Random Rant-On young children and memorization work in the homeschool

Taking a break from grammar and arithmetic to do a nature study outside. 

One of the hardest transitions for this family in going from any number of products to teach phonics and reading we've used in the past to using CLAA has been the method.

Memorization is unlike anything else.

Before, when I sat down to work on phonics with my daughter, we would use little cards and games, handouts with cartoons on them, coins with letters on each side, a reading chart, a timeline, and a plasticized chart on which she could stand and point to letters. I had to keep everything in a big box that took up half my living room and then try to keep the other two from touching/grabbing/trying to play with whatever "teaching tool" I was using at the time. I spent about five minutes for every ten we worked trying to wrestle game pieces, plastic bits, and papers from my daughter's hand as I attempted to get her to focus. It was hellacious.

The amazing part about using CLAA is that now I don't need anything to work on reading with my kids. It is so liberating, for all of us. 

We sit at the table together. If it's a new lesson I will show them a brief slideshow that describes what they are going to learn. Then we interact (when they get older, they will be able to study their lessons without my intervention, because they will be strong readers.)

The scene looks like this:

I ask challenging questions they don't know the answer to.

They look at me like deer in headlights.

I coach them with the answer.

They repeat after me.

I ask the question again.

They look at me like deer in headlights.

I coach them with the answer.

They repeat after me.

I ask the question again.

They whine. Their eyes glaze over.

I push.

They whine more.

I ask again, with insistence.

They repeat after me, but make a big production about how terrible it is.

I ask again.

They repeat.

and so it goes.... until when I ask the question they quickly or gleefully shout out the answer because they KNOW it. Sometimes, I have them quiz each other. Sometimes there are little "tricks" they can use on their fingers to remember, and I catch them showing them to each other. Throughout the day, I will randomly ask them one of their lesson questions... and reward whomever appears to be doing the work to learn it.

It is a painfully challenging process, this memory work, because it is dull. I didn't realize how tough and challenging it was until we actually enrolled in CLAA ourselves..... and now I completely understand why so many people are unwilling to make the commitment to the rigorous ideals of CLAA. It is work, for mom too, make no mistake about it. It requires discipline, patience, and a sound mind. It takes time, and our full attention. And it draws us to pray, because it is almost--- almost--- impossible.

There is nothing amusing or entertaining about having our children memorizing facts, and that was one of the things Charlotte Mason saw and said: "there has to be a better way" to. 

I think she was right.... but my answer is not to stop giving them the facts to memorize. It's to make the facts become living ideas. The memorizing is painful, but it's necessary to progress. And ultimately, it's the easiest part of learning.... even my one year old can repeat back to me the things which she hears spoken around her or in a movie or song. It's not the memorization that is hard, it's the ACT of intentionally memorizing. So should we fool them into doing it? Should we make it a game?

At the CLAA, the consensus seems to be "no." The goal is to teach our children to work and pray, and purposely avoid making everything about entertainment. I think there is great wisdom in that, and I have personally observed the difference in children when they are taken out of an environment which surrounds them with play and into an environment which leads them to work. Children will naturally play as they work, but instead of becoming selfish they become interested in helping and accomplishing... It is a beautiful thing.

Of course, one must take into account that each child is different, and requires a different "aid" to learning. Some children do better when they are in a quiet space. Others need noise. Etc.

I agree with the CLAA on this point because I have seen enough foolishness, selfishness, and plain old silliness from the children around me to last ten lifetimes. Children in our culture are incapable of doing much of anything that was expected of children one hundred years ago. We no longer have children around who know how to be quiet, sit still, be polite, or pleasant. Parents cater to children's natural folly and children run the parents' lives. I know it because even in my house, where I thought we WERE NOT doing that, I realized once I began to immerse myself in CLAA culture that we were. I no longer have to spend hours each day picking up toys off the floor, doing a million loads of laundry, or soothing my husband's nerves when my kids are completely out of control. It has been extremely helpful to have my eyes opened to what I SHOULD be doing, and had fooled myself into thinking  I was doing.  Reality can be humbling, but it's a good thing to be corrected. 

One of the biggest things I retain from my Catholic faith and from Charlotte Mason's teachings is the human dignity of every little person we are teaching.  We must never forget that our children are not objects but PEOPLE, and people made in the image of God, at that. Remembering that helps me to get through the painful parts of the memorization process... as does turning dry facts into living ideas.

Charlotte believed we should lay a feast of ideas before the children, and I agree.... everything in our home is designed to create thoughts in our children which form their "education." Therefore it becomes no work at all to turn the dry "facts" of my children's grammar and arithmetic lessons, for example, into a living lesson.

In their very first reading lesson, the children were required to learn the following lesson:

Q. What is an idea?

A: An idea is an image you see in your mind of anything you have seen, smelled, heard, tasted, touched, or thought about.

Q: What is a word?

A: Words are symbols used to share ideas.

This was part of the first lesson, and very hard for my children to grasp right away because it was their first time doing any purposeful memorization that didn't involve a song and dance.

At first, they resisted. They continued to resist throughout the week. But then funny things started to happen.

One night, I heard them talking in bed after they had been told to go to sleep. My oldest said to my middle child: I don't WANT you to share your ideas with meeeeah!! And my middle said to my oldest in response: "But I'm going to tell you my WOOOOOOORDSAAAAH!"

Glory, hallelujah! I thought. They get it!

And yet, the next day when I asked them nicely: "What is a word?""

Deer. Caught in headlights. Sigh. Memorization is not easy. 

Then one day it happened. 

I was reading to the children from Little House in the Big Woods, when the part about Pa smoking the deer meat with hickory smoke in an old log came up. My middle child said: "Pa had a pretty good idea to do that!!" and then he amazed me by saying: "and now you're sharing it with words!"

It took three weeks of schooling for the lesson to sink in, and my middle child still hasn't passed the exam because he can't say it to me perfectly, word for word. But he's learning it not only as a fact, but as a concept, and as William Michael (the director of the CLAA) says.... Slow and Steady Wins the Race. 

Progress is made in pieces, over time, and like the big beautiful, large lace shawls I like to knit, must be made one stitch at a time.

The CLAA's support in teaching US as the parents to stop fooling around and start practicing what we preach (yes, starting with us!!!)  is.... well.... it's the first time in my life I'm actually DOING, all day, (for the most part) what I know I am supposed to be doing. And that in itself is miraculous.

And if I can do that, then I know my kids can do the memorizing, and be better for it. The key, for me, has been the turning of the dry facts into living ideas.... helping them to see WHY it matters what words are made of, what three sounds like in latin, or what their address is. Then the facts come to life.... and the magic happens. I love it!

Some quick tips from our schoolroom for memorizing lessons.

1. Watch the video/listen to the listen etc. as many times as necessary to really understand it. Talk about the lesson with them and let them ask questions.

2. With young children, work at it hard for fifteen minutes or so, and then switch activities, but continue to bring it up in the next activity. (ie. Good job using your words to tell her to share, Johnny. Do you remember what a word IS? What is a word?)

3. Help them to get all that physical energy out by staying with them during recess times. Don't just say: "go out and run for ten minutes." They wont. Go out and run WITH them.

4. keep at it. Day in, day out, all the time. Don't give up, but don't move on to the next lesson until they can recite it perfectly, word for word.

5. Find as many ways in your day as you can to bring to life what they have learned. You won't have to look far... just look for opportunities to show them WHY it's important.

6. Don't ALWAYS use rewards or punishments, but periodically reward them for work well done when you can see they have really tried. Never reward them for work half-done. Don't lie to them and say: "you learned it!" When they didn't. Encourage them to not only FINISH their work, but finish it well.
Lastly.... or rather, first..... start with prayer:

What are your experiences with the memorization part of a classical education in your own homeschool?