Memorization Plan for Kindergarten 2013/14

For PreK, I created what I thought was an ambitious memorization plan for Lydia.  She blew me away with her ability to memorize and I ended up needing to add a lot of content.  This year I have created another ambitious plan for Kindergarten.  I have about the same amount of religious content on this list.  Inspiration for them comes mostly from the Articles of Faith (of which there are 13) and the LDS Scripture Mastery list.  The poems I found are longer and more challenging than last year, but they are fun and appeal to her interests.  Last year, poems seemed to be her favorite thing to memorize, so I may even be adding more to that list as the year goes on.

For facts this year, Lydia will be attempting to memorize a 161 point timeline of the world using the Classical Conversations Classical Acts & Facts cards as our list.  I feel like this is especially ambitious, but I am also OK if it takes us more than one year to complete as I feel like having a timeline memorized will prove incredibly valuable for her.  The CC cards are broken into 4 sets by time period, and we'll be working on one set at a time.  For reference, here is a link to our list for last year, here is a link to how and why we do memorization, and here is a link to the CC Cards we'll be using.

We've completed the ones that are crossed out.  The ones that are italicized are being worked on currently.

Religion:

• Article of Faith 4:  We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• Article of Faith 5:  We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
• Article of Faith 6:  We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
• Job 19:25–26: For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.    
• Isaiah 55:8–9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
• John 7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.       
• Alma 32:21: And now as I said concerning faith — faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.       
• D&C 25:12: For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.       

Literature

"Autumn" by Emily Dickinson

The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.              

“Dora Diller” by Jack Prelutsky

My stomach's full of butterflies!

lamented Dora Diller.

Her mother sighed. "That's no surprise,

you ate a caterpillar!"

“Knight-in-Armour“ by A. A. Milne

Whenever I’m a shining Knight,

I buckle on my armour tight;

And then I look about for things,

Like Rushings-Out, and Rescuings,

And Savings from the Dragon’s Lair,

And fighting all the Dragons there.

And sometimes when our fights begin,

I think I’ll let the Dragons win...

And then I think perhaps I won’t,

Because they’re Dragons, and I don’t.                                      

                                
               

"Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers                                

That perches in the soul,                                             

And sings the tune without the words,                                 

And never stops at all,                                  

                                               

And sweetest in the gale is heard;                                          

And sore must be the storm                                      

That could abash the little bird                                  

That kept so many warm.                                            

                                               

I've heard it in the chillest land,                                

And on the strangest sea;                                           

Yet, never, in extremity,                                              

It asked a crumb of me.                                               

                        
                       

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.                                                

His house is in the village though;                                            

He will not see me stopping here                                            

To watch his woods fill up with snow.                                    

                                               

My little horse must think it queer                                          

To stop without a farmhouse near                                          

Between the woods and frozen lake                                     

The darkest evening of the year.                                             

                                               

He gives his harness bells a shake                                            

To ask if there is some mistake.                                                

The only other sound’s the sweep                                          

Of easy wind and downy flake.                                                 

                                               

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.                                   

But I have promises to keep,                                     

And miles to go before I sleep,                                                 

And miles to go before I sleep.                                 

                                               

                                               

“The arrow and the song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow                                        

I shot an arrow into the air,                                        

It fell to earth, I knew not where;                                            

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight                                 

Could not follow it in its flight.                                   

                                               

I breathed a song into the air,                                   

It fell to earth, I knew not where;                                            

For who has sight so keen and strong,                                   

That it can follow the flight of song?                                       

                                               

Long, long afterward, in an oak                                 

I found the arrow, still unbroke;                                               

And the song, from beginning to end,                                   

I found again in the heart of a friend.                                     

                                               

                                               

“The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!                                                 

                                               

                                               

“The Fisherman” by Abbie Farwell Brown (started 1-16-14)f

The fisherman goes out at dawn                                              

When every one's abed,                                             

And from the bottom of the sea                                              

Draws up his daily bread.                                             

                                               

His life is strange; half on the shore                                       

And half upon the sea —                                             

Not quite a fish, and yet not quite                                           

The same as you and me.                                            

                                               

The fisherman has curious eyes;                                             

They make you feel so queer,                                   

As if they had seen many things                                               

Of wonder and of fear.                                

                                               

They're like the sea on foggy days, —                                    

Not gray, nor yet quite blue;                                     

They 're like the wondrous tales he tells                                               

Not quite — yet maybe — true.                                               

                                               

He knows so much of boats and tides,                                  

Of winds and clouds and sky!                                   

But when I tell of city things, 

He sniffs and shuts one eye!      

Facts and Lists: 

• Classical Conversations Timeline: Ancient World
• Classical Conversations Timeline: Medieval World (started 10-31-13)
• Classical Conversations Timeline: New World
• Classical Conversations Timeline: Modern World

How We Do Memorization

As I've mentioned before, memorization is a very important subject in our home.  I grew up doing very little memorization and I still have a lot of difficulty memorizing anything.  I always regretted this and memorization was one of the first subjects I knew I wanted to do when I decided to homeschool.

In most classical education scopes and sequences, memorization is a very important subject, especially in the younger years.  Some authors/speakers suggest that poetry is the most important source for memorization material.  Others say scripture.  And still others say facts and lists are important, although even these people disagree as to whether the facts and lists should be taught in context with the subject or whether it is good just to memorize them as stand-alones.  I agree with all of these groups!  I think poetry is great because it helps our minds get filled with good language and sentence structure.  Scriptures are important because of the content that is in them, and I honestly believe that one of the ways the Spirit can speak to us is through those words we have memorized.  Facts and lists are important because they create a peg effect: the more familiar you are with a word or topic, the more you pay attention when it is brought up and therefore the more you learn about it.  Thus while memorizing you are creating a "peg" on which to hang information.  I also believe that while teaching memorized pieces in context is ideal, there is still much to be gained from memorizing for memorization's sake.

Children get confidence and self-esteem when they have memorized something that they saw as challenging.  It feels good and is a great accomplishment to memorize something challenging and know that it will never be apart from them again, that it is in their heads forever.  When I was in eighth grade, I decided on my own that I wanted to memorize the Gettysburg Address.  When I had learned it all, I was very proud of myself, and to this day I still remember the Gettysburg Address and perk up when I hear it mentioned.  I want my children to have this experience as much as possible.

That's the "why" of our memorization.  Our "how" is actually pretty simple and doesn't take too long every day.  The key is that we do it every day that we do school, and we constantly review in order to not forget anything.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I mentally divide our memorization focus into three categories: Language, Religion, and Facts & Lists.  Language includes things like poetry, great speeches, Shakespeare, etc.  Religion is mostly scripture, but can include hymns or quotes.  Facts & Lists is the miscellaneous group.  So far this section has included things like the 8 planets, my phone number, the colors in a rainbow, etc.  I try to keep our memorization workload pretty evenly divided between these three categories, although language and scripture tend to dominate in this season of our lives.  I imagine and we do more science and history, though, facts and lists will catch up.  At some point we might include foreign language as a fourth category, but not yet.

What I do is take the three categories I listed and make up a list of things to memorize.  This is the fun part for me.  I use Google searches, Living Memory by Andrew Campbell, various church resources like the Seminary Mastery list, and just ideas that I have to compile what we want to do.  Here is the list I did for the 2012/13 school year (Lydia's PreK).

Lydia's memorization book

After I have the list compiled, I write each item on its own index card.

Cards that she reviews on even days.  On one side is the prompt and on the other is the actual material.

 As poems get longer I might have to rethink this, but for now, this has worked.  I keep all of our future memorization work handy for use as soon as Lydia has mastered old ones.  I also keep a memorization book.  It is actually just a small scrap book that someone gave to us and that I organized according to the Simply Charlotte Mason method.

At first, every day we reviewed our new memorization piece and all the previously memorized pieces.  Once that became too cumbersome, I divided all of Lydia's previously memorized work into equal parts and she reviewed each one every other day, and the new piece daily.  That's where we are right now.

Pretty soon, though, even that will become too cumbersome so we'll put some of the more recent work into the even/odd group, current work is always daily, and older work will be reviewed one day a week.  We'll keep going like this until we have material that we review daily, every other day, weekly, and monthly.  It sounds complicated, but once you get it set up, it is very simple.

Every day while I make lunch for Lydia, we do memorization.  While I make her sandwiches, she goes through her older memorization and then we work on her current piece.  It takes us about 10 minutes, max.  When we review the older pieces, I say the title or scripture reference.  From that, she repeats the title, says the name of the author, if relavent, and then says the selection.  So for "Who Has Seen the Wind," I say the title of the poem and then she says "Who Has Seen the Wind, by Christina Rosetti.  Who has seen the wind, neither I nor you..."  Sometimes she might need the first word to jog her memory, so I help her.

For new pieces, I always read the entire piece to her completely a few times before having her say it back to me.  Then we start with the title and the author.  Here's an example of our dialogue:

Me (after having read through the whole poem a few times): "Sweet and Low," by Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Say that please."
Lydia: "Sweet and Low, by..."
Me: "Alfred Lord Tennyson"
Lydia: "by Alfred Lord Tennyson"
Me: "Now say the whole thing, Sweet and Low, by Alfred Lord Tennyson"
Lydia: "Sweet and Low by Alfred Lord Tennyson"
Me: "Great. Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea."
Lydia: "Sweet and low, wind of the sea."
Me: "Close, but you say Sweet and Low twice and wind of the western sea.  So you say, Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea."
Lydia: "Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea."
Me: "Good, now let's say the whole thing.  Sweet and Low, by Alfred Lord Tennyson.  Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea."
Me: Great!  Go ahead and eat your lunch, you did a good job today."

The following day I might read the poem all the way through one and then see if she remembers what we did.  I help her along if she gets stuck.  Usually we try to do about two lines a day, but sometimes it just takes longer.  Often she'll ask or I'll volunteer definitions of words or the meaning of a line.  After we did "At the Seaside," she started calling her little plastic shovel a "wooden spade," after I explained that a spade is just like a shovel.  Sometimes I'll make a motion or say a line in an over exaggerated way to help her remember.  So in "Sweet and Low," it says, "Low, low, breathe and blow."  For "breathe" we take a big breathe and lean way back and for "blow" we lean way forward and breathe out as we say the word.  Or for D&C 82:10, part of it says, "when you do not what I say, ye have no promise."  We always put a big emphasis on the word "not."  There's no trick to it, I just always try to make it easier to remember if possible.  I also always try to stay in tune with what she seems like she wants to do and don't push it too much on any one day.  I want memorization to be enjoyable.  

Doing it this way has made it quite painless, and since we always do Lydia's schoolwork immediately after lunch, it is the first subject of the day and never gets forgotten.

We love memorization and I don't see it going to the back burner any time soon!

Memorization Plans

I consider memorization to be incredibly important.  There are many reasons I want my children to memorize things, but I'm not going to get into them here.  This post is for my plans for this school year.  Like my other plans mentioned, I have no idea at all about how much Lydia will be able to memorize.  I went with a good estimate of what I think she is capable, but if she doesn't complete this list, that's ok.  And if she needs more, well, I'll just find more!

I've divided the types of memorization I want for my girls into three types.  The first is religious memorization: scriptures, lists, and quotes that are important.  The second is literature: poems, passages, great speeches, and other quotes.  The third is sort of a miscellaneous section, mostly reserved for lists of facts, timelines, and geography.

As Lydia will be turning 4 soon, I'm trying not to have her do anything to long or complicated.  The scriptures, poems, and lists I picked are fairly simple.  I will cross them out as we master them, but we will continue to review them several times a week.

Religion: 

• Article of Faith 1:We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
• Article of Faith 2: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
• Article of Faith 3: We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
• Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
• Mosiah 2:17: And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
• Amos 3:7: Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
• John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
• D&C 82:10: I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
• Primary Program part: "Jesus Christ is the perfect example for me. My favorite story about Jesus is when he helped Peter walk on the water."
• John 7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.   

Literature:

"Who Has Seen the Wind" by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you.

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I.

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

"The Falling Star" by Sara Teasdale  

I saw a star slide down the sky,
Blinding the north as it went by,
Too burning and too quick to hold,
Too lovely to be bought or sold,
Good only to make wishes on
And then forever to be gone.

"At the Seaside" by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.

"Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

"The Rainbow" by Walter de la Mare
I saw the lovely arch
Of Rainbow span the sky,
The gold sun burning
As the rain swept by.

In bright-ringed solitude
The showery foliage shone
One lovely moment—
And the Bow was gone.

"A dragon-fly" by Eleanor Farjeon
When the heat of the summer
Made drowsy the land,
A dragon-fly came
And sat on my hand

With blue jointed body,
And wings like spun glass,
It lit on my fingers
As though it were grass.

"Sweet and Low" by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the best,
Silver sails all out of the west,
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. 


Facts and Lists:

• Names of the Continents (and places on a map)
• Names of the Oceans (and places on a map)
• The 8 planets
• The 4 points of a compass
• Colors in a rainbow
• Her own full name as well as parents' names
• Mom's phone number