benefit there is to memorizing the presidents, unless the child really wants to. But I think poetry memorization is incredibly beneficial. I have watched my kids stumble over archaic words and struggle with the rhythm, and by the time they have it down, they have complete facility with these words and syntax even if it's from Shakespeare or from the 1600s. It absolutely exposes them to hard language and vocab but then it actually leads them to internalize it because it's in their memory and not just something they read and forget.

 

There are so many favorites - Rain, The Cow, Windy Nights (perfect for Halloween and sounds like galloping if said well), Where Go the Boats etc. And my favorite is Robert Frost's Stopping by woods on a snowy evening, which is beautiful and surprisingly easy to remember if done one stanza at a time. Sometimes letting the child browse the poems and choose the one to work on makes it better. Try to see if you can have fun with it! Good luck!

 

[serendipitous journey]

On 9/24/2021 at 2:18 PM, DJB said:

I feel like I need to be convinced of the benefits of this. I'm getting there, but it feels like force-feeding my kid sometimes. She's resistant to it, and it's hard! Help!

Seconding other above: what are you having her memorize? 

Edited September 27, 2021 by serendipitous journey

[Clarita]

My kids have an easier time memorizing stuff that we are also doing lessons or something else with. So they memorize math and science facts naturally (I just have to find/make a short succinct statement). My youngest (3) uses these memorized statements to figure out if something is a particular shape; I showed her a 5 min video on shapes.

Poetry and scripture I haven't pushed too hard. We just read the same thing over the course of the week and my only expectation is that they listen while I read. If they choose to repeat it they can.

I didn't start off being enthusiastic about having them memorize anything, but it's growing on me. I've seen them be able to use more sophisticated language over time and compared to peers. In math and handwriting it seems to help them be more fluent (quicker). Of course for math and handwriting it's in conjuncture with hands-on activities and practice. In language arts and reading, To me it's another tool to learn things.

[Not_a_Number]

1 hour ago, Clarita said:

I've seen them be able to use more sophisticated language over time and compared to peers.

I'll say that we've never memorized any poetry or anything and our kids definitely use more sophisticated language than other kids. It's basically because WE use more sophisticated language around the house and it gets internalized and because they read a lot and also because they are simply bright kids. 

 

On 9/24/2021 at 5:18 PM, DJB said:

I feel like I need to be convinced of the benefits of this. I'm getting there, but it feels like force-feeding my kid sometimes. She's resistant to it, and it's hard! Help!

My personal stance is that forcing stuff that the kid totally doesn't want to do isn't usually an awesome idea. It always makes me think about whether there's a less resistance-producing way to meet the same goal. 

[Clarita]

2 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

I'll say that we've never memorized any poetry or anything and our kids definitely use more sophisticated language than other kids. It's basically because WE use more sophisticated language around the house and it gets internalized and because they read a lot and also because they are simply bright kids. 

That could be true too. It could just be the exposure. 

[Not_a_Number]

5 minutes ago, Clarita said:

That could be true too. It could just be the exposure. 

I remember that my much younger half-sister used to say we used very "scientifical" language when she was little, lol. She wasn't used to people using big words around little kids (she didn't grow up in the same family I did.) But we always do with our kids and they definitely absorb it. 

Edited September 28, 2021 by Not_a_Number

[Roadrunner]

We used to memorize poetry when my kids were young. Those are some of the most tender memories we have homeschooling. My kids always regret not continuing past 4th grade with it. 

[Quarter Note]

There are really two main benefits to memorizing anything:

1.  It's useful.  SWB uses the example (somewhere in TWTM) that every American should know the years of the Civil War, so that you can immediately place a nineteenth century date in context.  For me, I memorized all the names, symbols, origins, and atomic weights (well, not all of the atomic weights) of the elements in the periodic table.  Saved a lot of time looking up!  Every kid who has already been exposed to the definition a chemical mole should know Avogadro's number.  My daughter, who has always been fascinated with nuclear physics, decided that she wanted to memorize the decay path of uranium.  (You go, kid.)  Stuff like that.  

2.  (More important) It's fun!  My husband memorized the digits of pi out to some crazy place value, because that's the kind of thing people like him do for fun.  Poetry is lots of fun to memorize.  When you can roll A.A. Milne's "Sneezles" off your tongue, you know the fun that words can bring.  My daughter loves to recite Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells" because she loves the sounds.  

So don't memorize things just because someone says that you ought to.  But, given that, as Longfellow says in "A Psalm of Life", 

"Life is real!  Life is earnest!
And the grave is not the goal..."

and knowing how much fun life is when you know more about it and dig deeper into it, why wouldn't you?  🙂

[serendipitous journey]

I agree that poetry memorization is worthwhile.  However -- perhaps because we're still doing it! -- the children are not so convinced 😉 

To make things easier I use IEW's Poetry Memorization book.  I have a copy for each child, and sub poems in freely as desirable. 

[Porridge]

We love the poem Disobedience by AA Milne- fun poem with great meter and rhyme!

[goldenecho]

What age?   Does she read well?

There's a trick you can try.   Have her help YOU memorize something in stead of the other way around.  By the time she's done helping you by reading along as you recite it and correcting you, she will probably have memorized it herself as well.