Teaching Memory Work at home can be fun and simple, but many of us get discouraged or intimidated by the amount of memory work there seems to be in a unit. Moms at our most recent Just Home and Co-op Parent meetings asked for tips and tricks, and most concern seemed to be about Timeline. Here is what emerged:
- Listen to the Memory Work CD in the car on the way to extracurricular activities every day. If your family is spending a lot of time in the car going from one activity to another, this is a great time for memory work drills with the CDs.
- Have kids drill each other in the car with the Memory Work printouts or book.
- Administer Memory Work “tests” at the end of each week with prizes for those who do well.
- If you are a “Just Home” family, consider making one day a week your Memory Work co-op day, and spend 1 1/2 hours drilling and playing games with the memory work.
- Daily Drill of even 20 minutes will usually make the memory work stick.
- Mantra ~ Here the memory work 7 times per day.
- Find 4 ways to review the memory work using Writing, Reading, Listening, and Speaking. Studies show that using all four methods will put the work into your students’ long-term memory.
- Visual Presentations with Power Points from the Schola Rosa suite and Timeline Cards.
Timeline Tips? The basics remain the same as above, and mothers encouraged each other that students might not master the timeline in the first year, but give it a couple of years, and all of a sudden, you have older students spouting off the timeline at command and younger students following along. Strategy ~ Stick with it!