Bad at doing Memory Work.

[Alana in Canada]

In the conversation about Living Memory below, I posted we are bad at actually doing Memory work.

 

I have read all sorts of "methods" (repetition, repetition, repetition) and I've looked at Simply Carlotte Mason (and Rose's adaptation) in order to review what was memorized--but, frankly, it just is not getting done!

 

So, I don't need information...and I have a vague sense of why it is important--but perhaps that's my problem? I'm just not convinced, or rather not convinced enough to overcome, not inertia, but resistence?

 

The more I think about it, the more I think it's that I'm avoiding something I find difficult and unpleasant (the kids do resist). Is there anything I could do about that, I wonder?

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA.

[Karen in CO]

I'd start with something that they want to learn so that you get the habit and the techniques that work for you down before you try to apply them to something harder. I give my dd a couple of books of poetry and have her choose one to learn. We use it for copywork, and we practice it orally most days. So far she has seriously impressed me with her ability to memorize. The youngest has even started memorizing poems too. I tend to think of it as exercise for their little brains because the more they memorize, the easier it is for them to memorize more things. And there is a great benefit for them to learn that they can do something like learn a whole, long, hard poem. It really helps to build self-confidence because they have truly done something hard.

[MIch elle]

Singing is an excellent way of memorizing. Start by finding a hymn or unlifting song and sing it everyday with your dc for several weeks. The words, after singing it everyday, become part of you.

 

We've sung:

Amazing Grace

Come All Ye Faithful

America the Beautiful

and lots of others

 

We've gotten tapes on singing the books of the Bible; VP history & more.

[Karen in CO]

Singing is an excellent way of memorizing.

 

You are so much more fun that I am. I never even thought of that. I even have the kids learn songs, but never thought of it as memory work. MIch elle is totally right, singing would be a great way to start especially for a reluctant mom.

[abbeyej]

Definitely start with something you love -- it could be because it's "fun" or because it's deeply meaningful to you, either way -- but you do need to see the inherent value in the thing to be memorized.

 

One of my kids' favorites is one that Andrew Pudewa starts with in his poetry memorization program:

Ooey Gooey (Anonymous)

Ooey Gooey was a worm.

A mighty worm was he!

He stepped upon the railroad tracks;

The train he did not see...

Oooooooey Gooooooooey!

 

It's funny. It's silly. Nearly anyone can memorize the whole thing in a matter of two or three minutes. It lends itself to hand motions ("mighty worm!" show muscles, "did not see" look out to the horizon), and it ends with that wonderful sound of kid disgust as part of the surprise ending.

 

Or do something beautiful (Sea Fever by John Masefield happens to spring to my mind)...

 

We have slacked about this lately, but for a very long time we started our days with memory time (and will again soon), and my kids have thoroughly enjoyed it. We do a mix of things -- some silly, some profound, some just practical (like Latin paradigms). We also sing some songs then (hymns and folk songs, mostly)... It's a great way to start the day -- all of us together, working on the same things, reinforcing what we have learned together...

[Alana in Canada]

Thanks.

 

Would the songs from Lingua Angelica count? ;)

(I just bought it!)

 

We just got home from a homeschooling conference where the kids memorized a whole bunch f songs and scriptures in just two days.

 

Then, we're trying to memorize two verses this week--and nada. Nothing. Blech. They sort of perked up a bit when I put in a couple of hand motions--but I'm bad at that sort of thing, too and they lost interest the second they saw me waver.

 

Fun. Yes, we need fun.

 

(And in more than just memory work, right now, too!)

[Jen in PA]

Definitely start with something you love -- it could be because it's "fun" or because it's deeply meaningful to you, either way -- but you do need to see the inherent value in the thing to be memorized.

 

One of my kids' favorites is one that Andrew Pudewa starts with in his poetry memorization program:

Ooey Gooey (Anonymous)

Ooey Gooey was a worm.

A mighty worm was he!

He stepped upon the railroad tracks;

The train he did not see...

Oooooooey Gooooooooey!

 

My grandmother used to tell us this one all the time -- and yet it never even entered my mind when I thought about things worthy of memory work, despite all of my own pleasant memories.... Thank you!

Edited April 24, 2009 by Jen in PA

[SeekingSimplicity]

I'm just lurking on here, because I'm going to need suggestions for us here soon, too. But this is making me think about my Grandma. She only went to school thru the 8th grade, but she learned a lot in those 8 years that I never learned in my 13 years of school. When I was little she would see a picture of a cat and say how much she loved cats. Then she would say

Kitty Puss, Kitty Puss

Where have you been?

I've been to London to see the Queen.

Kitty Puss, Kitty Puss,

What did you do there?

I frightened a mouse

Out from under her chair.

And she would usually have some sort of story to tell too, something about cats from her childhood or something like thatl The every once in a while she would see some thing that would remind her of The Village Blacksmith, and she would say 'Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands...' The only poems I ever memorized (and I don't mean remembered long enough to be able to recite them, I actually learned these) were the ones that she would quote based on our daily encounters.

[Laura Corin]

What started me on memory work with my children was my own experience of reaching high school without memorisation skills. I could spin an essay very easily, but learning some facts to support it in an exam was very difficult. I crashed my history A level (AP equivalent) because I didn't walk into the exam with a set of memorised facts to give substance to my ideas.

 

What keeps me going with the memorisation is the joy that the children are experiencing from having this repertoire of poetry in their heads. It comes out at odd moments, informs their understanding of new poetry, and seeps into their writing style. We are just working our way through an anthology of great poems for children, adding in other texts (from the Galore Park English books and other sources) as we find them. We work on the poems for about half an hour a week, so they learn around ten poems a year each.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[Alana in Canada]

Yes, well, about Grandmas...mine always looked at me, shook her head and said , "Once there was a little girl, with a little curl..." :D

 

but learning some facts to support it in an exam was very difficult. I crashed my history A level (AP equivalent) because I didn't walk into the exam with a set of memorised facts to give substance to my ideas.

 

 

Wow. That would be some incentive, now wouldn't it?

 

You know, I think I'll keep plugging with these Bible verses and perhaps we could begin anew by reviewing and re-learning the poems we've already, supposedly, learned. Or would that kill it entirely?

 

Perhaps we ought to just do some silly stuff. After all, when I was a journalist, we always called summer the "silly season."

[ElizabethB]

I don't call it memory work, I just make my daughter read the same verses until she has them memorized! (She kind of has it figured out by now, but she still does much better with them if I tell her I don't care if she memorizes them or not, I just want her to read them to me daily.) We also do them first thing when she is fresh, so it gets done every day.

 

If you try to recite it before you really know it, you end up confusing yourself and running around with conflicting versions in your head.

 

I also have to hide 3rd and 4th lines of verses, then put them all together after she has them all memorized separately, she won't even try that much at once.

 

She's way better at memorizing them than me, I memorize them along with her and am always behind, she thinks it's funny. She also gets an extra look at them when she's checking to see how I do once I start trying to say them.

[Alana in Canada]

She also gets an extra look at them when she's checking to see how I do once I start trying to say them.

 

Oh, that's good.

 

Perhaps I should be memorizing along with them, too?

[Stacy in NJ]

You don't need to be too terribly ambitious about it. We do only about 8 or 10 poems per year. They tend to be longer, but they needn't be.

 

We also like recordings of the poetry. The book A Child's Introduction to Poetry includes a CD.

[ElizabethB]

Oh, that's good.

 

Perhaps I should be memorizing along with them, too?

 

Yes, it will make them feel smart! (And sneak in extra practice!)

 

The worst was the books of the New Testament. It took me 3 or 4 days longer than her to get them, usually I'm only behind by a day or 2, and I kept forgetting the order even after I had initially memorized them.

[TengoFive]

I put ours on cd so we can practice in the car. This way everyone memorizes everything. My 3 year old can recite most of The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson and my 11 year old can sing the Song School Latin songs. Before I started doing this, I was not good at all at doing Memory Work.

[JaneGrey]

Just heard Mike Byster speak about his program, Brainetics. He really put on a show. You can see clips of the 20/20 show where they watched him work.

 

What an inspiring talk about what the brain can be trained to do! I have a pretty good memory, but I felt challenged. (By the way, I don't like to memorize to music because I find that I need to sing the song to access the information. That's why I'm trying to avoid this method with my kids. Mike points out that different things work for different people.)

 

I think the point is to get excited and get started. It doesn't have to be poems or long speeches. Think of this as exercising the brain to keep in good health.

 

Watch Mike's son recite a string of 200 digits. That was just a memory exercise Mike concocted.

 

If you can, listen to Mike at a conference near you. That seminar was packed. HTH!

[SBP]

 

The more I think about it, the more I think it's that I'm avoiding something I find difficult and unpleasant (the kids do resist). Is there anything I could do about that, I wonder?

 

Any suggestions?

 

TIA.

 

You said that you don't need methods so much, but I'm going to tell you the one that worked for us because it also is the one that helped me overcome the problem above. I found going over memory work tedious, so I wound up not doing as much of it as we should. When my children were still little, though, I started using this method, as explained by Katherine B. I'd put the memory work on tape (these days it's a CD) and then, throughout the week, I could just send them to work on it on their own. When we started Classical Conversations four years ago, they were already in the habit of doing their memory work on tape, so we just continued doing it that way. I'd put their CC memory work on the tape, have them listen to the tape every day, and they just magically seemed to learn it every week.

 

This was our last year with CC, but we're definitely going to continue memory work using Living Memory. I'm seeing the benefits of memorization and realizing that the reason Laura gave - training their memories and strengthening that "memorization muscle" - is reason enough to continue making this effort. My children memorize new material SO much better than I do and better than I ever did, even when my brain was young and fresh ;). And now that I can see the benefits of it better, I find that I'm less reluctant to work with them on their memory work. We probably still will use the CD format some, but we'll also go over it together. We especially love learning poetry, and we're looking forward to adding that back into the mix.

 

Best,

 

SBP

[Alana in Canada]

Interesting!

Thanks everyone.

 

How does one record on CD?

 

We used to have a tape recorder we could record on, but I don't know what has happened to it.

[KJB]

My kids kind of pair up age wise.

 

I have a 12 and 10 as well as an almost 4 and almost 6 (and a baby with no closely aged sibling.)

 

My two eldest have been doing memory work together forever. They've learned tons of geography, the presidents, lots of poems, latin, music notes, prayers, and other stuff this way. They can rattle off tons of information from this project.

 

I have a basket of flashcards and lists that they work on together every day. Schools not done until they hit the basket.

 

My next two have just started with poems and spelling rules.

 

It's a cinch. Buy a basket, fill it with flashcards, have them memorize, reward them for mastering lists, poems, etc. When my kids master a list, I get them a treat and they recite for Dad. The treat keeps them motivated.

[JaneGrey]

This is discussed in another thread I checked out a while ago:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37401

 

I am still working on my master memory plan for K-12 (and on recording it). On my tests, the sound quality wasn't good. I'll have to look into the itunes thing.

[Suzannah]

I always thought I wanted my kids to memorize lots of scripture, poetry and facts, but for such a long time it would just slip my mind or I would misplace that piece of paper the poem was written on, etc.

 

Then last spring I came across Kendra's site http://www.preschoolersandpeace.com. I was in planning mode so her description of a planning weekend caught my eye. I spread it out over most of the summer rather than just one weekend, but one of her many suggestions that has improved our school wonderfully was to create a memory notebook.

 

I went through the WTM memorization suggestions for history, science and literature and made a page for each one for the kids' notebooks. I also came up with a list of scriptures I want my kids to memorize and put those in there along with other things that have come up during the year (youth group memory work, Boy Scout oath and law, math facts). This sounds like a lot of work but it really wasn't. I did type up the Kings and Queens of England but mostly I was able to find lists, maps and charts online and just print them out. Bible verses were cut and pasted from BibleGateway.com.

 

Each morning during or immediately following breakfast we do memory work. DS does his on his own while I help DD. Periodically, say once every week or two, I'll have them repeat things to me. There's no reward, there's no punishment. It's just what we do. They now have the rulers of England from Egbert to James I, about a dozen or so scriptures (some of them quite long) layers of the earth, continents, tectonic plates, layers of the atmosphere and a few poems memorized. And there are several more things they're still working on that should be down by the end of the year: several more scriptures, types of clouds, beginning of the Prologue to Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's Sonnet #18, and Puck's closing monologue.

 

It has been virtually painless for everone because it is simply a daily habit. And best of all, since i put in the work at the beginning of the year, and DS is mostly independent, I hardly have to give it any thought now.

[sagira]

What I have been doing painlessly is just keep repeating whatever it is that I want memorized -- when he's playing I'll read the poem or passage, while he's taking a shower, when we're outside, etc. Soon it will become part of him and voila! He knows it!

 

Just a thought. He's five :)