Help with Memory Work

[beth in md]

On the curriculum board there is a thread about memory work. I can't imagine my kids memorizing the volume of facts they are discussing, or even a whole poem. My 10 year old twins are of average intelligence, but have a hard time remembering any kind of facts. For example, the months in the calendar were so hard for them to learn and math facts are extremely difficult.

Lately I realized they totally confuse the concepts of city, county, state, country and continent. They may answer 'Maryland' for "what country do you live in?"or Asia for "name one state in the United States". Please help with any advice on how to help them learn or remember these basic geography concepts. We have tried maps, flash cards, and lots of reading about geography. After reading Madeleine, they could tell you a lot about Paris, but forget it is in a different country, or that France is not a state.

[specialmama]

Sounds like you have hands-on learners! See if you can find a map that is a carpet, or matt. You could also use chalk outside, and have them physically engaged and interacting with the material. For example, draw an x with chalk outside. Have them stand on it. Have them say "I'm in ____" (the town). Draw a bigger circle around the x. Have them say "I'm in ________" (the state) then a wider shape to represent the country. "I'm now standing in _____" the country. Then go back to the smaller shapes and have fun with it, jumping in and out of shapes determining which is which. I'd repeat this scenario until you see the light switch go on. The idea that there is a small place within a big place will catch. You could even go so far as to include Earth, then the Milky Way.

Similarly, use your Monopoly houses or math blocks to represent a town/city, then make an outline using larger items (books, dolls) to be the state, then a skipping rope to be the country. If it's engaging and fun, they'll likely get it.

Hands-on learners are challenging, but also FUN if we think outside the box! :001_smile:

[Mama Bear]

Have you tried keeping them in motion while they're memorizing? The more muscles that are used, often the better the memory is... I have one who memorizes best when walking, does regular work more easily while standing up and fidgeting. I'm thinking of buying one of those balls made especially for sitting, to see how that would work.

[beth in md]

Thanks so much for these suggestions!! I will try both, and were things I had never thought of, for sure!

Beth

[ElizabethB]

My daughter can memorize things faster than me, they may actually getting too old for that volume. Also, the more she memorizes, the better she seems to get at memorizing.

I've noticed that she tends to learn things faster in the long run if she just reads them through a few times daily before trying to recite it back. If she tries to recite it without looking before she's read it through, she gets a scrambled version of it in mind and it takes longer to memorize it overall. Also, at the beginning, it worked better if she did half of a verse at a time. Now, she can remember a verse or two at a time, but for anything longer than that, we break it up and just do one or two verses until she gets those, then add in the next verse, then say the whole thing to that point for a few days, then memorize the next line, then say the whole thing to the new point for a few days....like that until the end.

Some people memorize things better if they write them out instead of saying them aloud.