What We’ve Memorized in Our Homeschool

My kids enjoy memorizing! We’ve been part of a “classical-lite” co-op since my rising 7h grader was in kindergarten, so memory work has been a staple. As I often spend a good chunk of my summer searching for new memory work for the upcoming school year, I thought it might be helpful to share our list of what we’ve memorized over the years, in case anyone might be in my shoes! At the bottom of this post you’ll find my selections for this school year.

As for HOW we memorize, it’s been a matter of consistency and repetition. We spend just a few minutes a day adding just a small chunk at a time (usually a line or two, or verse, a week). We make this fun by adding in a lot of movement! I picked up exercise dice at 5 Below a few years ago and the kids enjoy that- so they practice their lines while planking or high knees running! Similarly, they enjoy using a movement thumball.

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Poetry

• “One Day When We Went Walking” by Valine Hobbs (this was so fun to perform in two groups as a back & forth recitation!)
• “Once I Saw a Little Bird” (a great preschool poem!)
• “Tired” by Shel Silverstein
• “The Rainbow” by Christina Rossetti
• “Although” by Tony Langham (this was a perfect finale to our capstone performance night!)
• “All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil Frances Alexander (picture book versions of this here and here)
• “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson
• “Knight in Armour” by A.A. Milne
• “If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking” by Emily Dickinson
• “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• selections from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
• “Halfway Down the Stairs” by A.A. Milne *YT video from the Muppet Show of this poem (note: my kids don’t like the video, they said it’s too sad sounding!)
• “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson *there’s a lovely illustrated picture book of this
• “The Year” by Sara Coleridge; adapted by Sara Buffington
• “Grizzly Bear” by Mary Hunter Austin
• “Every Time I Climb a Tree” by David McCord
• “There Was an Old Man With a Beard” by Edward Lear
• “American Flag” by Erin Ryan
• “Kind Words” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• “Dancing” by Eleanor Farjeon
• “How Creatures Move” (anonymous)

History

• The Preamble to the Constitution (learned via the Schoolhouse Rock song)
• Gettysburg Address
• selection from JFK’s Inaugural Address
• first 2 sentences of the Declaration of Independence
• Using timeline cards from Veritas Press, we have memorized 160 events through history (we learn 8 per week and have repeated this each year since my kids were in kindergarten.)

Scripture & Christian Faith

• Psalms: 19, 139, 100, 145, one per year; we learned the whole chapter over the course of a school year
• I Corinthians 13:1-13
• Philippians 2:1-16
• Philippians 4:4-9
• Colossians 3:12-17
• Lamentations 3:21-26
• New City catechism for kids (currently working on this)
• We’ve memorized many other shorter verses and passages both randomly and at kids’ church request, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our favorite, fun way to memorize verses: Slugs & Bugs Sing the Bible! I can’t tell you how many times my kids will hear a few words of a verse in another context and start singing!

Grammar

Our elementary grammar program, First Language Lessons, is gentle, taking just a few minutes a day. It is a classical style curriculum, so it incorporates memory work. As part of First Language Lessons, we have memorized:

• definitions of all of the parts of speech
• the list of state of being verbs/linking verbs/helping verbs
• articles (using a short poem)
• the list of prepositions

Geography

locations of lots and lots of countries and capitals (this year we learned 42 countries), using the regions as outlined in Kathy Troxel’s geography songs; along with continents & oceans (and planets in the solar system, which isn’t exactly “geography”!)

And… This Year’s Memory Work!

I spent many days reading poetry and scripture (such lovely days!) with this school year in mind. Here are this year’s selections:

Scripture: Psalm 121, John 1:14-,14 (using Slugs & Bugs song); Ephesians 3:16-21

For my preschooler: “The Squirrel” (anonymous), “Mix a Pancake” by Christina Rossetti; “Rain” by Robert Louis Stevenson; “The Little Turtle” by Vachel Lindsay; and maybe “Bed in Summer” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

For my 5th/7th graders: Apostles’ Creed (using the Rich Mullins song), The Prayer of St. Patrick (using the Rend Collective song); “The Overworked Elocutionist” by Carolyn Wells ; “A Psalm of Life” by Longfellow; and “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson.

I’ve also had the joy of selecting the poetry for our co-op’s elementary kiddos, and they’ll be memorizing “Keep a Poem in Your Pocket” by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers; “Invention” by Billy Collins; “An Emerald Is As Green as Grass” by Rossetti; “A Tragic Story” by Thackeray; and “Poetry” by Eleanor Farjeon.

I would LOVE to hear your favorite memory pieces! Share with me in the comments below or find me on my socials instagram / facebook.