"Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee."
~ Psalm 119:11.
"All children have it in them to recite; it is an imprisoned gift waiting to be delivered...out of the woodenness of even the most commonplace child steps forth the child-artist, a delicate spirit, who shall make you laugh and make you weep."
~ Charlotte Mason in Home Education, p.223.
"I hope that my readers will train their children in the art of recitation; in the coming days, more even than in our own will it behove every educated man and woman to be able to speak effectively in public; and, in learning to recite you learn to speak."
~ p.224
(Oh, I must read Charlotte Mason's full volumes! They are available online here.)
I know the benefits of memorization. As children, my father used to have us memorize Psalms, Proverbs, catechisms & creeds. I have retained most of these, and at times in the past, we have also had our children memorize them. For the past few months we have been going through Starr Meade's Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. This is a family devotional book based on the Shorter (Westminster) Catechism. Each week a new question & answer from the catechism is introduced, with short devotionals to read each day. We have required our girls to memorize each one. Even 3 year old Ruby has memorized some of them.
Along with this catechism memorization, I have decided to have the girls memorize other things from different subject areas as well. Inspired in part by Kendra Fletcher's Circle Time over at Preschoolers & Peace, I have typed up a few passages & lists that will be included in our daily memorization times.
This is what we are currently working on:
Catechism: Q & A 13 - Westminster Shorter Catechism
Did our first parents remain as they were created?
Left to the freedom of their own wills, our first parents sinned against God and fell from their original condition.
The Helping Verbs & State of Being Verbs - required in First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 4. These were quite easy to learn once we turned them into a bit of a chant.
Am, is, are, was, were,
Be, being, been,
Have, has had, do, does, did,
Shall, will, should, would, may, might, must,
Can, could.
(Those in bold are state of being verbs, those in the entire list are helping verbs).
Common Prepositions (also required for FLL4)
Aboard, about, above, across.
After, against, along, among, around, at.
Before, behind, below, beneath.
Beside, between, beyond, by.
Down, during, except, for, from.
In, inside, into, like.
Near, of, off, on, over.
Past, since, through, throughout.
To, toward, under, underneath.
Until, up, upon.
With, within, without.
(This will be a great help when trying to find those prepositional sentence openers for our IEW paragraphs!)
The 3 times table
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed by Thy Name.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever,
Amen.
My plan is to also add a poem and scripture to the current list.
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