Memories....all alone in the moonlight
I couldn't resist.
I looked at the post and realized no one is going to have any idea what I mean by "memory work." So let me explain.
One of the main tenets of a classical education is that children in the grammar age (4-11) are little sponges when it comes to retention of information. This is why, back in the day, children had to memorize long poems and speeches all sorts of crazy information. During the debacle of 20th century public education, memorization has gotten a bad name. They call it "drill and kill" in the public schools. Classical education people say, "Nuh-uh..." (exactly in those words) "...Memory work promotes mental discipline and makes kids crazy-smart."
So we do memory work. Here's how we do it: I select a list, poem, or whatever for Charlie to memorize. I type it up and put it in his little memory work folder. Then I tape myself saying the poem on his little cassette recorder. During his memory work time, he sits with his folder and cassette player and practices saying the poem or whatever until he can do it from memory. Everytime he recited a poem he got a sticker on that page. Here is a list of what he memorized in 1st grade:
the continents and oceans
the 7 phylum of the animal kingdom
Rain - Robert Louis Stevenson
Singing - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Little Turtle - Vachel Lindsay
The Caterpillar - Christina G. Rossetti
Captain Kidd - Stephen Vincent Benet
There Once was a Puffin - Florence Page Jaques
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost (he recited this one at our end of year presentation night with our homeschool group)
Psalm 19:1-2
Psalm 25:4-5
Isaiah 9:6
Proverbs 15:1
John 20:31
Psalm 118:1
He also learned most of the books of the Old Testament but he was only able to recite them once...so we're still working on that.
I haven't lined up our memory work for this year. I'll post as we go.
I looked at the post and realized no one is going to have any idea what I mean by "memory work." So let me explain.
One of the main tenets of a classical education is that children in the grammar age (4-11) are little sponges when it comes to retention of information. This is why, back in the day, children had to memorize long poems and speeches all sorts of crazy information. During the debacle of 20th century public education, memorization has gotten a bad name. They call it "drill and kill" in the public schools. Classical education people say, "Nuh-uh..." (exactly in those words) "...Memory work promotes mental discipline and makes kids crazy-smart."
So we do memory work. Here's how we do it: I select a list, poem, or whatever for Charlie to memorize. I type it up and put it in his little memory work folder. Then I tape myself saying the poem on his little cassette recorder. During his memory work time, he sits with his folder and cassette player and practices saying the poem or whatever until he can do it from memory. Everytime he recited a poem he got a sticker on that page. Here is a list of what he memorized in 1st grade:
the continents and oceans
the 7 phylum of the animal kingdom
Rain - Robert Louis Stevenson
Singing - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Little Turtle - Vachel Lindsay
The Caterpillar - Christina G. Rossetti
Captain Kidd - Stephen Vincent Benet
There Once was a Puffin - Florence Page Jaques
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost (he recited this one at our end of year presentation night with our homeschool group)
Psalm 19:1-2
Psalm 25:4-5
Isaiah 9:6
Proverbs 15:1
John 20:31
Psalm 118:1
He also learned most of the books of the Old Testament but he was only able to recite them once...so we're still working on that.
I haven't lined up our memory work for this year. I'll post as we go.
posted by Will at 12:05 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Kristi - this is very interesting to me. I am a speech-language pathology grad student and memory falls under the "language" component, well really pre-language in my field. Anyway, I am very interested in your "memory work." Along with the explanation of classical ed -v- 20th century.
I often find myself rejecting straight memorization as not functional. As in, why make a child memorize the introduction to the Declaration of Independence (I sub and this was something the 5th graders were doing) when they will most likely not use that knowledge in the future. However, you present some very interesting points about making them "crazy-smart." Additionally any new info the brain acquires helps expand those dendrites which helps in the whole "smart" category.
(I am rambling - b/c I am excited by your topic and have not stopped to thing about it, just started writing! Sorry!)
My question is when do you decide one of your kids has actually memorized a poem/etc? Do they have to recite it more than once? Will your son have to recite all his first grade memory work this year to see if he retained it? Do you care if it is retained from year to year? Does he retain stuff he has not accessed for several months?
I am thinking this could be a nice homework assignment for my language clients. Although for most, their memory work would be significantly simpler than your son's. But it would be good mental training for them in many ways. Do you have any research articles on this memory work and its effectiveness? I really need all my therapy to be evidence based, so even if something seems intuitive I need peer reviewed research to back it up.
I am looking forward to your response! Have a good school year! And thanks for the idea!
Yikes - that was long!
Kristi, I am impressed that you are teaching Latin to your children. Let me know how that goes. I teach Latin in a public school and have always wondered how one does that outside of a "normal" school setting. When they are older, do you plan on teaching them another language as well? Just curious!
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