Anybody use the WTM Gr.1 suggestion to memorize the Pharoah's of Egypt?

[Canada_Mom]

How did you go about doing this? So far our memory work has been the 10 Commandments and lots of poetry. She memorizes a new poem every 2 weeks then recites it for our family.

 

How does one help a child memorize names? Do you use a jingle or chant them along to a familiar tune or just straight drill work?

 

Also, is there a point to this? I would like memory work to bare some sort of fruit in the end... For example, I see the usefulness in memorizing the prepositions etc as suggested in FLL. Will memorizing the Pharoahs and Emperors of Rome be useful for us, keeping in mind that we are already doing memory work on a weekly basis?

 

Just wondering... :D and hoping to maybe cut down our workload a bit. :p

[Kendra]

...my .02...

 

Our oldest is a 9th grader in his third year of VP Omnibus. We have used TWTM since he was a kindergartener, and started his first history cycle using VP. I ditched memorizing the Pharoahs because there is only so much time in the day (thank you, Laurie Bluedorn) and that was not how I wanted to spend it. Seven kiddos later, I would still choose to use our memory work time on poetry, Scripture, the Apostle's Creed, the Westminster Confession, the Ten Commandments, the books of the Bible, famous geographical locations, the 50 states, the continents, the planets... phew. It's a lot, isn't it? So, knowing that I want them to memorize those things, the Pharoahs and such got the boot.

 

And for that 9th grader, it hasn't mattered a lick.

 

HTH!

[Sue G in PA]

As previously mentioned, there is just so much time in the day and I'd rather my dc spend it doing something that will be beneficial to them later. Unless they plan to go on and be historians (which would be fine with me!) or history teachers, I can't see the point. OR, they land a spot on Jeapardy or some other quiz show! Memory work is fine, but I just don't see they "why" to memorizing the Pharaohs (sorry SWB!) except to say you did! Just my humble 2 cents!

[karensk]

...of memorizing a list of names and lists in general. Here's some of what we memorized when dd was 4 and ds was 7:

 

 

• geneaology from Adam to Noah
  
• 12 sons of Jacob
  
• 12 tribes of Israel
  
• 7 days of creation
  
• 10 plagues in Egypt
  
• types of ministry Jesus did (teaching, healing, feeding, et al)
  

 

 

This was in addition to poetry and Bible verses/passages. The geneaology and tribes lists as well as the longer Scripture passages were put to rhythm.

 

Though they have forgotten the Adam to Noah list, they still remember the 12 sons of Jacob (& tribes of Israel, I think). But we're not as good at reviewing old memory work as we ought to be....

 

HTH!

[Friederike in Persia]

Stuff that doesn't rhyme (geography,....) I read to them, then we say it together a few times, next they get to say it on their own. After 2 or 3 days of that they usually have it, for about a week, if we don't repeat it.

 

One of my daughters is a natural at learning by heart, when I'm short on time I just hand it to her and she'll learn it on her own. More boring for her, but saves time for me.

[Trivium Academy]

No.

 

1. I cannot pronounce them.

2. There is only so much time in the day.

3. There is only so much my kids will be willing to do and if *I'm* having problems, how can I expect them to do it?

4. I see the usefulness so I decided to get Veritas Press History Cards instead.

5. Mimicking others- we have memory work in other subjects that are more beneficial in the short term as well as long term.

[JenBlok]

We didn't memorize them, but we made a chart and put the more notable ones in order and gave each a descriptive caption: warrior, monotheist, woman, etc. The kids remember that Ahmosis was before King Tut... the relative chronology anyway :)

 

Jennifer Blok

ds9, ds7, dd3

[74Heaven]

Egyptian history over the years. From a history perspective and literature, I would think Roman and Greek historical and mythical figures would be much more valuable then the list of Pharoahs.

 

I agree with most everyone who has posted about *not* memorizing the kings/pharoahs lists.

 

lisaj

[Sandy in Indy]

I must have skipped right over that idea. No Pharoahs here. Scripture or poetry, but no Pharoahs.

[Linda...inOwasso]

NO. Never even considered it. Like others, we memorize poetry, VP history cards (all), US Presidents, science, geography, math facts & Latin chants.

 

Pick what's most important to you and what you feel will be of most use to your children. Memory work is very important, but it's not the most enjoyable part of our day, so I keep it to the most beneficial information.

 

HTH!

[DawnUK]

We memorized the Emperors from Augustus to Diocletion, but they are only in 5th grade this year so I'm not sure how useful it will be later on. They memorized them two year ago, and they still review it when we review memory work on Fridays. The Pharoah's, though, seemed too hard. The names are hard to say, and I didn't feel like it was as important to a classical education.

--Dawn

[Rhesa]

No way! Nothing would dampen my son's enthusiasm like memorizing a list of Pharoahs.

 

And, unless your child is going to be an Egyptologist (in which case, they can memorize them later), I think it's a waste of gray matter.

 

As mentioned by others, I would much rather we memorize scripture, great speeches, poetry, even the Greek gods- much more relevant. (IMHO!!:p)

[Colleen in NS]

How did you go about doing this? So far our memory work has been the 10 Commandments and lots of poetry. She memorizes a new poem every 2 weeks then recites it for our family.

 

How does one help a child memorize names? Do you use a jingle or chant them along to a familiar tune or just straight drill work?

 

Also, is there a point to this? I would like memory work to bare some sort of fruit in the end... For example, I see the usefulness in memorizing the prepositions etc as suggested in FLL. Will memorizing the Pharoahs and Emperors of Rome be useful for us, keeping in mind that we are already doing memory work on a weekly basis?

 

We did. When ds was in 1st grade, it was easy for him to chant down through a list of the first 20 pharaohs - he loved saying the names as we figured out how to pronounce them. He's older now and is memorizing a list of CDN prime ministers, and we did that with a song (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) to make it easier.

 

I started off with the pharaohs list simply because it was in WTM and I was relying on WTM to get me started with educating my kids. When we get to Ancient history again next year, though, dd, who will be in 2nd grade, will memorize it, too. I DO think it's useful as a "peg" on which to hang future historical information they might study. That's the use of memorizing such lists - to use as reference later on. You just have to pick which lists you think are important to memorize. For this reason, I've later added other memory work such as Bible passages, Books of the Bible, Canadian Prime Ministers, etc..

 

If you want to cut down on work but still add in memorizing such history lists, how about cutting the poem memory work to once a month? Or just having her memorize the list 4 or 5 at a time?

 

hth