Our Memory System

Our memory work has changed quite a bit from last year to this year. Last year, Jessie only had to memorize Psalm 139 for Sunday school and a couple of the poems in FLL 2nd grade. (I just didn't like the selection of poems that much). Review was built in. We said all of Psalm 139 every day up to the new verse, and we said the new verse 5 times. For poems, we just reviewed when FLL said to review, ignoring any poems we weren't memorizing.

Fast forward to this year, our church has switched to a new Sunday school curriculum so instead of memorizing a block of scripture for the year (or semester), we have different verses almost every week for each child. I decided to increase our poetry memorization. Jessie also has Latin vocabulary to work on and some grammar definitions that need to be cemented down (the FLL definitions just didn't seem to stick). I needed a system that would not only introduce new memory work but also provide some systematic review.

I started with the Scripture Memory System from Charlotte Mason. Jessie and Violet each have their own 3x5 index card box with dividers for daily, even/odd, each weekday, and each day of the month. Here's Jessie's box:
Then I decided to color code the index cards. Both Jessie and Violet have purple cards with Bible verses and pink cards with poetry. In addition Jessie has green cards with grammar definitions and yellow cards with Latin vocabulary. The purple(Bible), pink(poetry), and green(grammar) cards will be filed according to the Charlotte Mason method with the exception that I won't put poetry and grammar cards in the Saturday or Sunday slot. For Latin, I only used half an index card per word or prayer. I divided the cards in three stacks and have a green (let's go memorize) rubber band around the words needing daily review, a yellow (caution don't forget me) rubber band around words we'll review weekly, and a pink (in place of red for stop we haven't learned these yet) rubber band for cards we haven't started yet. For now I'll keep the Latin cards in the back of the box.
Future ideas for expansion. I still have blue and white cards for any new memory work, maybe another language or something for history like the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere's Ride, or the preamble to the Constitution. I'll probably break the Latin weekly review stack into a weekly and monthly stack sometime next month. Next year, I'll probably split the Bible verses into one box and the other verses into another box for Jessie.

Jessie's comment about her new box. "Oh, that's cool. Mom, you're so organized." I don't know about organized, but at least I'm getting closer. One step at a time.