Memorization Helps

At the end of my last post I wrote this:

 I want my kids to be wise.  Unfortunately, too often in school we worry so much about memorizing facts which we later forget.  I do want my kids to memorize certain things so that those things will be available for them to recall when they need them (scriptures, times tables, wise poems, important documents) (Hmm... I'm thinking I might right a post about certain things we do to help them memorize things without requiring it), but much more importantly, I want them to learn how to judge what is of value.  To me, this is learning how to think.  I want them to differentiate the fluff from those things that really matter, and then seek for those things with all their hearts and minds.  If they can learn to do this, nothing will hold them back from reaching their potential.  They will find a way.

Having said that, this post is about some ways I help my kids memorize things without requiring it.  I could always use more ideas so feel free to chime in!

I recently mentioned that I went to a homeschooling conference and I got a lot out of hearing a lecture about educating through literature.  She mentioned reciting a poem and scripture and singing a hymn during their morning devotional until they were memorized and then they'd move on to another.  I liked this idea, but our devotional was already getting kind of long and I didn't want to add more to it, so I decided that I would keep reading different poems (for exposure) during devotional and moving the recitation of a poem and scripture to breakfast time.

I didn't want to intrude too much on meal times because I enjoy the free conversation and I didn't want to bring papers to the table to recite.  I thought of something that has worked really, really well.  I made some little placemats by sewing two page protectors together, I put some cardstock in each protector, and then printed a couple of pages (on regular paper) with things that I want us to memorize.  It's easy to switch the paper once a child has memorized the things on their place mat.  They have done wonders.  Everyone naturally reads what is in front of them at the table.  I opted for a fast, easy place mat, but I'm sure people could take this idea and make something really pretty if you wanted to.

Our conversations naturally drift to the place mats.  We've had them for a week and even last night, during dinner, Bud was telling me his 3 times tables, Spice was reciting the poems to me, Little Miss was talking about how sad it was that Bach lost 10 of his 20 children, and Bazinks was hearing it all over and over again.  At first Bazinks didn't want a place mat because he doesn't know how to read, but he announced to me yesterday that he now knows how to read "in his head" so now he can have a place mat.  He asked me to watch him.  I took a picture this morning:

It's pretty adorable to watch.  He keeps at it for quite a while with that same serious look as he scans the page with his finger.  

When they have memorized all of their placemat (Spice just did this yesterday), they get to get an all new placemat with more new things to look at!  How fun is that?  I just put the Proclamation on the Family in my placemat because that is the next thing I want to memorize.

Another thing that has been helpful (I got this idea at the conference) is to put the things we're working on memorizing up on the bathroom wall.  Everyone reads whatever is in front of them in the bathroom!

I started with two short poems, a short scripture, the 3s times tables, an adage, and a biography.  They don't have to memorize the biography, but I told them I would ask them a couple of questions from it when they are ready to pass off their place mats.  I think I will rotate in some phonics rules or some tricky spelling words in place of the math occasionally, maybe some grammar or spelling rules in place of the adage, or an important picture or event instead of the biography, etc.  There's plenty to choose from.

Another thing that I have found helpful is music.  I mentioned the times tables to classical composers CD that I bought here. There are songs to just about everything on this site (although I haven't tried them): geography, grammar rules, history, science and more.

Games are also fun.  We use a page protector with a math facts worksheet and the kids see how many they can do in 3 minutes and then they try to beat their old score.  They like to do this once in a while.

They also like "Wrap-ups".  They have them for music, math, grammar, etc.  We just have a couple of math ones and they enjoy getting them out once in a while.  We bought ours at Utah Idaho Supply/Map World.

We also do Memory Match games.  We have some music cards in which they match music notes to their names or to their number of beats.  It would be easy to make math cards or grammar cards to play memory match with.  Maybe we will sometime.

I think computer games might be fun as well.  We rarely use them because when one child is on the computer, everyone likes to gather around and they don't do any of their own studying, but I know Timez Attack is free to download on the computer and it's a fun game for learning times tables.

There are a lot of fun, easy ways to memorize things.  It seems my kids like memorizing things if they don't feel like they have to.  Does anyone else have any fun ideas?