Currently Peanut memorizes both a poem and a Bible verse each week or unit of school. She began this routine last year during your preschool year of Encompass and again this year as she is working through My Father’s World Kindergarten. The system we use for memorizing her poem and Bible verse each week I first learned about from Living Memory by Andrew Campbell. I’ve since adapted it to our morning board routine and our needs as a preschooling family.
Our Memory Work Organization
In preparation for starting our memory work, I purchased a shoe box sized Sterilite box and recipe card dividers which I re- labeled to separate all our memory work cards. Our memory work dividers are labeled as follows:
- Bible Verses
- Poems
- Mon/Wed Review
- Tues/Thurs Review
- Monday Review
- Tuesday Review
- Wednesday Review
- Thursday Review
We labeled this box our Morning Board Box because it hold everything we need for both our morning board routine and our memory work. It is what makes our memory work routine work.
Our Memory Work Routine
That being said, here is the typical progression of our memory work cards and how we review them.
- Unlearned poem and Bible verse cards are placed behind the appropriate divider in the morning board box. I like to make these up ahead of time for the year so that we stay on track, and I don’t get lazy with our memory work because the next card isn’t ready. If you want some pre-made 4×6 memory cards, I have shared our My Father’s World Kindergarten memory work cards and our Encompass preschool memory work cards which you are more than welcome to use with any curriculum.
During the first week the poem and Bible verse are presented, the cards are placed on our Morning Board. During this week, we read each card one time per day and then alternate our memory work focus from day to day. A sample of how it looks for us is listed below. It should be noted that if we are on a six day unit as opposed to five (such as that found in My Father’s World Kindergarten), Day 5 and 6 would be the same, only helping additionally as necessary.
Week 1
Day 1 and 3
Read Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo Bible verse phrase by phrase 3x.
Day 2 and 4
Read Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo poem phrase by phrase 3x.
Day 5
Memory check: See if your child can say the Bible verse and poem by herself.
If she needs help, resume phrase by phrase review.
- During the second week, the card moves to the two times per week dividers (Mon/Wed Review or Tues/Thurs Review). For us, to keep it simple, I initially place all the Bible verse cards in the Mon/Wed Review divider and the Poem cards in the Tues/Thur Review divider. Then, every Monday and Wednesday, after finishing our morning board routine we review the cards in the Mon/Wed divider. The same procedure is again followed on Tuesday and Thursday using the Tues/Thur cards.
- The cards stay in bi-weekly dividers for two weeks. After that, they are moved to one of the once per week dividers so that there are no more than two cards in each day. For example, if a card was in the Mon/Wed file I would move it to the Monday divider one week and the next week I would move the next new card from the Mon/Wed file to the Wednesday divider. I alternate like this until each day has two cards and then I move them out of those dividers in the same order. The card stays in these dividers for four weeks. After this time I either believe that Peanut knows the poem or verse well enough to retire the card back to its original file (Bile or Poem) or review it once a month on the first or second Friday of the month (first Friday for Bible verses; second Friday for poems) if the memory work does not seem quite solid.
Putting It All Together
Day 1
Move all cards to their new dividers.
Read Morning Board Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo Morning Board Bible verse phrase by phrase 3x.
Recite Bible Verses in Mon/Wed divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Recite Bible Verses in Monday divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Day 2
Read Morning Board Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo Morning Board poem phrase by phrase 3x.
Recite poems in the Tues/Thurs divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Recite poems in the Tuesday divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Day 3
Read Morning Board Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo Morning Board Bible verse phrase by phrase 3x.
Recite Bible Verses in Mon/Wed divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Recite Bible Verses in Wednesday divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Day 4
Read Morning Board Bible verse and poem 1x.
Echo Morning Board poem phrase by phrase 3x.
Recite poems in the Tues/Thurs divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Recite poems in the Thursday divider 1x (up to 2 cards).
Day 5 (and 6)
Memory Check: See if your child can say the Morning Board Bible verse and poem by herself.
If she needs help, resume phrase by phrase review.
If the first Friday of the month, review retired Bible verses as necessary (choose no more than 4 per time).
If the second Friday of the month, review retired poems as necessary (again, choose no more than 4 per time).
And that’s it. I like this system because we are never doing more than 5 pieces of memory work at a time and 4 of those are quick reviews. Last year Peanut memorized 26 Bible verses and 26 poems thanks to this system and this year we are on track to learn even more as she just soaks it up.