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Scripture memory with multiple ages
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I’ve been working on setting up the scripture memory system. So far I’ve just been rotating through our verses, giving each child a chance to recite one verse each day that I know she/he knows. Now that we have quite a few verses (my eldest knows about 20), I want to use the SCM system to rotate through the verses so that we can stay better organized.
I’m having trouble figuring out how to deal with memory practice with children who memorize at different speeds. My children are DD7, DS5 and DD3. DD7 can memorize a short verse within a few days, just by hearing it read once each day. DS5 wants to participate, and does memorize the verses, but it takes quite a bit longer, as you would expect at his age. With DD3 I just have her repeat the verse after me, phrase by phrase, so I’m not worried about her yet.
It’s DS5 that gets frustrated. DD7 always wants to jump in with what she knows, and rattles off the verses quickly. I have to remind her to give DS5 a chance. DS knows that DD already knows the verse, so he is shy about making the attempt. He always just asks if he can read it off the card, instead of trying to remember it. (One of the drawbacks of an early reader – he wants to depend on reading now.)
Do you recite as a family or does each child have a chance? When do you consider a verse ‘learned’ so that it moves to “odd/even” or “weekly” in the rotation. If I wait until everyone knows it, DD is bored. If I move on when DD knows it (since she is the only school aged child), then DS never quite learns it and then feels bad. How does this work as a family activity? I can’t even imagine how complicated it would be with several school aged children!
Thanks for any tips!
Joanne
My kids are 12 and 9 and memorize at relatively similar speeds. We recite together as a family. If it were me, I’d try to make sure it’s not viewed as a competition and just steadily keep moving ahead after both kids know it well.
Once they both know it well w/o mistakes, I move it to the odd/even day. I don’t have set rules after that. I generally don’t like more than a few cards behind each category, so when the sections start filling up I just move them back until in monthly slot:) HTH some! Gina
We recite together, but sometimes my 7 year old wants to do it by herself. I let her. We work on a verse for a week then cycle it on to the even/odd. Even if a verse is not completely committed to memory, I think it will be reviewed plenty this way. Right now, we are using the weekly verse that goes along with my 5 year old’s Bible study (Step into the Bible by Ruth Bell Graham), so many of the verses will be review for my 7 year old. I suppose if we begin learning a passage that is longer than one verse, we may spend more than one week on it.
Momto2blessing, I didn’t think we would have more than one card behind each division… For instance, when I move a card into the even, I would move the current card from the even to the next available day of the week, and move the card from the day of the week to next available date of the month. At least that’s way I intend to implement it!
Jennifer – yes, that is what I do about moving cards back. I do sometimes have more than one thing behind New though… but I use the memory system for more than scriptures. (Ie, Scouting Promises/Laws etc).
We all say the verse together too. I move the scripture when we all have a fair grasp of it – but not necessarily totally memorized. In your case, I’d probably move it a few days after your “quick memorizer” has it, and your 5yo is starting to get it.
A couple of tips
– I’ve numbered the cards based on when they were added to the system. If the card box gets dropped – I can put them back fairly easily
– I modified the system because we would miss days. I have these Tabs. NEW – self explanitory. ALTERNATE – this is instead of even/odd tabs. 2 cards are put behind this tab, and I rotate the card as we do it. WEEKLY – this is instead of the M-S tabs. We have 5 cards behind it (you could do 7 – we rarely did mastery on the weekend….) Again, we rotate the card read to the back of the tab. MONTHLY – this is instead of the 1-31 tabs. All the rest are here. If we get more than about 20 (weekdays in a month) then I put a note on how many cards to read a day.
– I also recently downloaded a free program called ANKI. This is a flashcard program, that determines how often to bring up a card based on how easily you say you remembered it. I have this setup for each child, so they can do review on their own. For scriptures, I have it setup that it will give you the scripture reference (ie, James 1:5), and you have to remember the scripture, or it gives you the scripture, and you need to remember the reference. I found out that we weren’t too good at remembering the connections between the two! Anyway, this gives a bit of extra (independent) practice, and will help the kids that don’t have it quite memorized yet. This was also my solution for the younger kids coming up who won’t know the ones already memorized!
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the ideas. Maybe we just need to work more on reciting as a family. Each child does well individually, but as soon as we are saying it together, DD recites easily, while DS clams up and won’t say anything. Then, on the verses that I moved on once DD had them, but DS didn’t, he now won’t even try by himself, because he doesn’t know it securely. It’s just been too much too fast for him, so the last several verses that we have done, he doesn’t feel secure on. DS is only 5, so it’s not like I even expect him to be memorizing yet, but this has been part of our family devotional for about 18 months now, so he’s been included. For the first several verses, he learned them well and was very excited about it, but then I think it just became too much. I’ve considered just separating them, which I may still do, but it seems like most people do this as a family activity, so I wanted to figure out if that would work for us.
Joanne
I agree there are no set rules! Sorry to make you feel that way momto2blessings!!
I was just clarifying what we are doing, in case it might be helpful. I know I have found lots of helpful hints tucked away in other mom’s posts!
Hey Joanne – this was one reason why I started using ANKI – to seperate them (and so they can do it individually)… we did that a few months ago.
That said – I think there was some benefit of doing it as a family – so I’m going to do both now….
Jennifer, my comments were totally tongue in cheek:) Yes, I glean so much from others….love this forum!
I don’t worry so much about every child having it memorized perfectly before we move on. I trust the repetition to hide the word in their hearts. We try to do one new verse a week and then move it to the every other day, and so on…
I have a 10, 8, & 5 year old. My 10 & 8 yr. olds memorize the same passages. They have been doing it so long that they memorize very long passages (whole chapters at a time). I encourage my 5 yr. old to try and say them with his sisters but I do not require him to memorize them. However, I do have memory work that is only for him behind the same tab as the girl’s. I want to make sure that he has a chance to memorize the passages they did when they were little. The girls are not allowed to help or say anything when it is his turn. We all just encourage him as he says his, and he feels like a big boy with his own verses.
I haven’t read all the responses, but my 7 y/o memorizes faster than my 5 y/o, but they memorize the same verse each week. We generally spend an entire week on a verse. When reviewing verses I will give them each verses to say independently and then the next day switch who recites the verses so they each get a chance to say them without the other sibling interfering, particularly for the benefit of my 5 y/o.
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