The Making of a Memory Master

As most of us are well into the second half of our CC cycle, it seems like a great time to republish this post on becoming a memory master.  If you weren’t thinking about it at the beginning of the cycle, perhaps you are now.  Perhaps your little scholars are asking to “do memory master.” Here’s what’s worked for us —

Am I really bringing up Memory Master already? Didn’t we just begin? You’re right, we did. And yes, I am!

First, let me start by telling you a Memory Master is a Classical Conversations Foundations student who has mastered all of the subject memory work: timeline, history, geography, science, math, Latin, and English for the entire 24 weeks and is able to effortlessly recite it all without help.  The student proofs with their parent, another adult, their tutor, and finally the director using the proof sheets in the back of the Foundations book.  

My oldest son (age 7) achieved Memory Master status last year.  It was a lot of work and so rewarding.  Right after, my son surprised me by asking to do it again next year!  Starting this year out, I’m aiming for all of my littles to be Memory Masters.  I should clarify, I don’t expect that they’ll all test as official Memory Masters, but I do want them each to master the memory work to the best of their ability.  

What’s our game plan?

1) Aim for mastery, not just familiarity, right away.  If we truly memorize each week, we’re won’t be scrambling at the end to memorize past weeks’ material.

2) Practice at home daily or at minimum weekly.  Leaving the memory work for just during our CC community day for even one week will put us behind.

3) Prioritize memorizing the work over expounding upon the work.  While expounding upon the work can be fun and interesting, our time and energy will first and foremost be spent working towards memorization.  We are, after all, in the grammar stage.

4) Memorize along with my littles.  Okay, that’s the plan, at least!  When we’re memorizing together, I’m creating memory tricks for myself, which I can share with my littles.  My mind continues to need the training and I’m learning lots through CC.

This important work teaches my littles about more than just the subjects we are covering.  They also learn about themselves.  Their effort and hard work is rewarded when they realize their God designed minds are capable.  They will realize that so much about “being smart” is working hard.  I am so excited to see their worlds and minds expand as we invest in learning the memory work.  And along the way, they can each be a memory master.

Look here for more Memory Master details and strategies!  And visit here, here, and here to see more about my son’s journey to becoming a Memory Master last year.