Rachel's Reflections: Our Memory Master's Journey

This post is linked to "Trivium Tuesdays - Classical Link-Up #60" at Living and Learning at Home.

What is a "Memory Master"? Usually the term "Memory Master" (MM) requires some explanation to those who are not familiar with it. We are members of a nearby Classical Conversations community of home educating families. Each year, all students who attend CC Foundations classes are introduced to memory work in a variety of 8 subjects during their weekly class with their tutor. We practice the memory work throughout the week at home and learn many amazing facts or pieces of information during the Grammar stage of learning. Some of the children are so young that although they memorize the information, they will not really understand it until later years when they come across it again, but that is the beauty of Classical education! The main idea is that during the elementary years, students can memorize large quantities of information rather quickly and practice using this skill for learning, then they have more and more "pegs" to hang more information on later as they build a store of information.

Each week, students learn material in history, science, math, geography, English grammar, and the timeline. Here is what the students learn and need to retain to become a Cycle 1 MM:

161 events and people in a chronological timeline
24 history sentences that add depth to our timeline
44 U.S. Presidents
120 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe, and the Old World:
24 science facts, including classifications of living things and each continent's highest mountain
Latin noun cases and the noun endings for singular and plural declensions
English Grammar facts (including 53 prepositions, 23 helping verbs, and 12 linking verbs)
Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares and cubes, basic geometry formulas and unit conversions, and the algebraic laws of addition and multiplication (Associative, Commutative, Distributive, and Identity Laws)


Some of the memory work in each subject is on the back of this T-shirt

Our Memory Master's Journey
One year ago, we had completed our fantastic first year in our brand new Classical Conversations community and we were all thrilled for the young man who achieved the title of "Memory Master" for the very first time! It seemed like an insurmountable accomplishment. I doubted the possibility of ever having a child achieve that admirable goal and made a mental note to talk about it with my friend, the mother of the boy, later.

Well, I did talk with my friend a few times and at first it just seemed like an impossible task, but as I began to see how quickly my daughter memorized the first few weeks of grammar, I also began to see that she had the potential to do this. As soon as it came out last fall, we downloaded the CC Cycle 1 memory work app. on our ipad and the kids' ipods. We used it each day that we reviewed the memory work at home and kept it close at hand when we needed to hear a song or read the words again for practice. Over our Christmas break, I purchased some of the lapbook templates for this year's memory work and we reviewed the first semester as we worked on those. We also began playing the Timeline song during every school day for quite some time. At about Week 16, I started planning ways to help her jump ahead in learning the 24 weeks of memory work and using our breaks wisely. I also looked for more online visual aides for some of the math, Latin, and and eventually, she made her own flashcards for the 13, 14, and 15 multiplication tables (because we already have a set that goes up to 12x12). Finally, we started reviewing the full 24 weeks of one or two subjects each school day, which seemed to take forever that first week! Ugh!

We kept working hard every day and a few weeks later, it was time for B to begin her proofing with me. That first week, I did not know if she would pass some of the subjects. I had to test her in a couple of the subjects twice that week for her to pass the second time. Here is what the testing process looks like in our community:

Week 21, First Proof: The student tests all of the information from all 24 weeks with their parent, but they are allowed 3 mistakes in each subject. (In our CC community and many others, we had to work ahead during the last several weeks because they have to test on material that they have not been introduced to in class before.)

Week 22, Second Proof: The student tests with another parent and is allowed to miss one answer per subject. This was helpful in working out details of how to test the student and finding any gaps while they work with another person from outside of their family, they also have to learn to control their nerves a bit!

Week 23, Proof Three: Now the student is to know all 24 weeks of all subjects 100% with their tutor testing. This was difficult for my daughter, because she felt more pressure to not make a mistake, but tutors are supposed to give grace where a student says something wrong and then corrects herself.

Week 24, Proof Four: Finally, the student meets with their local CC director and does a "spot check" over a smaller percentage of the information, approximately 20%. Our director used this time to check anything that had been missed on previous proofs and she asked the tutors to sit in on tests for their students. The kids were super nervous, even though they had almost made it! I think the pressure of knowing that they only had this one last test was incredible.

Just about two weeks ago, we were thrilled to congratulate our very own "Memory Master" as she earned her title by completing her final proofing! You may wonder why she went through this process and if we think it was worth it.

Our End of the Year Program and Awards Ceremony

Why did she do all of that work? I think she was not certain that she could do it, but I saw the potential in her and encouraged her to begin the process. She always enjoyed having me challenge her to know that material before each week was over. She liked the "game" of memorizing all of the grammar. I helped with each step of the way, so she did not feel alone. She learned to be calm and recite the memory work for other people, she prayed to God many times to help her, she cried and was encouraged and comforted by other moms who know and love her. She persevered and found that she was, in fact, able to pass all the tests, despite the nagging doubts in her head. I also promised an extra special monetary reward that I would not normally give, but I felt it was worth it to help her to work extra hard for something and in the end, I do think it motivated her to push a little harder when she needed that extra boost.

Was it worth it? Believe me, I wondered several times if it was really worth it, especially when I awoke to my own dreams of being tested on the timeline and not remembering the next part! But, yes, I think it was worth it in the end. I did have to push some of her other school work aside to really solidify the information and give her extra practice in drilling. We even practiced some on our spring break vacation! But, she gained the confidence of working at something really hard and achieving her goal. She also gained study skills that will help her learn anything. She learned a ton of information and she will continue to build and expand upon these facts as she grows. I am thrilled that my Memory Master made a high goal and challenged herself to reach it successfully!

Will we do it again next year? I think so! Some of the information is repeated each year, including the entire timeline, the Presidents, and all of the math facts, formulas, and laws, so she will not have to learn that as "new" information next time. She also has the chance to become one of our first MM for all three cycles because she was in 4th grade this year and completed Cycle 1. She will have two more years to master Cycles 2 & 3 before moving onto the CC Challenge program. I also hope that she will have more confidence and will be less nervous after already having gone through the whole proofing process once.

Should every child proof for MM? I would never push a child that was young or had a difficulty with memorization and I did not force my older son to test because he just was not ready. Everyone learns differently and the ability to remember so many pieces of information without cues took a great deal of time and effort, even for a more "natural" memorizer. I would also never expect a child to become a Memory Master in their first year of CC. It can be an overwhelming task, so just soak in everything during your first year. If you have a child who enjoys learning the memory work and likes to be challenged to see if they know all of it each week, without help, then you may have a child who would be able to work and pass the tests. The Memory Master students need to have a desire to study some on their own to be able to achieve this level of mastery, especially without many years of learning the grammar. (I think it will look much different in our community several years from now when the children who are 4 and 5 years old now will have gone through the Cycles 2 or 3 times.) Even if you never go through the MM process with any of your children, they still have the potential to learn loads of information through this Classical model of education and they are learning how to LEARN!