Everyday Educator - Memorizing Tips and Tricks for Families
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:07.080 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:09.960 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:11.640 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.960 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:18.160 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:21.160 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:24.560 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:26.640 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:28.760 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:32.600 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:36.000 | But don't forget,
00:00:37.360 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:41.720 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:46.340 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:50.280 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:53.820 | Well, listeners, I'm super glad
00:00:56.560 | to welcome you to today's episode.
00:01:00.120 | Last time we were together, or a couple of times ago,
00:01:03.560 | we enjoyed hearing from Kelly Wilt and Alyse DeYoung
00:01:08.560 | about their experiences working with Memory Master
00:01:13.780 | and National Memory Master.
00:01:15.840 | And we had so much fun,
00:01:17.440 | and there was so much to share
00:01:19.360 | that we really didn't get finished.
00:01:21.000 | And they had more to share,
00:01:22.340 | and there's more for you to learn.
00:01:23.760 | And I also asked them to come back
00:01:27.240 | so that we could just share tips and tricks
00:01:31.760 | for memorizing for all of us.
00:01:34.840 | For all of us, no matter how old we are
00:01:38.240 | or how old our students are,
00:01:40.880 | tips and tricks for families all about memorizing.
00:01:45.280 | So you just sit back or keep running
00:01:48.700 | or whatever you do when you're listening to a podcast,
00:01:51.800 | and we're gonna talk to you about memorizing tips and tricks
00:01:55.880 | for all kinds of families.
00:01:57.720 | So Kelly, Alyse, I'm so excited
00:02:00.140 | that you were able to join me again today.
00:02:03.080 | - Absolutely, Lisa, hooray.
00:02:05.040 | We get to talk more about some of the things
00:02:07.120 | that we love memorizing
00:02:09.680 | and just how memory is such a gift from God
00:02:14.360 | and how we see that gift reflected
00:02:17.920 | in the lives of our foundation students
00:02:20.180 | and even most recently,
00:02:21.960 | our National Memory Master finalists.
00:02:24.520 | So I have heard reports of thousands of memory masters
00:02:29.040 | all around the world this cycle,
00:02:31.880 | and it just thrills me to my fingertips
00:02:35.080 | and the tips of my toes to hear families delighting
00:02:38.340 | in the act of memory.
00:02:39.960 | And most recently, Alyse and I both
00:02:41.920 | were at the National Memory Master Competition,
00:02:44.520 | and I know Alyse has got some highlights
00:02:47.140 | from this year's competition to share.
00:02:49.440 | - I am so glad, Alyse, thank you.
00:02:51.680 | Are you super excited to be coming on to the team
00:02:56.440 | for National Memory Master?
00:02:58.880 | - Super excited is an understatement at this point,
00:03:01.800 | especially after having seen the competition
00:03:05.480 | and seen these memory masters in action.
00:03:08.160 | It just blew me away at every turn,
00:03:11.140 | whether we threw curve balls at them with the timeline
00:03:14.680 | or the memory bee or the map drawing,
00:03:16.920 | they really rose to the challenge
00:03:19.240 | and had worked so hard to get to that point,
00:03:22.080 | and I just loved every second of it.
00:03:24.040 | - Oh, I'm so glad.
00:03:25.360 | I will say that it is kind of an electric atmosphere.
00:03:30.360 | I think by the time the students get to that point,
00:03:34.560 | by the time that you have the finalists
00:03:36.840 | that are there at the National Memory Master Competition,
00:03:41.320 | they are having a ball.
00:03:42.960 | They have, in essence, done the quote-unquote hard work,
00:03:48.000 | and they are there to enjoy it.
00:03:50.060 | And it is so much fun to me to see the interactions
00:03:54.080 | between the students and some between the families as well
00:03:58.280 | and the camaraderie that develops
00:04:00.920 | all around their common experience of memorizing.
00:04:05.640 | And honestly, and I think we'll probably stumble
00:04:08.360 | upon some of those gems during our time together
00:04:11.720 | this afternoon, I think that the act of memorizing
00:04:16.520 | and the shared memory of common information
00:04:21.080 | builds community wherever you practice it,
00:04:24.160 | even in your family.
00:04:26.360 | And that's what I want all our CC families and beyond
00:04:30.040 | to get, that there is beauty in memorizing with your family
00:04:35.040 | that somehow will knit your hearts together
00:04:38.640 | in an even deeper way.
00:04:40.840 | So we're gonna talk about it.
00:04:42.940 | We're gonna talk about it. - Absolutely.
00:04:43.960 | Well, and Lisa, I would say this.
00:04:45.800 | Just in my interactions with the families
00:04:47.880 | at National Memory Master,
00:04:49.680 | I would say I have never once heard a parent say,
00:04:53.600 | "Oh, my child did this all by themselves."
00:04:56.000 | Yes, never once.
00:04:58.640 | And so to hear these moms and dads and siblings saying,
00:05:02.620 | "Oh, yeah, we sit down and we do this every day,"
00:05:06.480 | or "Our favorite thing that we memorize together is this,"
00:05:10.120 | or "Here's this fun thing that we did,"
00:05:12.440 | to learn the timeline events frontwards and backwards,
00:05:15.720 | it's such a joy to see these families celebrating together.
00:05:20.600 | And that is one of the key words
00:05:22.480 | of the National Memory Master competition.
00:05:24.600 | We celebrate.
00:05:26.280 | We celebrate these acts of memory.
00:05:28.400 | We celebrate the finalists,
00:05:30.520 | but we also celebrate the sacrifice
00:05:32.720 | that these families have made to come together
00:05:36.400 | and to participate in these acts of memory,
00:05:39.480 | building libraries of the mind,
00:05:41.640 | common libraries of the mind together.
00:05:44.800 | It really is a beautiful thing.
00:05:47.160 | - Oh, I love that.
00:05:48.600 | And that comes through in the leadership
00:05:51.760 | that you two provide to our family.
00:05:54.960 | So we've just been talking about it,
00:05:57.720 | and we have just been through the season
00:05:59.940 | of Memory Master testing with all our foundations families
00:06:03.640 | all over the world.
00:06:05.400 | And as y'all have been discussing,
00:06:07.520 | the inspiring National Memory Master competition
00:06:11.000 | and celebration.
00:06:13.040 | So, and I know that y'all have been deeply involved
00:06:16.400 | in these.
00:06:17.240 | So I wanna give you a chance to brag on this year.
00:06:20.880 | So tell me, Elise, tell me some of the highlights
00:06:25.240 | of this year's National Memory Master competition.
00:06:29.160 | - There are so many that I could share with you all,
00:06:32.680 | but I definitely do have one that stands out in my mind.
00:06:36.340 | So during the competition, I got to sit in the back row
00:06:39.920 | and kind of oversee the competition,
00:06:41.840 | which means I just got to see all the parents and siblings
00:06:45.240 | and the competitors all at once.
00:06:48.140 | And one of my favorite things was to see how the crowd
00:06:52.160 | reacted to these amazing students.
00:06:55.320 | There were applause and celebration when they succeeded.
00:07:00.320 | And when they did not succeed,
00:07:03.360 | there was always a standing ovation for these kids
00:07:07.540 | every single time.
00:07:09.500 | And they were just, they were welcomed into the arms
00:07:12.700 | of their parents if they were upset or anything.
00:07:15.060 | And I will be honest, I'm not a big crier,
00:07:17.100 | but I was sitting in the back row getting very emotional
00:07:20.540 | watching this competition, because you just,
00:07:24.060 | you know that there's so much invested time
00:07:26.780 | that these families have put towards this competition
00:07:30.020 | and their hearts are in it and they love it.
00:07:32.640 | And so it was so exciting to see how this competition
00:07:37.220 | wasn't how you might imagine, like, oh,
00:07:39.300 | you've been eliminated, go sit down and then just like
00:07:42.060 | silence as you watch them descend from the stage.
00:07:45.900 | It was a team effort.
00:07:48.380 | Everyone was proud of these students,
00:07:50.480 | whether they had known them prior to the competition or not.
00:07:53.420 | And I got to see that all at once from the back seat
00:07:56.940 | and it was encouraging and exciting to witness.
00:08:01.220 | - That is so awesome to hear and see
00:08:04.400 | that it really is a family.
00:08:07.120 | It's a family endeavor.
00:08:08.760 | So yes, your little nuclear family has helped you learn
00:08:13.540 | to memorize and recite and make up a story and draw a map
00:08:17.120 | and do fast math, all of that.
00:08:19.280 | But then the larger CC family is a community of support.
00:08:24.280 | I love that so much.
00:08:27.040 | I love that.
00:08:28.060 | Kelly, what are some of your highlights from this year?
00:08:31.340 | - Oh my goodness, I think if it were up to me,
00:08:33.580 | I would want all of them to win.
00:08:35.460 | And so it is a blessing that I am not the head judge.
00:08:39.020 | And I just, from the moment that the families arrive
00:08:44.020 | at the venue for the competition,
00:08:46.660 | you can sense the togetherness,
00:08:49.320 | the togetherness of each family,
00:08:51.440 | which then becomes extended as families are introduced
00:08:55.320 | to one another and we become a family of families
00:08:59.140 | right there in real time at the competition.
00:09:02.560 | And I've got to say two of my favorite highlights
00:09:05.380 | from this year.
00:09:06.780 | One was during some of our more difficult timeline heats.
00:09:11.380 | Elise and I both noted that the students
00:09:14.980 | who were not currently answering the question
00:09:18.300 | were seated in their chairs
00:09:19.960 | and you could see them counting on their fingers
00:09:22.260 | and in their minds, these were timeline events.
00:09:25.560 | And before the head judge could give a thumbs up,
00:09:28.600 | you know, that was the correct answer
00:09:30.680 | or a thumbs down for an incorrect answer,
00:09:33.040 | you could see the sheer joy spread across
00:09:36.520 | these finalists' faces when they realized
00:09:39.640 | that their friend had answered correctly.
00:09:42.920 | And that was such a delight to see.
00:09:45.360 | It just thrilled my heart to see them cheering
00:09:48.120 | on their friends, doing these difficult things.
00:09:52.340 | And I think my second highlight was, you know,
00:09:56.100 | at the end of round two,
00:09:58.380 | which this year we had five finalists move forward
00:10:02.500 | into round two.
00:10:03.340 | - Right, that's unusual, right?
00:10:05.300 | - Yes, typically it's only four finalists.
00:10:08.300 | And this year the students were just so outstanding
00:10:11.620 | that eventually the judges said,
00:10:13.180 | "All right, we're just going to move on."
00:10:14.900 | (all laughing)
00:10:16.420 | "We're going to end this portion of the competition
00:10:18.160 | "so you're all going ahead."
00:10:20.000 | - Yes, when the winner's name was announced,
00:10:24.080 | one of the other finalists just reached over
00:10:26.720 | and he just engulfed him in this huge hug.
00:10:30.800 | And they were celebrating and jumping up and down
00:10:33.560 | and cheering for their friend.
00:10:35.760 | And it was just so wonderful to see the highlights
00:10:38.720 | of the competition centered around these relationships
00:10:42.840 | that these students had built with one another,
00:10:45.200 | that the families had built with one another.
00:10:47.700 | National Memory Master Competition
00:10:49.900 | is always a time of sheer joy as we celebrate together.
00:10:54.140 | - That, and see that kind of, I will admit,
00:10:57.940 | that brought me to tears and it's just you
00:11:01.300 | telling about something that happened weeks ago.
00:11:04.780 | But I love, I love the fact
00:11:08.100 | that we are celebrating one another.
00:11:13.220 | We're not celebrating how smart somebody is.
00:11:17.640 | We're not celebrating the eliteness of the accomplishment.
00:11:22.640 | We are celebrating our friend.
00:11:27.180 | We're celebrating our family.
00:11:29.060 | We're celebrating your accomplishment,
00:11:33.260 | but we are sharing your joy.
00:11:35.980 | That is just awesome to me.
00:11:39.140 | And I want people to hear that,
00:11:41.340 | that yes, it's a competition
00:11:44.940 | because you are winnowing people down
00:11:48.060 | 'til you get a winner,
00:11:49.780 | but it's not as much about the competition
00:11:52.660 | as it is about celebration of the efforts.
00:11:56.300 | So that's great, that's great.
00:11:59.540 | It really is.
00:12:00.380 | I know that I can tell that you guys love spending time
00:12:04.700 | with those families that have chosen to participate.
00:12:10.380 | And it really does sound like a family affair.
00:12:14.660 | What I want to know is,
00:12:15.980 | are there common characteristics
00:12:19.600 | that you've noticed in these families?
00:12:22.500 | I think that there are three words
00:12:26.420 | that immediately come to mind
00:12:27.860 | that really describe all 16 families,
00:12:31.220 | and that would be dedicated, enthusiastic, and united.
00:12:36.700 | All of these families have poured so much time and effort
00:12:40.980 | into this memory work, into the preparation,
00:12:43.800 | into traveling all the way
00:12:45.780 | to be there for the competition.
00:12:48.500 | And in their dedication, they are so excited about it.
00:12:52.740 | You can see it on their faces.
00:12:54.260 | I remember meeting everyone in person
00:12:56.060 | for the first time at check-in,
00:12:57.900 | and just those kids, they were wide-eyed looking around,
00:13:01.580 | like you're seeing your friends in person
00:13:03.420 | for the first time who you've met over Zoom or messaging.
00:13:07.660 | And they were just so excited to be there.
00:13:10.300 | And then finally, as a family unit,
00:13:12.680 | they were all united around this one goal
00:13:16.260 | and this one celebration.
00:13:18.420 | And it was definitely so exciting to see
00:13:21.500 | because I loved what you said at the beginning
00:13:24.200 | about there's a common thread because of the memory work.
00:13:28.260 | It really does bind everyone together.
00:13:31.320 | And I think that's really important,
00:13:32.700 | and it definitely played itself out this year.
00:13:36.260 | - Yeah, yeah.
00:13:38.820 | What about you, Kelly?
00:13:40.220 | How would you characterize them?
00:13:44.840 | - I love the words that Alyse chose,
00:13:47.780 | and I think they are so accurate.
00:13:50.180 | There is a spirit of unity
00:13:52.980 | between the members of the family with their students
00:13:56.540 | from the moment they arrive.
00:13:57.740 | You can tell that this is something
00:13:59.200 | that they have done together,
00:14:01.140 | and they are enthusiastic.
00:14:03.060 | There are no sad faces.
00:14:04.620 | No one looks as if,
00:14:06.340 | mom told me that I can never play outside again if I-
00:14:09.020 | - Right, right.
00:14:09.860 | (all laughing)
00:14:11.700 | - There's nothing like that.
00:14:12.980 | They are just supremely enthusiastic
00:14:16.820 | about what they have accomplished,
00:14:19.020 | and not in a prideful way, but in a,
00:14:21.420 | hey, we did something difficult,
00:14:23.380 | but we did it together, and we're excited.
00:14:26.060 | I think that those characteristics
00:14:29.500 | really are helpful for our families
00:14:31.500 | to achieve that success in memory together,
00:14:35.540 | and one of the things that we prayed this year
00:14:38.780 | at the competition was that these acts of memory
00:14:41.660 | would be a love offering to the Lord,
00:14:43.820 | because it's one thing to do something difficult
00:14:46.580 | for your own honor and glory,
00:14:48.140 | which is very temporal, not long-lasting,
00:14:52.460 | but to do something and offer it as
00:14:55.620 | a love offering to the Lord
00:14:58.420 | is an entirely different thing,
00:15:01.220 | and I think having that perspective
00:15:03.460 | regarding memorizing foundations of memory work,
00:15:06.900 | drawing maps of the world, or whatever we do,
00:15:10.180 | as Christians, that puts every single task
00:15:13.860 | that we complete in a different perspective
00:15:16.820 | and in a different light,
00:15:18.460 | and I think that these families have done that.
00:15:21.940 | They have prioritized rightly.
00:15:23.700 | They have done this together,
00:15:25.900 | and they're so excited to share the fruits
00:15:29.140 | of what God has done in their families
00:15:31.780 | through memorizing the foundation's memory work.
00:15:34.220 | It's always such a beautiful thing to see
00:15:38.300 | families getting together and praying
00:15:39.980 | before the competition and just encouraging their students.
00:15:44.380 | You can tell that they are supremely invested
00:15:47.660 | not only in the fact that their student
00:15:50.260 | has memorized these facts, but that in the memorizing
00:15:54.500 | that this has changed their child for eternity,
00:15:59.140 | and I think that perspective is key
00:16:01.500 | for not only the National Memory Master Competition,
00:16:04.660 | but for foundations families as well,
00:16:06.660 | whether your child memory masters every single cycle
00:16:09.860 | and has done it since they were four years old,
00:16:12.660 | or whether or not your child just loves the timeline song
00:16:15.620 | and they just want to sing the timeline song
00:16:17.700 | in memory every year.
00:16:19.540 | If that's the one thing that they delight in,
00:16:21.980 | that it is a love offering to the Lord.
00:16:25.020 | And what a wonderful thing that is.
00:16:27.260 | - I think that's great.
00:16:28.540 | And you both have made such a point of the fact
00:16:33.540 | that this is a family affair
00:16:36.580 | and that parents are very invested
00:16:40.740 | or very much a part of the National Memory Master journey.
00:16:45.740 | So I want to know, can you give me some specifics?
00:16:48.860 | How involved do most parents get
00:16:53.260 | in their child's preparation?
00:16:54.660 | I mean, how much time does it take?
00:16:56.660 | What have you heard about other family members helping out?
00:17:01.180 | - Well, I think one thing when you consider
00:17:05.140 | the achievement of these families
00:17:06.540 | that are coming to National Memory Master,
00:17:08.820 | the best metaphor I can think of is watering,
00:17:11.620 | slow watering a garden over a long period of time.
00:17:16.100 | Because I am from the South
00:17:18.380 | and I grew up with a grandfather
00:17:19.820 | who always had a summer garden.
00:17:21.780 | And so every day he would just lightly,
00:17:25.300 | slowly water his garden.
00:17:27.180 | He didn't want to wash the seeds away.
00:17:29.700 | And this deep irrigation would sink into the roots
00:17:33.820 | of those baby roots of those plants
00:17:36.180 | and anchor them in the soil.
00:17:38.540 | And National Memory Master
00:17:41.100 | and even Memory Master in community
00:17:43.540 | is definitely not something that you wake up and go,
00:17:46.460 | I think I'm going to do National Memory Master.
00:17:48.860 | - Yes, yes.
00:17:49.700 | I mean, maybe some people do,
00:17:51.180 | but that's probably not the recipe for success.
00:17:54.580 | - Exactly, exactly.
00:17:55.980 | Elias, I'm trying to remember.
00:17:57.180 | I think we had at least one finalist this year
00:17:59.980 | who had Memory Mastered eight times.
00:18:01.900 | Is that right?
00:18:02.740 | - Out of all my stars, I think I read that.
00:18:05.140 | - Eight times.
00:18:05.980 | And you talk about slow watering of this garden,
00:18:09.180 | this mental garden over time.
00:18:11.220 | He had mastered and mastered and mastered
00:18:14.980 | again and again and again.
00:18:17.660 | And I think that duration,
00:18:20.940 | doing it over time and repeating it over and over
00:18:25.940 | are just so key to that information
00:18:29.660 | being retained in the brain.
00:18:31.660 | Elias, what about you?
00:18:32.940 | Do you feel like, I mean,
00:18:35.940 | did you hear anything from families this year?
00:18:38.500 | People who perhaps said,
00:18:40.500 | we've done this for this many years,
00:18:43.020 | or it seemed this year,
00:18:44.540 | we had a lot of families who had been participating
00:18:47.540 | in Memory Mastered for quite some time.
00:18:49.980 | - So they had a system, I bet.
00:18:51.980 | A thing that they did to prepare.
00:18:55.820 | - Yeah, so I definitely heard from lots of the families
00:18:59.380 | that they had that slow watering for sure.
00:19:01.740 | They had been doing that for a long time.
00:19:04.380 | And in your original question, Lisa,
00:19:07.260 | I think you asked how involved parents are
00:19:10.580 | and other things. - Yes.
00:19:12.380 | - They definitely are involved.
00:19:14.220 | And that's one of the things that points back to that unity
00:19:17.660 | that they had when they showed up for competition day.
00:19:20.260 | I think for most families that I talked to,
00:19:22.540 | their experience was that parents
00:19:24.180 | were heavily involved at the beginning.
00:19:26.100 | They were setting that pace, that standard.
00:19:29.580 | This is what we do as a family.
00:19:31.500 | This is worth it.
00:19:32.340 | It's exciting.
00:19:33.180 | And then after that, they saw that their student loved it.
00:19:37.580 | They truly, truly loved it.
00:19:39.180 | And it was the student that propelled the family forward.
00:19:42.940 | It was like, "I wanna do this.
00:19:44.020 | "Let's keep doing this."
00:19:45.380 | And those are the students who are really the ones
00:19:49.020 | who excel at National Memory Master
00:19:52.020 | because they're the ones who take it into their own hands
00:19:54.540 | and develop new ways to make it exciting.
00:19:57.300 | I heard from a lot of kids.
00:19:58.700 | They were like, "The biggest thing for me
00:20:00.300 | "is I had to make it fun.
00:20:01.380 | "Let's make games, let's go outside at the grocery store.
00:20:04.980 | "Let's do memory work with my siblings
00:20:07.340 | "and my friends and all that."
00:20:09.140 | It's definitely not a, "I'm gonna go study
00:20:11.180 | "and shut myself in my room," type thing.
00:20:13.540 | - Yes.
00:20:14.860 | - You do in your real life with the people around you.
00:20:17.700 | And I think that that's what makes it really special.
00:20:20.620 | - I like that.
00:20:21.460 | And you know what?
00:20:22.980 | There's a lot of wisdom in that.
00:20:25.260 | And I do see the value in parents getting involved
00:20:30.780 | at the beginning, like you said,
00:20:33.180 | to help their children set up a system and a pace
00:20:37.340 | for eating the elephant.
00:20:40.100 | How are we gonna do this?
00:20:42.580 | I think that's really good.
00:20:43.620 | Parents probably have better time management skills
00:20:47.500 | than most of our older foundation students.
00:20:50.060 | And so that seems like a good way
00:20:52.220 | for parents to be involved.
00:20:53.900 | But then I absolutely love and support
00:20:56.540 | what you said, Elise.
00:20:57.820 | Then those families then let it be the student's job
00:21:02.820 | to propel themselves forward.
00:21:05.740 | The student needs to drive the bus
00:21:08.740 | after the road is constructed.
00:21:11.060 | And that's how you get the students, like you said,
00:21:14.100 | taking ownership.
00:21:15.500 | And that's how you know the parents
00:21:17.780 | are not pushing the students to do something.
00:21:20.660 | The family is helping the student to achieve their goal.
00:21:25.660 | And that's beautiful too.
00:21:27.740 | And I love the whole idea that the kids who succeed
00:21:31.740 | are the ones who made it fun,
00:21:34.620 | who played while they practiced,
00:21:37.700 | 'cause that's sustainable.
00:21:39.740 | That's really great.
00:21:40.980 | So Kelly, what are some of the other tips and tricks
00:21:45.100 | that you've heard from families through the years?
00:21:48.460 | - Well, I think that Mary Poppins had it right
00:21:51.340 | with saying in every job that must be done,
00:21:53.580 | there's an element of fun.
00:21:54.860 | You find the fun and snap the job's a game.
00:21:58.460 | And I think that the first tip or trick
00:22:03.260 | that I would offer is something
00:22:04.460 | that Elise has already alluded to.
00:22:05.940 | Find the fun, make it fun.
00:22:09.540 | Take sidewalk chalk and go out into your driveway
00:22:11.900 | and decorate it with memory work.
00:22:13.660 | Take dry erase markers or washable paint
00:22:17.940 | and paint the glass in your house
00:22:20.020 | while you sing history songs.
00:22:22.980 | There are so many different things
00:22:24.780 | that you can do to make things fun.
00:22:27.660 | I know a lot of families will even take
00:22:29.500 | the board game Candyland
00:22:31.060 | and they'll use our memory work flashcards for each cycle
00:22:34.940 | and they'll use them to play the game Candyland,
00:22:38.140 | which I think is fabulous.
00:22:40.020 | So so many fun things that you can do.
00:22:43.940 | And of course, every year out of our finalists,
00:22:46.820 | I will hear some unique tip or trick.
00:22:49.660 | Two years ago, our winner's family told us
00:22:53.380 | that he mastered the timeline backwards
00:22:55.260 | because they taped the entire set of timeline cards
00:22:58.780 | up the stairs.
00:22:59.740 | - Oh my gosh.
00:23:00.580 | - This next level of their home.
00:23:01.740 | And so he would walk up the stairs and recite the timeline.
00:23:05.020 | And then he would recite it backwards,
00:23:07.060 | going down the stairs to the first level of the home.
00:23:10.180 | And I just thought how brilliant and fun for him.
00:23:13.420 | And his siblings would chant along with him
00:23:15.380 | while he went up and down the stairs.
00:23:16.740 | So he got physical exercise and mental exercise.
00:23:20.020 | (laughing)
00:23:21.340 | And this year, just recently,
00:23:23.860 | I had a conversation with our winner, Ewan Fisher,
00:23:27.420 | from this year's competition.
00:23:29.300 | And I found out a new way to memorize the timeline.
00:23:33.620 | His sisters are very involved in dance
00:23:36.180 | and every year at Christmas time,
00:23:37.860 | they participate in the Nutcracker.
00:23:39.820 | - Yes.
00:23:40.660 | - And Ewan told me that he memorized the timeline backwards
00:23:45.220 | by setting it to the second act of the Nutcracker,
00:23:49.100 | the music.
00:23:49.940 | - Oh my gosh.
00:23:50.780 | - And so he said he'll never listen to the Nutcracker
00:23:52.940 | in the same way ever again,
00:23:54.240 | because he'll only be hearing
00:23:56.140 | the lyrics to the timeline song.
00:23:58.340 | So I think it really is,
00:23:59.980 | the biggest tip is finding the fun
00:24:03.900 | and then doing things over and over again
00:24:07.660 | until they are committed to memory
00:24:10.180 | and then sharing them with others.
00:24:12.980 | You know, I mean, I can't tell you many times
00:24:14.780 | my children would be in the grocery store
00:24:16.580 | and they would be singing the president's song
00:24:18.600 | and people would turn around
00:24:20.100 | and they would look at us like,
00:24:21.920 | who are these children and how do they know this?
00:24:24.480 | - Right, right.
00:24:25.700 | - Sharing that is part of the joy, right?
00:24:29.060 | You know, sharing that memory work
00:24:30.460 | that's been mastered with other people in your life
00:24:32.780 | and then telling them, you know what?
00:24:34.940 | I memorized this timeline song
00:24:37.500 | so that when I get older,
00:24:39.940 | I'll know when these things happened in history
00:24:42.580 | or I memorized the president's
00:24:44.820 | so that I can tell you, you know,
00:24:47.020 | which president was leading our country
00:24:49.980 | at a certain point in history.
00:24:51.580 | So there's always a purpose,
00:24:53.420 | but if you find the fun,
00:24:55.060 | it makes it easier to accomplish what needs to be done.
00:24:57.660 | I did not mean for that to rhyme,
00:24:59.100 | but there you go.
00:24:59.940 | - That is too funny, that is too funny.
00:25:01.820 | You heard it here first, folks.
00:25:03.800 | (laughing)
00:25:05.340 | We are Dr. Seuss here on The Everyday Educator.
00:25:09.020 | That's really good.
00:25:10.180 | I like that.
00:25:11.020 | The exhortation to share your memory work,
00:25:14.420 | share what you're doing.
00:25:15.620 | Other people might be drawn into the game or the song
00:25:20.420 | and they can join you on your quest.
00:25:24.160 | I like that a lot.
00:25:26.280 | So would you encourage people
00:25:28.980 | who maybe have heard some of these podcasts
00:25:31.980 | or went to national conference
00:25:34.000 | and saw some of the memory masters in action,
00:25:37.780 | how early should people start pursuing memory master
00:25:42.780 | for next year?
00:25:45.020 | - Today, would be my answer.
00:25:48.840 | (laughing)
00:25:50.660 | I actually just had a conversation
00:25:52.920 | with a lady over the phone today about this very thing.
00:25:56.460 | One of her families, her community was wondering,
00:25:59.500 | when should we start?
00:26:00.420 | When should my daughter start?
00:26:01.900 | - Yeah.
00:26:02.720 | - And today is the answer for that.
00:26:05.980 | - Oh, that's so fun.
00:26:07.420 | The sheer amount of information alone
00:26:10.660 | kind of alludes to that fact,
00:26:12.020 | like, okay, it's gonna take a while
00:26:13.380 | to get three cycles of memory work down.
00:26:16.420 | But then also the level of mastery
00:26:21.420 | that is required for national memory master,
00:26:24.340 | it is a very high bar to meet.
00:26:27.360 | And it does require time,
00:26:28.780 | that slow watering Kelly talked about.
00:26:31.340 | And also why would you wanna put off the fun
00:26:33.720 | is another way of looking at it.
00:26:35.460 | - That's great.
00:26:37.500 | - Yeah, I remember that memory work was a ton of fun
00:26:40.580 | when I was doing it.
00:26:41.580 | And you can definitely have a blast with it,
00:26:45.940 | especially over the summer.
00:26:47.460 | If you're traveling, going to the beach,
00:26:50.100 | parks or things like that,
00:26:52.020 | you don't have to be cooped up in your home
00:26:54.120 | in the dead of winter, reciting math facts.
00:26:56.260 | You can skip count while you run or all of that stuff.
00:26:59.940 | - Yes.
00:27:01.180 | - There's a thousand ways to do it
00:27:02.740 | and just incorporate it in your daily life.
00:27:05.260 | You don't have to sit down and be like,
00:27:06.740 | I'm gonna dedicate two hours every day from now
00:27:09.500 | till next year's national memory master.
00:27:11.300 | And that's how I'm gonna be a memory master.
00:27:13.580 | I would say that you'll probably get burnout that way.
00:27:16.940 | Just start incorporating it now
00:27:19.940 | and make it exciting and enjoyable.
00:27:22.140 | And I'm sure that you'll have great success.
00:27:25.340 | - You know what, Elise, you are so wise to be so young.
00:27:29.300 | That is really true.
00:27:30.980 | If you incorporate it into your daily life,
00:27:33.660 | it just become practicing memory
00:27:36.260 | where it becomes what you do.
00:27:38.700 | And it doesn't become a job and it's not drudgery
00:27:42.380 | and you don't get burned out.
00:27:44.260 | It's just a game you play on your way to something else.
00:27:49.260 | And that can be delightful.
00:27:50.740 | I love it.
00:27:51.580 | Okay, so I know families,
00:27:53.740 | we've been discussing national memory master,
00:27:57.460 | but lots of families
00:28:01.820 | might not ever decide to go all the way
00:28:06.820 | to national memory master.
00:28:09.460 | But these same families fully believe
00:28:12.060 | that memorizing is a key component for classical education.
00:28:17.060 | So I want us to talk for the last part of our podcast today
00:28:23.140 | about memorizing for all of us.
00:28:27.300 | So if I'm not going to go for national memory master
00:28:31.940 | next spring, what's the big deal about memorizing?
00:28:36.460 | How is it for all of us?
00:28:38.780 | So y'all set the stage.
00:28:42.180 | What is so important about memorizing?
00:28:46.220 | - Lisa, I think this is a really valid question
00:28:48.620 | because of the world that we live in today, right?
00:28:51.620 | Nearly every adult has some form of handheld device,
00:28:56.980 | and access more knowledge, encyclopedic knowledge
00:29:01.220 | that has ever been able to be accessed
00:29:03.020 | in the history of the world.
00:29:05.060 | And so what is the big deal about memorizing?
00:29:07.540 | Why take the time to commit things to memory
00:29:10.340 | when you can within a minute
00:29:12.820 | have them in the palm of your hand?
00:29:15.180 | And I know Elise and I both have thoughts about this
00:29:18.860 | and why memorizing is important.
00:29:21.540 | For me, I know I've already said this,
00:29:23.860 | it is building a library of the mind.
00:29:26.780 | You know, we, in our minds,
00:29:29.940 | we have millions, probably, conservatively,
00:29:34.260 | mental souvenirs from our sensory experiences in this world.
00:29:39.260 | And so, you know, for our foundation students,
00:29:42.260 | part of those experiences are pieces of memory work.
00:29:46.660 | And, you know, if you think about them being like a library
00:29:49.580 | at the risk of sounding too antiquated,
00:29:53.060 | they are setting up a Dewey Decimal System of information.
00:29:58.060 | And for anyone who may be listening and says,
00:30:01.140 | "What is the Dewey Decimal System?"
00:30:03.060 | (all laughing)
00:30:04.340 | Which, a few years ago, I wouldn't think
00:30:05.580 | I would need to explain, but I'm going to do it anyway.
00:30:07.820 | You know, that is a numeric system
00:30:09.580 | by which you can find different types of literature
00:30:12.100 | within a library.
00:30:13.820 | And, you know, by memorizing,
00:30:16.060 | we are providing structure to our thoughts,
00:30:18.820 | we're providing structure to those sensory experiences
00:30:22.380 | that we have in the world.
00:30:23.540 | You know, I think about our foundation students,
00:30:26.180 | how they may memorize the timeline song,
00:30:29.460 | and already they have a structure
00:30:31.580 | for every other historical event
00:30:34.180 | that they will encounter throughout their challenge years,
00:30:37.820 | throughout the remainder of their adult life,
00:30:39.980 | in sequential order.
00:30:41.580 | So memorizing alone, just at face value,
00:30:45.700 | gives us structure for the other information
00:30:49.100 | that we're going to take in in this world.
00:30:52.260 | Elise, what about you?
00:30:53.340 | Why do you think memorizing is important?
00:30:55.420 | - I absolutely love what you just said
00:30:58.740 | about building that structure,
00:31:01.300 | and I also love your metaphor about the library.
00:31:04.500 | I have a similar one that I like to use,
00:31:07.220 | and I think of memorizing as the act of furnishing the mind.
00:31:11.660 | That's kind of how I've always viewed it,
00:31:13.500 | and so that structure idea really helps
00:31:17.060 | to paint that picture.
00:31:18.220 | First, you have to put up, oh boy,
00:31:21.420 | I'm not into construction,
00:31:23.100 | the beams, the walls, the roof, all that,
00:31:25.700 | and then you really get to fill it in
00:31:27.420 | with the furniture, and the paintings,
00:31:30.260 | and the music, and the colors, and all that,
00:31:33.020 | and it is so exciting.
00:31:34.420 | I think that we've lost a lot of the excitement
00:31:37.140 | around memory, which has been experienced
00:31:39.900 | throughout all of history,
00:31:41.580 | and I think a lot of it, you could make the argument,
00:31:43.900 | comes from that cell phone in your back pocket,
00:31:46.300 | but that's a discussion for another day, I'm sure.
00:31:50.620 | Overall, I can think of two main reasons
00:31:54.260 | why memory is so important,
00:31:55.900 | just based off of that idea of furnishing your mind.
00:31:58.300 | First is academically, it is undeniably useful and helpful.
00:32:03.300 | There's actually a quote from Daniel Borstein,
00:32:07.340 | who wrote the book, "The Discoverers,"
00:32:08.940 | which we study and challenge for classical conversations,
00:32:12.380 | and I love this quote,
00:32:13.340 | so I'm just gonna read it aloud if that's all right.
00:32:15.300 | - Yes, that'd be great.
00:32:16.620 | - He says, "By memory and in memory,
00:32:19.820 | the fruits of education are garnered,
00:32:22.580 | preserved, and stored."
00:32:24.500 | And so just that alone, the way he breaks it down,
00:32:27.780 | it's beautiful words, which makes it exciting to read,
00:32:30.420 | but then also it's so true, and that skill,
00:32:33.900 | we cannot just get rid of it.
00:32:37.180 | You need to remember what you're learning,
00:32:39.020 | or else you have to ask yourself,
00:32:40.660 | what is the purpose of education?
00:32:42.780 | Why are you even going to school
00:32:44.100 | if you're not gonna retain any of it?
00:32:45.980 | So academically, it's absolutely essential
00:32:48.100 | that you practice the skills of memory,
00:32:51.060 | but then also there's the spiritual aspect of it,
00:32:54.300 | of what do you...
00:32:55.940 | You're building your character and your desires
00:32:59.180 | when you memorize good and true and beautiful things,
00:33:02.700 | and I think that it's so important to keep that in mind
00:33:05.580 | as we're training the next generation
00:33:08.580 | through classical conversations to love memory,
00:33:11.660 | and in doing so, reminding adults
00:33:14.980 | who may have forgotten that,
00:33:16.180 | that this is a beautiful skill,
00:33:19.620 | it's a necessary skill,
00:33:21.180 | and it will really serve you well
00:33:23.260 | if you choose to memorize the good, true, and beautiful.
00:33:27.380 | - Those are such inspiring answers from both of you.
00:33:33.100 | You have given all of us a good reason to memorize.
00:33:39.380 | I love the fact that when we commit things to memory,
00:33:45.820 | we have sealed a personal connection with information.
00:33:50.820 | It becomes part of our story
00:33:54.380 | because it's part of our memory,
00:33:56.180 | and it becomes part of the context
00:34:00.060 | that we use to explain the rest of the world to us.
00:34:05.060 | And when we have memorized things,
00:34:08.180 | they become part of the story that we understand
00:34:13.660 | about the world that God is showing to us.
00:34:17.780 | And so I love all of those goals.
00:34:21.020 | And I love that you brought in the fact
00:34:25.140 | that even parents need to recognize
00:34:30.140 | these goals of memorizing.
00:34:33.980 | The need to memorize and the beauty of memorizing
00:34:40.140 | doesn't end with our school years.
00:34:43.820 | We can really benefit from memorizing.
00:34:46.820 | We're not done.
00:34:48.700 | How can memorizing be a family affair?
00:34:53.700 | Kelly, when do we start?
00:34:55.500 | Okay, so a bunch of questions that go along with this.
00:34:59.380 | How can it be a family affair?
00:35:00.780 | And when do we start with our littlest learners?
00:35:03.780 | And then, you know, we all know they are like sponges,
00:35:07.380 | so they love, like I could tell hours worth of stories
00:35:12.300 | about my grandson, Gideon,
00:35:14.580 | and the way he is constantly amazing me.
00:35:18.220 | He marches around reciting the litany
00:35:23.220 | of all the words he knows and all the things that he knows.
00:35:27.220 | And it's just a delight to him.
00:35:29.300 | So we know that little children do that,
00:35:31.860 | and Gideon's not quite too,
00:35:33.740 | but how do we encourage our older students
00:35:36.540 | to keep practicing their memorizing skills
00:35:40.740 | and not leave it in foundations?
00:35:43.300 | Such good questions.
00:35:44.620 | So I think, first of all,
00:35:47.180 | thinking about how memory work can be a family affair,
00:35:50.300 | one of the blessings as a parent that we have from the Lord
00:35:53.980 | is that we are given the role of,
00:35:56.140 | if we follow the metaphor of the library,
00:35:58.500 | the role of being our children's first mental librarians.
00:36:02.060 | You know, we are curating the content
00:36:04.980 | that is being placed on the shelves of their minds,
00:36:07.620 | even at an early age.
00:36:09.700 | So when you read the book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
00:36:12.980 | What Do You See?"
00:36:15.260 | you are helping them to establish the ideas,
00:36:18.420 | name the ideas of what colors are,
00:36:21.740 | what these animals are.
00:36:23.180 | They're already putting that information
00:36:25.180 | on the mental shelves of their minds.
00:36:28.540 | And, you know, thinking about, you know,
00:36:30.500 | when do we start?
00:36:31.420 | Oh my goodness, right away.
00:36:32.820 | It's like Elisa's answer for memory master, right away.
00:36:37.180 | I can remember when all three of my children
00:36:39.980 | were teeny tiny babies.
00:36:42.220 | I think I read them their first book in the hospital.
00:36:45.500 | - Yeah, yeah.
00:36:46.340 | - And of course, you know, some people might say,
00:36:48.700 | "Oh, you know, they're basically an intellectual potato
00:36:51.380 | at that point.
00:36:52.220 | What can they retain?"
00:36:53.500 | But I'm gonna tell you this.
00:36:56.260 | I think that I believe that God has designed our minds
00:37:00.380 | in such an incredible way
00:37:02.260 | that even those earliest experiences
00:37:04.980 | have impact on our children.
00:37:07.100 | Whether they see us holding a book
00:37:09.140 | and they hear us reciting words,
00:37:11.780 | eventually they're going to master those words.
00:37:14.740 | I personally have memorized so many children's books
00:37:18.260 | from reading them over and over.
00:37:20.660 | "Goodnight Moon," you know,
00:37:22.620 | is one of my children's favorites.
00:37:24.380 | And if I start in with the text of "Goodnight Moon,"
00:37:27.500 | all three of my children can recite it along with me
00:37:30.980 | because from their earliest days,
00:37:33.860 | we have made memorizing together just a gift,
00:37:37.780 | a family gift that we give one another.
00:37:40.060 | It is family culture to be memorizers.
00:37:44.060 | And you know, with our littlest learners,
00:37:45.660 | they take so much joy in that.
00:37:48.540 | I mean, at the National Memory Master Competition,
00:37:51.180 | we were watching these students
00:37:52.660 | who were in their final year of foundation.
00:37:54.540 | So that means next year,
00:37:56.100 | they'll be beginning the journey into Challenge A.
00:37:58.820 | We saw them joyfully reciting their memory work.
00:38:02.380 | There was no drudgery.
00:38:04.020 | It was effortless and simple to them
00:38:07.580 | and delightful to share what they had memorized.
00:38:11.660 | Now, I will say this,
00:38:13.340 | when our children move from the grammar,
00:38:16.820 | you know, stage where everything,
00:38:18.900 | it's so much fun to repeat and to play,
00:38:21.820 | and they begin contemplating and reasoning
00:38:24.780 | and fitting those puzzle pieces of ideas together,
00:38:28.620 | the joy of memorizing can be lost
00:38:31.220 | if we don't take care to cultivate it.
00:38:33.140 | - Yes, absolutely.
00:38:34.900 | - You know, as our children get older,
00:38:37.260 | we also need to consider the types of things
00:38:40.420 | that we're asking them to memorize.
00:38:42.940 | Now, I will say this,
00:38:44.100 | I still delighted in having my children
00:38:46.220 | memorize nonsensical, fun things.
00:38:49.220 | - Yes, yes.
00:38:50.060 | - Even when they were older,
00:38:50.900 | it's because we love the sounds of the words.
00:38:53.500 | And I think that is also a skill that needs to be acquired.
00:38:57.020 | You know, just listening to, as Elise said,
00:38:59.940 | the beauty of words is so key for our students
00:39:04.940 | in helping them to become good writers
00:39:07.380 | because they've heard good writing
00:39:08.700 | and they know what it sounds like.
00:39:11.180 | So I think, you know, continuing to cultivate,
00:39:14.460 | not letting ourselves get to a place
00:39:16.340 | where we think memorizing is obsolete.
00:39:19.980 | One of the things Elise said earlier
00:39:21.460 | is how we're contributing to our character.
00:39:23.780 | You know, forming our character is a never ending process
00:39:27.460 | because we are human.
00:39:28.980 | We are made in the image of God,
00:39:30.420 | but we are not gods ourselves.
00:39:33.860 | And so that character will continually be cultivated
00:39:37.540 | and memorization, committing those pieces
00:39:39.940 | of information to memory is a part of that process.
00:39:44.940 | So, you know, I would say as our children are getting older,
00:39:50.300 | encouraging them to continue memorizing
00:39:53.180 | may look a little different than when you're skip counting
00:39:55.700 | or you're making muscle man arms as you, you know,
00:39:58.340 | skip or recite memorization facts.
00:40:01.180 | It might simply be walking around the block together
00:40:04.860 | and reciting a passage of scripture together.
00:40:07.500 | Or, you know, our challenge program
00:40:09.140 | has so many wonderful built-in opportunities
00:40:11.740 | for memorization.
00:40:13.420 | It simply could be getting in the car with your student
00:40:17.620 | and letting them recite
00:40:18.900 | while you're driving to the grocery store.
00:40:21.260 | But always I think, and we've already alluded to this too,
00:40:24.140 | the element of togetherness strengthens that act of memory
00:40:28.380 | because you're able to recite together.
00:40:32.300 | And I think for our students that emphasizes to them that,
00:40:35.540 | hey, we think memorizing is important too as parents
00:40:39.540 | and we should be continuing to do that ourselves.
00:40:42.820 | - Yeah, I love that.
00:40:44.700 | I really love that.
00:40:46.420 | I think that listeners can tell
00:40:49.540 | that we are all three really big on family
00:40:53.340 | strengthening their memory muscles.
00:40:55.620 | And so I wanna give,
00:40:57.660 | so there may be listeners out there who say,
00:40:59.580 | okay, you have convinced me.
00:41:01.220 | I can see that this is a good thing
00:41:03.420 | to start with my little guys and I wanna keep doing it.
00:41:07.900 | Or maybe I wanna start doing it
00:41:09.740 | with my older children as well.
00:41:13.020 | But I don't know what to memorize.
00:41:14.580 | How do we start?
00:41:15.900 | You guys, let's brainstorm
00:41:17.500 | for just the last couple of minutes.
00:41:19.660 | What are some things that families could memorize together?
00:41:24.660 | And you guys feel free to tell me some things
00:41:27.700 | that your family have done together well,
00:41:31.860 | or things that you discovered,
00:41:34.060 | they sounded good, but it didn't work out.
00:41:36.100 | So be really practical, okay?
00:41:38.180 | - There are so many things I could think of
00:41:42.140 | and lots of them come from my experience
00:41:45.820 | in the Challenge program.
00:41:47.980 | Like Kelly said, I think that lots of older students
00:41:51.420 | can lose that excitement of memory.
00:41:55.460 | And that definitely happened to me
00:41:57.100 | until we came to the study of Shakespeare.
00:42:02.060 | And in Challenge, you have to memorize,
00:42:06.260 | I believe it's about 30 lines of Shakespeare
00:42:08.780 | and give it in a dramatic interpretation.
00:42:11.300 | I did this with one of my good friends
00:42:13.180 | and we had so much fun with it.
00:42:15.780 | But man, there's a reason why Shakespeare is so famous.
00:42:20.780 | His beautiful words and exciting stories
00:42:25.900 | really helped to awaken that desire
00:42:28.460 | to memorize his work in me.
00:42:31.900 | For example, my favorite Shakespeare speech
00:42:36.620 | in all the Shakespeare plays I've read
00:42:38.660 | is Mark Antony's speech in Julius Caesar
00:42:41.540 | after they kill Caesar.
00:42:43.060 | It is riveting to me.
00:42:47.140 | I absolutely love it.
00:42:48.260 | And so I have it in my sites to memorize coming up here,
00:42:52.380 | but that is an amazing one or anything from Macbeth
00:42:55.980 | or Much Ado About Nothing.
00:42:57.260 | They're all so exciting.
00:42:58.420 | I highly suggest Shakespeare.
00:43:00.260 | But also just, well, of course there's scripture,
00:43:06.740 | which we're commanded to memorize.
00:43:09.340 | So that's a good extensive that right there.
00:43:11.300 | But poetry, I was actually just at a conference
00:43:16.300 | this past week and was talking to Mr. Andrew Pudowa
00:43:20.060 | about memorization and looking through his book.
00:43:23.580 | And he has all these fun poems in there
00:43:26.580 | that are meant for smaller children.
00:43:28.780 | And I have a small baby cousin who when he grows up,
00:43:32.420 | I want to be able to share those fun,
00:43:35.020 | delightful poems with him.
00:43:36.580 | And so just reminding older students
00:43:40.100 | that they can delight younger students
00:43:42.860 | with what they commit to memory.
00:43:44.300 | It's not always just about what they think
00:43:47.060 | that they'll directly benefit from.
00:43:49.380 | So think outside the box and what really excites you.
00:43:53.260 | And some people aren't as in love with Shakespeare as I am.
00:43:57.100 | So you don't have to go there,
00:43:58.540 | but those are just some things I've been thinking about
00:44:01.100 | where just pick things that excite you,
00:44:03.660 | that you can use in your day-to-day life
00:44:06.940 | and that will delight those who hear it.
00:44:11.700 | - That's great.
00:44:12.540 | That's a great suggestion.
00:44:13.700 | Kelly, I know that you love music and you love poetry.
00:44:18.700 | Tell me some things that you have memorized
00:44:21.460 | with your family.
00:44:23.020 | - Oh my goodness.
00:44:23.940 | So many things set to music.
00:44:25.820 | My children laugh.
00:44:27.260 | Anytime that we can't memorize something,
00:44:28.940 | they're like, "Mom, put it to a song."
00:44:31.180 | So they have memorized the first 18 elements
00:44:34.180 | of the periodic table set to music,
00:44:36.340 | which was incredibly helpful
00:44:39.260 | when they've passed through chemistry
00:44:41.260 | to have that information tucked away.
00:44:44.620 | And I would echo so many of the ideas
00:44:47.220 | that Elise has already given to you.
00:44:49.380 | For our family, poetry,
00:44:51.700 | it was so helpful to them
00:44:53.260 | in strengthening those memorizing muscles
00:44:56.260 | because you can memorize short poems,
00:45:00.020 | haiku or a cinquain,
00:45:02.140 | or you can memorize epic poems,
00:45:04.740 | not necessarily all at once,
00:45:07.300 | but bit by bit until you've mastered the entire thing.
00:45:11.020 | So there really are so many wonderful things in the world
00:45:15.900 | to commit to the shelves of the library of your mind.
00:45:20.220 | The fun part is choosing
00:45:22.940 | what you want to spend time and energy memorizing.
00:45:26.380 | I can remember as a young child,
00:45:28.380 | I was asked to memorize "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
00:45:31.380 | for a Christmas program at my elementary school.
00:45:36.380 | And every single day I would walk home from school
00:45:40.580 | to my grandmother's house.
00:45:41.740 | She only lived a few blocks away from the school.
00:45:44.260 | And I would recite "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
00:45:46.580 | to the cadence of my squeaky little shoes,
00:45:49.060 | hitting the concrete one after the other.
00:45:51.060 | "Twas the night before Christmas,"
00:45:52.460 | and all through the house.
00:45:53.700 | And even now as an adult, I still remember it
00:45:57.820 | because I took time to commit it to memory.
00:46:02.060 | And it definitely was not something
00:46:04.020 | that I woke up the day before Christmas and said,
00:46:06.180 | "I think I'm going to memorize this poem."
00:46:08.740 | It became a part of who I am.
00:46:11.740 | And so I would just strongly encourage our families
00:46:14.940 | to, like Elise said,
00:46:16.660 | look for those things that bring you joy.
00:46:19.140 | I would say passages of scripture,
00:46:22.900 | which describe the qualities of God,
00:46:26.140 | are a wonderful place to start.
00:46:28.740 | The Ten Commandments is part of our memory work.
00:46:32.100 | That's also a great way to start.
00:46:34.500 | And for our littlest ones,
00:46:35.980 | they can memorize the Ten Commandments
00:46:37.580 | by holding up 10 fingers
00:46:39.900 | and reciting one for each finger
00:46:42.220 | using another tool of memory.
00:46:44.220 | So there are so many wonderful things
00:46:46.140 | in the world that we can memorize.
00:46:48.900 | It's just up to you to choose
00:46:50.380 | what you want in your mental library.
00:46:52.660 | - Those are great suggestions.
00:46:56.020 | What I want to say to families is,
00:46:58.100 | look, delight in words with your family.
00:47:03.100 | Delight in the sounds, delight in the rhythm,
00:47:08.020 | delight in rhyme.
00:47:09.700 | Kelly and Elise have given you some really great suggestions.
00:47:16.820 | But if they all sound too serious for the summer,
00:47:20.780 | hey, listen, memorize song lyrics.
00:47:24.700 | Memorize "Silly Songs with Larry" from Veggie Tales.
00:47:29.700 | Memorize a hymn that you sang at church.
00:47:33.980 | Ask your teenagers.
00:47:35.780 | Get them to share some of the song lyrics
00:47:39.220 | from the music that they are listening to.
00:47:42.020 | It's a great way for you to see what they're listening to.
00:47:45.100 | But then offer to memorize a song lyric
00:47:48.540 | that is meaningful to them with them.
00:47:52.500 | You can memorize counting rhymes
00:47:54.820 | that you can practice while you're skipping rope
00:47:57.780 | or bouncing balls.
00:47:59.500 | Listen, you guys, you can stretch your memory muscle
00:48:04.580 | by memorizing dialogue from movies, from film dialogue.
00:48:09.580 | And some of the first things that we memorize,
00:48:13.980 | well, maybe not the first things,
00:48:14.980 | but when the girls were really little,
00:48:17.260 | we had a tradition on the 4th of July.
00:48:21.580 | Now, we are a big musical theater kind of family.
00:48:24.900 | And so we, on the 4th of July,
00:48:26.940 | we always watched "The Music Man."
00:48:31.220 | And one of the earliest things I can remember
00:48:34.380 | is one of the songs from there.
00:48:36.820 | He's a what?
00:48:37.660 | He's a what?
00:48:38.500 | He's a music man.
00:48:39.320 | And he plays clarinet with the kids in the town.
00:48:41.580 | Big brass bass, big brass bass.
00:48:43.220 | And the piccolo, the piccolo with uniforms too.
00:48:45.460 | And my girls memorized this.
00:48:48.100 | They were teeny.
00:48:49.260 | And I had no idea that the rhythm and the cadence
00:48:54.260 | and the movement of that rhyme
00:48:56.740 | had taken root in their minds.
00:48:58.740 | So listen, families, find silly things to memorize.
00:49:02.620 | What tickles your child's ear first,
00:49:06.940 | especially for your little ones?
00:49:08.460 | 'Cause if it tickles their ear,
00:49:10.540 | it will worm its way in
00:49:12.340 | and they'll be able to memorize it.
00:49:13.980 | And it will make them giggle.
00:49:15.620 | And that makes, anything that makes them laugh
00:49:17.980 | makes them wanna do it again.
00:49:20.260 | But find out what makes your teenager's ears tingle.
00:49:25.180 | What touches their heart?
00:49:27.540 | And offer to memorize that with them.
00:49:30.340 | It will build, like we've said this whole time,
00:49:33.660 | what you're doing is building a library of the mind,
00:49:36.540 | but you are also building a community of heart
00:49:40.620 | in your family.
00:49:42.020 | So yeah, we wanted to talk about National Memory Master,
00:49:46.140 | but we really, really wanted all of our families to see
00:49:50.660 | that memorizing is a family affair
00:49:53.300 | and it is worth pursuing all by itself.
00:49:56.820 | Kelly, Elise, thank you so much for sharing
00:50:00.820 | your wisdom and your inspiration again.
00:50:03.820 | I really appreciate it.
00:50:05.700 | - Absolutely.
00:50:06.540 | Thank you, Lisa.
00:50:07.620 | - This has been really fun.
00:50:09.380 | This has been really fun.
00:50:11.180 | And so families, I know your academic year might be ending
00:50:16.180 | and you're looking for fun things to do
00:50:20.740 | and memorizing can be fun,
00:50:23.060 | but going somewhere, taking a trip can be fun too.
00:50:26.820 | I wanna remind you CC families that Great Wolf Lodge
00:50:31.820 | has an exclusive discount
00:50:35.020 | for Classical Conversation members.
00:50:36.820 | Did you know that or did you remember that?
00:50:39.340 | If you decide that you're gonna take your family
00:50:41.980 | on a celebration outing for the end of the year,
00:50:45.140 | Great Wolf Lodge is a great place to go.
00:50:47.380 | I mean, it's an indoor water park and resort chain
00:50:51.380 | and there are dining and shopping and family events
00:50:55.300 | and kids activities going on in the resort all the time.
00:50:59.820 | There are 20 Great Wolf Lodge locations
00:51:03.780 | across the United States and Canada.
00:51:05.660 | So there are some great opportunities for your family
00:51:09.380 | to have a blast together.
00:51:12.220 | And that exclusive up to 30% discount
00:51:15.900 | for CC family members will really help you.
00:51:19.980 | If you want more information about Great Wolf Lodge
00:51:23.100 | and that exclusive CC discount code,
00:51:25.980 | you can find it in the CC Connected Learning Center.
00:51:30.540 | So go to CC Connected Learning Center,
00:51:33.140 | click on Member Benefits and Additional Resources.
00:51:37.020 | There's a document in there that will give you the low down
00:51:40.260 | on a lot of fun for your family this summer.
00:51:43.740 | Families, I hope that you will enjoy the week together
00:51:47.820 | and that you are all practicing
00:51:49.980 | being everyday educators at home.
00:51:53.100 | See you next time.
00:51:54.380 | Bye-bye.
00:51:55.500 | (gentle music)
00:51:58.100 | you
00:52:00.160 | you