Simple Ideas For Memory Work in your Homeschool Morning Time

I have been homeschooling my own kids for over 13 years now, and even so, I don’t feel confident in telling you exactly how or what you should be doing in your homeschool. Aside from that though, I do say what I say from experience, and I do happen to have some advice and ideas on memory work that has worked for us and what I hope will be helpful and might work in your homeschool as well.

I have shared before reasons I believe memory work to be valuable in this post here, so assuming you want to do memory work, I have a few helpful suggestions on how to get started.

Memory work is usually associated with a classical education, with most of the emphasis being in the grammar stage. I agree that when students are young is the best time to start memorization, but I want to encourage you not to neglect your older students when it comes to memory work. It’s a good exercise for the brain and good for you too!

First of all, and maybe most importantly, whatever you do, whatever you decide to do for memory work…. make it fun!

That’s rule #1.

Rule #2 – Have fun with your kids!

Rule #3 – If it’s not bringing any joy at all, and by that, I mean, if it’s sucking the joy out of your homeschool, ditch it!

Follow these 3 rules, and you are good to go!

What do you do for memory work?

I’ve also talked before about certain guidelines that we use from scripture…whatever is true, lovely, of good report, worthy of praise, etc. (Philippians 4:8) That’s an abstract way for you to think on what’s important to you for memorization. Practically speaking though, here are some ideas for what to include for memory work in your homeschool.

In the very early years of my homeschooling journey, I had so much information I wanted my kids to just know by heart. This was before I had ever heard of “Moring Time” or anything like that. My instinct was to have my kids make pages of those things and put them into a binder. We would go over them daily and eventually they memorized them.

This binder turned into something much more than I set out for it to. Almost accidentally, it became our morning time memory binder. We had dividers for different themes of memory work. We would do Poetry and basics on Monday, Science on Tuesday, History on Thursday, and so on! It actually got out of control, especially as my family grew! It did serve as a wonderful starting point for us though & so that’s where these ideas stem from.

I like to divide our homeschool memory work up by subject area. This method works great for my young children and older students alike. If it is your first time trying memory work, feel free to just pick a couple of things, like short bible verses or a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson and throw into a morning basket. You could choose new memory work to go over with your kids weekly if you wanted to! By the end of your school year, you’ll be surprised at all your kids were able to memorize.

Practicing memory work in this way doesn’t take much time at all (maybe 10-15 minutes!) but is a great way to enhance your child’s education.

Ideas For Memory Work in the Preschool Years

• Alphabet (obviously!)
• Address & Phone #
• Days of the Week
• Months of the Year
• Seasons
• A Short Scripture Memory Verse
• Nursery Rhymes
• The Ten Commandments
• A Short Sweet Poem
• Maybe Even Sing the spelling of their Name!

Keep in mind that we would slowly add to their memory work. We didn’t start with everything all at once!

Geography & Science

• Continents and Oceans
• The 50 states
• Planets
• Interesting Scientific Facts
• Geography & Science Poetry
• Scripture referencing the earth and creation

Language Arts

• Different Parts of speech
• Grammer rules
• Shakespeare
• Art Picture Study
• Artists
• Music Appreciation
• Poetry
• Scripture Memory

American History and Patriotism

• The Presidents
• The Bill of Rights
• The Preamble to the Constitution
• The Declaration of Independence
• The National Anthem
• Historical Speeches (e.g. the Gettysburg Address)
• Poems from History

Math

• Skip Counting
• Roman Numerals
• Time and Money

These could very easily be included in the Preschool years too!

Ideas for how to incorporate memory work into your homeschool.

First of all, start slow and remember rule #1 – have fun! You do not need all of these things going all at once in your homeschool. These are just some ideas on what you may want to get started with. Don’t start with everything! I mentioned that it got out of control in my homeschool a few years back. We eventually ditched the binders and chose a different route.

Eventually we switched to menus. Typical restaurant menus purchased from Amazon. I know you’ve probably seen them everywhere and they may appear to just be a trend in the homeschooling world, but I find them to be quite practical! Our binders were so full of memory work that my small children would be dropping them, and it would cause an interruption almost daily. Also, if you have little ones around like we always have (and still do!) the menus are nearly indestructible. Ok, I’m not selling you menus, I promise. Let’s just say I’m a fan of them.

As far as when…morning time seems to be a good time for us. I recommend any time of day that you can consistently make it a habit. It can be something you do together as a family in the evening after dinner. Or even during dinner! Whenever you know will be a good time to stick to it.

How to use menus for memory work in your homeschool ?

We use the menus that are 4 pages with an 8-page view. You can fit in 8 pages total. I decided to organize ours into themes. Similar to the different lists from above. We have a geography themed menu, a Language Arts, History, and a Preschool/Elementary menu.

I have enough so that each of my children have a copy of their own for each theme. We rotate through them. Sometimes daily. Sometimes weekly or monthly. Other times we stay on one for a season or semester if I feel some children need longer or we are all just enjoying a particular one. Sometimes it coincides with what we are focusing more on in the rest of our homeschool.

This is how we review things we’ve already learned. We will mostly leave them the same and only change out scripture and poetry.

I prefer to do this because I have a wide range of ages. If you don’t, it might make more sense to cater to the ages that you have. As in, don’t continue making your high schoolers recite Days of the Week if you no longer also have littles around to benefit from it. In the same breath. younger children are more capable than you may think, so don’t underestimate them! You could try giving them slightly longer and more challenging poems from time to time and see what happens!

Do you have to use Menus for memory work?

No, not at all! I enjoy them, but there are lots of homeschooling families who don’t use anything to look at for their memory work. You could also just pick a few things to memorize and recite them with your kids without anything for them to look at. I happen to enjoy them and find it’s easier with having a large family, but it’s absolutely not a necessary part of memory work.

Ideas for how to make memory work fun!

DO sing as much as you can to music. There are tons of YouTube songs to help recite geography, history and math facts. Pretty much anything you can think of. Peruse YouTube for your favorites and use those songs for your memory work! If you can put music to it, do it!

DO be animated as you read poetry and anything else!

DO really be enjoying it. Your excitement will be contagious to your kids, but they can smell a phony!

DO make this a time for making memories with your kids that they will cherish forever.

DO NOT quiz your children. That’s not the purpose of memory work and it will quickly kill the joy and excitement your children have. If you happen to have an overly excited, extroverted child who wants to share what they’ve memorized, then let them, but don’t force it.

DO NOT get discouraged if you feel like your children aren’t remembering anything or paying attention even. Keep at it. Be consistent every day. I promise they will pick up enough.

Remember the purpose of memory work.

It’s a tool for setting up those building blocks for their education and a brilliant mind. The priority should always be to be consistent and have fun!

I hope this helped give you some ideas for how to do memory work in your homeschool. You can check out this blog post here if you’d like to read more about why memory work is so important!