Review All Memory Work Once a Month – Here's How

I have been working on putting together a Memory System Recitation Box that has you daily reviewing old and new memory work. 

I explained in an earlier post that I preivously had used a 3-ring binder to keep all their work in.  Each child had an assigned day that they would recite ALL of their memory work memorized thus far.  As you can imagine this became tedious.

I asked for ideas and a few people directed me to Simply Charlotte Mason and Preschoolers and Peace.

So that I don't have to type all the instructions on how to put together the memory box, I'll paste the directions from Simply Charlotte Mason below.

Step One: Get an index card box and forty-one tabbed dividers that fit inside it. It doesn’t matter if the dividers have letters on them; you can flip them over and use the other side for labeling.

Step Two: Label the dividers as follows and place them in the box in this order:

• 1 divider — Daily
• 1 divider — Odd
• 1 divider — Even
• 7 dividers — Days of the Week (Sunday, Monday, etc.)
• 31 dividers — Numbered 1-31

Step Three: Copy onto index cards (or slips of paper) any verses your family already knows. Record both the reference and the text of the passage. If you don’t know any yet, don’t worry — you will very soon. Place the verses you already know behind the numbered dividers, distributing them evenly.

Next write cards or papers for verses you want to memorize. (See our Verses List if you would like some suggestions.) Put one verse card or paper behind the Daily divider; this will be the passage you’ll work on memorizing first. Then stack the rest of the verses to be learned in front of the Daily divider to learn at a later time. At the beginning, you won’t have any verses in the Odd and Even or Days of the Week slots. Don’t worry, they’ll fill in; see the next two steps.

Step Four: Each day you will say together the verses behind four dividers:

• Daily
• Odd or Even
• Day of the Week
• Date of the Month

So if today is Tuesday, the 3rd, you will say the verses behind Daily, Odd (because 3 is an odd number), Tuesday, and 3. The next day (Wednesday, the 4th), you will say the verses behind Daily, Even, Wednesday, and 4.

Step Five: As you master the verses behind the Daily divider, advance that card and move the replaced verses farther back in the box. So when you have memorized a Daily, move it behind either the Odd or Even divider. Move the verse that was in that Odd or Even slot back to a Day of the Week slot. And move the verse it replaces in the Day of the Week slot back behind a numbered divider. You can then put a new verse or passage to memorize behind the Daily divider and you’re ready to go again.

In this way, you will review a new verse every day, then graduate to every other day, once a week, and finally, once a month. Use the system every day of the month and you will review all the verses you know every month of the year! Of course, not all months have thirty-one days; the verses behind 31 will be reviewed seven months out of the year. We recommend putting verses that you know quite well behind that number since it gets reviewed less frequently.

When you have advanced enough verse cards that you have one placed behind each numbered divider, start at 1 again and add another card to each. Soon you’ll have several cards behind each numbered divider. And eventually, you’ll have memorized so many verses that you’ll have enough cards to expand to two boxes! What a wonderful milestone that will be!

I took all my children's previous memory work and reduced it to fit on index cards.  My kids all seem to like memorizing poems or scriptures different from each other.  So, to make things easier for me each child has their own color of index card.  For instance, my oldest son has all his memory work put on blue index card's, my second son has his on yellow cards.

This has made the review of memory work a lot easier, and there is the added benefit of knowing that they will review every passage they have memorized at some point.

To memorize a new passage I would like them to work on it 5-10 minutes every day.  I love the idea of them hiding God's Word in their heart so that in whatever situation they're in Scriptures can readily come to mind.  My children also memorize poems and this year I would like to add famous speeches and worthy quotes.