We are on the road to helping one of the kids with test taking skills and studying skills. I remember in college wondering myself why no one ever taught me skills to help me with memorizing facts which I didn't care much about. Well.....I must have passed on the inability to remember little facts and dates to some of my children. We are going to a doc who is giving me hope that he can help son fill in the gaps as the gaps are a little more amplified for him then just a lack of memorization skills. I think I am going to ask the doc for advice on some sort of book which would help me teach the rest of the kids these skills. I have blindly ordered some books on the topic in the past but never was very impressed with them and of course they are now for sale on Amazon. They didn't work for me or my kids. Maybe I will have the older ones study some odd topic and then work on the dates or facts for that topic and give them some tests? I don't know. Right at the moment I am happy for what we can get done today and leave it at that.
I am open to suggestions and experience on the topic. I am not sure if they teach this in the schools today or not or if kids are just left to flounder. I don't want my kids to flounder and struggle if I am able to help them. Right at the moment I am helping recoup their brain cells by allowing them to sleep. :o)
As to whether they teach memorization in schools today -- um, NO. Not unless you've got a weirdo school like some classical academy or something. My sister-in-law (who taught 3rd-grade in the public schools from 1970-2007 or so) made children memorize and recite little poems. She took flak for it from many of her colleagues. How old-fashioned. How useless to make kids memorize.
ReplyDeleteI think my kids have a pretty good grasp of memorizing facts (as long as there's some interest in the topic) because we did a LOT of reading aloud when from the time they were born until they were teens, and lots and lots of memory work from the Bible, hymnal, and catechism. We taught them the learn-by-heart material for the sake of faith, but I've noticed that it has also done good things to wire their brains. (Now, that doesn't mean that it's that simple for some kids, y'know....)
This kid just needs a boost. I think you are right about the memory work. Do it. They enjoyed that. Memorizing numbers and facts? Nope. This kid doesn't like that.
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