Today I found this free e-book at Lulu , which contains history, geography, grammar, poetry and Bible memorization. Triss and I really enjoyed looking at it, and especially appreciated the history memory work.
I guess it is rather classical of us-- I believe CM recommended memorizing poetry and scripture, not necessarily dry lists of facts-- but I feel better also having the kids memorize the parts of the body, the twelve Apostles, the Presidents, the characteristics of mammals, etc. It takes so little time to chant through a list three times, and recalling is a good discipline to develop.
(Not that I have any problem with the classical approach. But since this blog is called CM, Children and Lots of Grace, I thought I ought to clarify for any CM newbies that this is not necessarily what Charlotte recommended.)
A lot of the info in the e-book really is arranged in dry-list-of-facts form. We use Grammar Songs, Geography Songs and the songs in Considering God's Creation for grammar, geography and science memory work. (So you can understand why the history lists are so appealing-- we have had to search painstakingly through the Internet for history songs!) Still, there were some lists in the e-book not on our tapes.
We use the memory system described here, the only difference being that our cards are bound into a little 3x5 card binder. That way they don't fall out. :O) Each girl has her own dry-list memory work, as well as a poetry memory assignment and a scripture memory assignment. They drill themselves on these during their independent time and come to me when they feel they have one of them memorized. If they can recite it, the memory work moves to the next slot in the system and they get a new assignment. They enjoy this as long as I don't critique their speaking style. (They cringe when I say, "Once more with feeling!" I need to improve my way of giving constructive criticism.)
2 comments:
Katie,
What is a 3 x 5 card "binder" and where can I find one?
It is a little binder for 3x5 cards. We got ours at Walmart in the office supply section. It was on a bottom shelf. They run around $3-4 I think. You can also buy 3x5 cards that are hole punched to fit the binder, but we have a 3-hole punch and I adjust it so the holes are the right distance for the binder and use regular cards, which are cheaper.
I'm planning on making individual 'binders' for the kids this year-- we have all been using the same one for at least two years, which makes it hard to individualize the review. But I have all these three-prong folders, so I am going to put the memory work on 8.5 x 11 paper and put it in the folders instead. I'm going to have to buy more tabs, though... You can buy tabs that you affix to the card or paper yourself, they come in a baggy all jumbled together. They are for placing into hanging file folders. We used them in our little binder by putting glue on them and holding them onto the card until the glue set. But for my big folder memory 'binders' I can use regular tab dividers.
Can you tell I'm still in the thinking stage of the individual binders?
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