Seven Reasons To Include Memory Work in Your Child’s Education

Seven Reasons To Include Memory Work in Your Child’s Education

We live in a world where we have information at our fingertips. We can “Google” anything, right? But, in reality, despite all the technology and resources to just “look everything up”, we still need to memorize many things. While rote memorization gets a bad name, the fact is, that in order to learn and develop a body of knowledge, we must memorize many basic facts. Here are seven reasons to include memory work in your child’s education: 1. Memorization and repetition are the way children learn. When my children were really young, they wanted us to read the same book…

Teaching Children How to Listen
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Teaching Children How to Listen

Listening is essential! In our highly visual world where both adults and children spend hours focusing our eyes on televisions, computers, video games, and electronic devices, we distinctly overlook how important it is to listen.  Listening is the cornerstone of development. A baby first orders its world through sound, since one is unable to see in the womb and since a baby’s sight is unfocused at birth.  Yet a baby is able to hear and distinguish his or her mother’s voice in the womb.  Next, in order to communicate and develop language skills, a child must learn to listen.  And…

Grandma Moses Biography for Kids
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Grandma Moses Biography for Kids

Good morning, children. I am Anna Mary Robertson Moses, but that is kind of a mouthful, don’t you think? So you can call me Grandma Moses. That’s what everybody calls me now, as I am almost 100 years old! I was born in 1860 in New York and I had so many adventures with my nine brothers and sisters on our farm there. That was so long ago when we could run all over the forests and hills, spent time together washing clothes,… …picking apples,… …and making apple butter,… went sledding and ice skating in the winter. My father would…

10 Reasons to Study the Orchestra, Composers and Music Appreciation
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10 Reasons to Study the Orchestra, Composers and Music Appreciation

Music appreciation means that everyone appreciates music in some form. But many parents are hesitant to have their children study formal music appreciation – that is, the orchestra, composers and classical music – because they think their child is not interested in this kind of music. Certainly, classical music offers more depth than your regular country or pop song, so it can take a little longer to understand and appreciate it. Also, many pieces – like symphonies –  are as long as 45 minutes, so attention span can be an issue. However, when children are exposed to all kinds of…

How to Teach Something Using a Song
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How to Teach Something Using a Song

Memorization of facts is easiest to a song or rhythm because music provides structure for the brain with its predictable patterns of rhythms and placement of words. If you want to use this powerful mnemonic device to assist your children with their memory work, here are some tips on how to teach something for memory work using a song. Tips on How to Teach Something Using a Song Let’s use “The Star Spangled Banner” as an example. 1. Listen to a recording of the whole song or as the teacher, sing the whole song through. While you may listen to…

How to Memorize Something Using a Song
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How to Memorize Something Using a Song

Do you need help with how to memorize something? Memorizing to a song or rhythm is effective and engaging because music has structure of melody and rhythm to make it a powerful mnemonic device. Tips on How to Memorize Something Aurally Using a Song Let’s use “America the Beautiful” as an example. 1. Listen to the whole song. Think about where the natural breaks are in the song – these will be short sections of words or a natural phrase in the music. 2. Starting with the first section of the song, listen to the melody and words of that…

10 Reasons to Study Art and the Great Artists
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10 Reasons to Study Art and the Great Artists

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” So goes an old saying, for each person on this earth has his or her own interpretation of what is beautiful, what is good art, and what one likes. What you consider to be meaningful art, I may not, but as educators of our children, it is important to expose our children to formal art and the Great Artists. (Of course, our opinions may also vary as to who the Great Artists really are, but there are generally accepted famous and influential artists whose work and lives are worthy of study.) So…

Vincent van Gogh Biography for Kids
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Vincent van Gogh Biography for Kids

Vincent van Gogh Biography for Kids Hello, my name is Vincent van Gogh. I am a Post-Impressionist painter, and I’d like to tell you my story. This is the Vincent van Gogh biography for kids. I was born in Groot Zundert, Netherlands in 1853. My father was a pastor of a Dutch Reformed Church, so I learned the Bible growing up, but even from my youth, I was often depressed and suffered from a mood disorder. I did not study art formally while growing up, and by age 16, I went to work in an art dealership in The Hague,…

Berthe Morisot Biography for Kids
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Berthe Morisot Biography for Kids

Berthe Morisot Biography for Kids Bonjour! I am Berthe Morisot, and I am a woman painter! This is the Berthe Morisot biography for kids! I was born in and always lived in France. When I was 16, my mother paid for me to take art lessons… but I was barred from the famous art school because I am a female, not a male. They only wanted male students. But I often went to the Louvre – you know, the famous museum in Paris – to copy the Old Masters. Perhaps you’ve heard of some of the Old Masters? You know,…

Claude Monet Biography for Kids
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Claude Monet Biography for Kids

Claude Monet Biography for Kids Bon jour! I am Claude Monet. This is the Claude Monet biography for kids. I am from the late 1800s and early 1900s in France. There has been an interesting movement in art going on in France called the Impressionist Movement, and I am one of the main artists of Impressionism. I was born in 1840 in Paris, France. I knew I wanted to be an artist from an early age, though my father wanted me to join the family business of grocery sales and supplying ships. I was able to attend the school of…

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