MMM Jan 2010 Progress Report #2

January 10, 2010 By 7 Comments

Progress Report #2

Mega Memory Month January 2010 is in full swing.

How are you doing?

Care to share your memorization methods or unload your ups and downs with those of us who are sharing the struggle?

We’re in this together, so please let us know!

Leave a note in the comments and/or link your own Progress Report post here via Mr. Linky.

Click on the icon and a separate screen pops up. In one box, you type in your name and/or website; in the other box, paste in the url to your post. It’ll be saved and accessible by returning to this page and clicking on the icon again.

I’ll return later in the day and embed the pop-up links into the text itself here for easy access.

MMM Participant Reports:

1. Ruth

2. Amy

 3. Hopeannfaith ~ Andrea

In addition, you can post on the wall of the Mega Memory Month Facebook event page.

If you’re just finding out about Mega Memory Month, jump in—there’s still time to dig in to something big!

Click HERE for the MMM Headquarters.

Ann’s Progress

I owe my progress in Colossians this week in part to technology.

My plan has been to add a verse each day.

One night when I was nestled in my bed, warm and cozy, I was ready to learn the new verse but didn’t have my Bible on hand.

I did, however, have my laptop nearby.

So I logged onto Bible Gateway. After all, the words are exactly the same whether they’re printed on the physical page of my NIV study Bible or on the virtual page of Bible Gateway (many more translations are available at the site).

All this week, I’ve been repeating the verses, adding a few hand motions to emphasize key words.

And just two days ago, to reinforce what I’ve been working on, I added the first-letter prompt method explained in THIS website article.

After pasting my text into the converter, I printed out the automatically generated prompts:

As you can see, I fold this paper up and carry it with me. When I need to review, these letters prompt me when I’m stuck and nobody’s around to help.

One time I was at a coffee shop. I remembered to stick my prompt sheet in my bag, but I didn’t have my Bible with me to remind me of the actual words.

So I used my new phone—we added the data plan for one month as an experiment, so my new free phone is, at least temporarily, more than a phone! What do you think of that, Lisa?

Yes, thanks to mobile Internet access, I logged onto Bible Gateway again and brought up my passage, which showed up in teeny-tiny font and presented as a long, slender column.

It worked just fine, clarifying a section I couldn’t recall.

I’m still a little shaky on the most recent two verses, but I’m making progress. I don’t know if I’ll make it all the way through the chapter, but I’m not worrying about that right now. For now, it’s just verse by verse.

And I don’t suppose it matters too much whether we review our verses/poems/speeches as handwritten words on card stock taped to our car dashboards, or as pages on a website.

Either way, they’re going into our minds.

And, hopefully, our hearts.

Also, if you need ideas or inspiration, here are some resources right at your fingertips—you, too, can use technology to aid your memorization efforts!

• Click HERE to read “An Approach to Extended Memorization” by Dr. Andrew Davis, an article highly recommended by Amy at Lavender Sparkles.

• Click HERE for my mega collection of memorization tips and techniques.

• Click HERE for more inspiration and practical suggestions for memorizing Scripture from Ann Voskamp of Holy Experience.

It’s easy to subscribe to annkroeker.com updates via email RSS feed.

Visit NotSoFastBook.comto learn more about Ann’s new book.

Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, MMM, self-discovery, simplicity, taking risks Tagged With: , , ,

January 2009 is Mega Memory Month

January 1, 2009 By 37 Comments

mmm

It’s back!  Just in time to support your New Year’s Resolutions!

Mega Memory Month (MMM): January Edition

Here’s how to participate:

  • Pick something you’d like to memorize. Something long. Something formidable. Something mega. (Mega to you may not be mega to me–simply challenge yourself relative to what you’ve tackled in the past.) Could be poetry, a famous speech, or a passage of Scripture. Your choice.Need ideas? Visit Lavender Sparkles, who posted some suggestions for thinking through your selection.
  • Announce it on your blog whenever you like. If you find out about MMM late or forget about it until halfway through the month, no problem. Jump in and do what you can in the time that remains.
  • Leave me a link (in comments or via e-mail) that will take readers to your own blog’s MMM post. Non-bloggers of course may participate as well. I’ll update this post and place names and links in a prominent spot.
  • Please include the new MMM button to tie us together visually. It helps interested readers find and join the challenge!
  • Start memorizing!
  • Consider a final celebration project. I’m encouraging MMM participants to come up with some kind of end-of-month project to celebrate how far they’ve come. MMM Celebration Day will be on the last day of January–Saturday the 31st. For celebration ideas, see this post and visit MMM participants’ sites to see what they did.

I’ll update this post so that participants are front-and-center (as I did for the first-ever MMM).

Official Participants List

  1. Pauline at Him in the Everyday (Romans)
  2. Joy at Bucket of Joy (John 14 & Psalm 1)
  3. Dea at For His Glory…By His Grace (1 Peter 2:13-25)
  4. Amy at Lavender *Sparkles* (“A Gospel Narrative” from A Gospel Primer for Christians)
  5. Jennifer at Scraps and Snippets (the Beatitudes–Matthew 5:3-12, and a poem “Grammar in a Nutshell”)
  6. Danielle at Dance by the Light (Romans 8 )
  7. Esther at Outward Expression (Alma 32:21-43–from the Book of Mormon)
  8. Teresa at The Life and Times of a Cool Single Mom (Ecclesiastes 7)
  9. Jennifer at PeaceLedge (Solidifying the first 2 1/2 chapters in Philippians and adding on to the end of chapter 3)
  10. Me (or would it be “I”?) at AnnKroeker (John 14 + John 15:1-17 and Robert Frost’s ”Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”)
  11. Andrea at Hopeannfaith also here (Philippians 1)
  12. Dana at Think Pink (Jeremiah 17  and William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”)
  13. Sarah at Beauty in the Mundane (Psalm 139 and maybe a bonus poem)
  14. Lori at A Work in Progress (Ephesians 5)
  15. Ruth at Caribbean Wordkeeper (1 Peter 1 & Romans 12)
  16. erinstraza (John 15:18-27 & the map of the United States)
  17. Trish and her daughter at trishsouthard (“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”)
  18. Zoanna at A Penchant for Pens (Philippians 2:1-11)
  19. Laura at Laura’s Imperfect Blog (Psalm 103 & the hymn “Praise to the Lord, The Almighty,” a paraphrase of Psalm 103)
  20. Kathie at A Sparrow’s Home (Ephesians 1–and someday, Ephesians 2)
  21. Withajoyfulheart at Little Homeschool in the Village (Ephesians 5)
  22. Ann at A Holy Experience (Philippians 2: 1-18)
  23. Runningamuck (Psalm 33)
  24. Amy (Philippians)
  25. Sarah at Because of Abigail (Ephesians 1:1-14)
  26. The Butterfly Catcher at Butterflies of the Moment (James 1)

Optional Progress Reports:  I’ll be posting my own personal MMM Progress Reports on Mondays (same day as Make-Do Mondays–it’ll be a busy two-post blog day for me throughout January). My MMM Progress Reports will serve as a host site, providing a Mr. Linky for you to tie in if you like. Feel free to chime in with your own progress report any time during the week. Write in the comments or at your own blog. That way we can visit and encourage each other.

Progress Report #1

Progress Report #2

Progress Report #3

Final Thoughts:  Nobody is grading or judging us on how well we complete this month-long memory project. But making our intentions public may spur us on to finish successfully.

Don’t let the word “mega” discourage you from participating. Participate even if your selection is modest. In fact, my own might be pretty puny compared to those of some mega-memorizers. The bottom line is that we will be better for it.

So jump in and join the carnival, whether you chip away at something short or long.

I hope to encourage you along the way. For starters, here’s a link to my mega collection of memorization tips and techniques.

Let’s take a risk.

Stretch ourselves.

After all, Mega Memory Month is hosted by someone who feels that her mind is more like a sieve than a steel trap; yet, as I discovered in the first-ever Mega Memory Month:

Our minds can hold more than we think they can.

  

Note: Mega Memory Month button utilizes a photo of coral. In case you wondered. Here’s the code for the MMM button–you can paste it into your blog post in HTML mode:

<p style=”text-align:center;”><a href=”http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/january-2009-is-mega-memory-month” target=”_blank”><img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-1807″ title=”mmm” src=”http://annkroeker.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mmm.jpg” alt=”mmm” width=”266″ height=”190″ /></a></p>

Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, MMM, self-discovery, taking risks Tagged With: , , , ,

It's Almost Here: The Return of MMM!

December 30, 2008 By 9 Comments

In a very short time, we’ll ring in 2009.

To help launch the New Year and its accompanying resolutions, I’ll be hosting:

Mega Memory Month: January Edition

This is not the announcement.

This is just a teaser–January 1st is MMM Opening Day!

If you’re new to Mega Memory Month, you can familiarize yourself by visiting the initial post for the first-ever MMM in October 2008.

Each person determined what “mega” meant personally. As I pointed out a few posts ago, some participants, with more nimble minds offering greater capacity, tackled vast swaths of Scripture; while a few of us nibbled what tidbits we could. Regardless of the actual serving size, I believe we all feasted. We stretched ourselves. We swallowed as much as our systems could handle, and were nourished.

Most people chose a passage of Scripture, but I’m inviting and encouraging any category of memory work. If you would like to work on a poem, some music, a speech, or Scripture, it’s entirely up to you.

On January 1st, you can announce your own intentions, link to the host page here (scheduled to go live a few minutes after midnight EST), and dive right into another month of memorization accountability and encouragement.

A Sneak Preview and Unveiling: Below you’ll find the new-and-improved Mega Memory Month icon/button you can use for your own MMM posts. Grab it now to use in your blog’s introductory post on January 1st–you can link to the main MMM post that day ready to go (the button links to the January 1st post that isn’t yet published).

mmm

 

I hope you’ll join me the month of January in another attempt at memorizing more than we thought possible.

Our minds can hold more than we think they can.

[*UPDATED TO EXPLAIN BUTTON* The image in the bloggy button is of CORAL. Not an actual brain.]

Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, MMM, self-discovery, taking risks Tagged With: , ,

MMM Monday Progress Report: Week 1

October 6, 2008 By 10 Comments

Every Monday in October, I plan to pop in and offer an update on my Mega Memory Month project. A “progress report,” if you will.

You can, too.

For Monday Progress Reports, I’ll try using Mr. Linky. Bloggers sign up by clicking on the Mr. Linky logo. Mr. Linky will automatically supply a line where you can fill out your name (or blog name) and another where you type or paste in the url of your Progress Report.

To see all the links and pay participants a visit, just click on the Mister Linky logo.

If you have problems, just drop a note into the comments and let me know. Also, non-bloggers can participate by writing out their progress in the comments.

It’s not to late! Jump in at any point this month and simply do what you can.

Finally, this is not restricted to Scripture memory work, though I’m delighted to see that so many participants are choosing a long passage or chapter. You could memorize a poem, a famous speech (Gettysburg Address, anyone?), or the preamble to the Constitution.

Just this weekend, my mom was able to rattle off a long chunk that follows “to be, or not to be” from Hamlet. And I heard her recite some lines from a poem at some point in the afternoon.

Please feel free to choose something other than a passage from Scripture, if you would like to.

So here’s my progress report.

To launch MMM, I printed off John 14, cut it up into chunks, and taped those chunks onto 3×5 cards held together by a blue bread bag tie.

This weekend, some of the kids and I were walking along a sidewalk, and one of the kids stopped and picked up something shiny.

“Look, Mom! It’s a little ring!”

I imagined she would hold up a ring that one would wear on a finger, but guess what? It was exactly the kind of ring I needed for my memory cards in just the right size:

She gladly handed it over to me. I slipped it on my memory cards and tossed the blue bread tie in the trash can, instantly upgrading my memory tool.

Fortunately, John 14 contains several familiar verses, so instead of starting from scratch, the memorization is more about piecing it all together, adding in the unfamiliar parts.

I’ll just try typing out what I think I know at this point. I’ll go back and highlight what I goofed up on (I’ll correct in red, like my high school English teacher. And my editor. And the guy I worked for right out of college).

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.“

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father, as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.“

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do more than these things  even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. Ask me anything you wish  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, and I will do it so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Techniques Used:

  • Read the cards through several times.
  • Repeated phrase by phrase until I had each phrase correct.
  • Tried to memorize the transition word or the first word of each sentence. Sometimes something had a natural rhythm (“Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” had a rhythm and a rhyme).
  • I said it out loud a lot.
  • Had the kids test me to be word perfect. They had to stop me if I got a single word wrong.
  • I tried drawing pictures, but that didn’t seem to help much. I think I’m very auditory.
  • I tried to do hand motions, but that didn’t seem to help much, either.
  • Next step: I plan to use my MP3 to record one of the kids reading it out loud this week. I tried the memo feature on my phone, but it didn’t have enough space to record much more than a sentence or two. With the MP3, I can listen numerous times, which will help an auditory gal like me.

I got a lot farther than I thought I could. I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised.

But there are a lot more verses ahead of me. So I must be careful not to get too confident and of course we must all resist being “puffed up” by success.

So I’m grateful – very grateful – that my mind is capable of any of this.

Looking forward to your reports!

Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, self-discovery, simplicity, slowing, taking risks, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Mega Collection of Memorization Tips & Techniques

October 2, 2008 By 19 Comments

A resource post to assist participants in Mega Memory Month:

I want to offer plenty of support during Mega Memory Month (MMM), so here you can find lots of memorization tips and techniques collected as neatly as possible in one place. I’ll add to it as I find more, so bookmark it and revisit from time to time. I’ll mark the date that I add any material following publication.

I’m kicking it off with bonus material however, so be sure check out the first bullet point under “Online Articles & Resources” and the new first point under “Kroeker-Generated Suggestions.”

Online Articles & Resources:

  • At a site called Productivity 501, I found an article called How to Memorize Verbatim Text. It has a simple online tool you can use to help reinforce what you’re working on. The author uses the Gettysburg Address to illustrate his technique.
  • An eHow 8 step article about how to memorize Scripture.
  • A long list of Scripture memory tips and suggestions. Click HERE for how to memorize long passages.
  • Ann V. described and photographed some of her memorization methods here.
  • Stretch Mark Mama wrote about her basic index-card-propped-on-the-kitchen-table method.
  • Start by memorizing the last verse first. The next day, work on the next-to-last verse and then say the two together; the next day add the verse before that and so on until you get to the last verse, which is actually the first verse of the passage. Though counter-intuitive to start at the end, the brain seems to integrate them well this way.

Kroeker-Generated Suggestions:

Here are a few memorization techniques that have worked for our family (a repeat from an earlier post included for consolidation purposes):

  1. Record someone reading your selection (then listen to it…lots). I once wrote about using my MP3 microphone for verbal note taking. Well, here’s another one. Record someone else reading the passage out loud (we usually hate our own voices when played back, don’t we? So have someone else do it), and then put it on your play list to listen to over and over.
  2. Song. Set it to song or at least a rhythm, and it sticks pretty well. We have to get creative with Scripture, because some translations don’t have all that much rhythm to them. We’ve also applied this to skip counting for math. And can’t most of us remember our conjunctions thanks to Schoolhouse Rock (”Conjunction junction, what’s your function…”)? Anyway, I try to find some beat to the verse and say it that way. It helps.
  3. Hand motions. Get all the senses involved and take in those words every way possible. We come up with hand symbols for God, Jesus, salvation, and other basic words like “all” and “world.” If you actually know American Sign Language, all the better. We don’t, so we just invent motions. They can recall the signs and bam! The words follow.
  4. Pictures. For complicated verses, I’ve drawn little pictures to accompany the phrases. This helped the daughter who scoffed at my overblown hand motions and dance steps. She preferred the more civilized method of memorizing pictures to remember the flow of words.
  5. Key words. If they remember the first word of a phrase that represents a shift in the verse, then often the rest of the words will tumble out automatically. So as we repeat it out loud, we emphasize the key words with exaggerated volume. I probably raise my eyebrows and open my mouth like a clown when I say them, too. I can’t help it. I’ve got Elasti-Face. Might as well use it for good.
  6. Write it out. Okay, now these are the simple, low-tech, basic ideas coming out. Write it out lots of times, and it’ll enter the brain through another avenue.
  7. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is such an obvious one, but it bears repeating (sorry). But, well, that’s what we do. We go over and over the verse (out loud) until it’s drummed in there. Write it on a piece of paper and stick it in your pocket, or tape it to your cell phone and make yourself say it as you reach in your pocket for something or before making a call.

Ideas Submitted by Readers:

  • Denise said that she sings along with Scripture memory CDs (I also thought of those “Hide ‘Em in Your Heart” Steve Green videos for kids). And she has her children write memory verses as part of their handwriting.
  • Recommended by Joni: His Word in My Heart by Janet Pope “offers one of the best techniques and explanations for the benefits to memorizing.” Pope’s method helped her memorize longer texts such as the Sermon on the Mount by just doing a verse a day and then reviewing them, using index cards.
Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, self-discovery, simplicity, taking risks Tagged With: , , , ,

Don't Let the Word "Mega" Scare You Off

September 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Rachel Anne brought up a good point: the word “mega” is intimidating.

Don’t be scared of Mega Memory Month.

To ease your mind, consider these alternative interpretations of the word “mega” in Mega Memory Month:

  • Mega could refer to the result of memorization, rather than the size of the selection. That is, your memory will grow with every effort, leading to a “mega memory.”
  • Mega could refer to the number of participants in the carnival.
  • Mega could refer to the length of the month of October. It is, after all, a 31-day month as opposed to a 30-day month making it one of several “mega” months.
  • And, yes, “mega” could also refer to the length or magnitude of the passage you’ve chosen to tackle, as I suggested in the initial Mega Memory Month announcement post.

So I’m not backing off of the challenge altogether, but I want people to feel free to participate even if their selection is modest. In fact, mine might be pretty puny compared to some of these people who have been really working at mega-memorization regularly.

And as I mentioned to Rachel Anne, a way to reduce any anxiety associated with ”mega” is simply to break down whatever you’ve chosen into small chunks. A few words or phrases per day or week will add up quickly over the 31 days.

Instead of being intimidated by the idea of one long mega-memorization task, think of it as several mini-memory assignments tackled one after the other.

So jump in and join the carnival, whether you want to memorize something short or long.

Finally, I don’t know about you, but with what I’m reading in the news, it’s a volatile world out there, with every day bringing another shocking announcement.

I need something to steady my mind. That’s why I’ve decided that whatever I end up memorizing, it’s going to be from the Bible. I see it as an excellent low-risk, high-yield investment to dwell on the steadying truth of God’s Word in tumultuous times.

Filed Under: creativity, lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, self-discovery, simplicity, slowing, taking risks Tagged With: , ,

Announcing Mega Memory Month

September 26, 2008 By 39 Comments

Did you know that October is Mega Memory Month?

Well, maybe not everywhere. But it is Mega Memory Month here at my blog.

In fact, this is Mega Memory Month Headquarters.

And you’re invited to join me in this month-long memorization extravaganza. I wanted to tell you enough in advance so you can have a few days to pray, plan and prepare.

Here’s how to participate:

  1. Pick something you’d like to memorize. Something long. Something formidable. Something Mega. (Mega to you may not be mega to me–simply challenge yourself relative to what you’ve tackled in the past.)
  2. Announce it on your blog whenever you like.
  3. Return with a link to your blog post talking about how you’re going to take the challenge and participate in October’s Mega Memory Month carnival. I’ll update this post so that participants are front-and-center. (I’d use Mr. Linky, but it doesn’t seem to like WordPress.com very much.)
  4. On Mondays, because it offers the best alliteration, I’ll write a Mega Memory Month post. Chime in with your own progress report that day (or any time during the week) in the comments or at your own blog (it won’t be instant, but I’ll update to your linkage if you supply it). That way we can visit and encourage each other.
  5. Try typing out what you’ve mastered little by little.
  6. Post any memory techniques you’re using, so we can borrow ideas that work.
  7. By the end of the month, present a creative culmination of your work (a video of you–and your family, if they’re participating–reciting it by heart; or write it out by hand and take a photo; or just type it up on the blog).

Borrow the button if you like, to tie us together visually.

Nobody is grading or judging us on how well we complete this month-long memory project. But making our intentions public may spur us on to finish successfully.

Let’s take a risk. Stretch ourselves.

Our minds can hold more than we think they can.

Official Participants List

  2. Rhonda at Whatever… has launched hers. (Check out how she’s going to mark her progress using a simple little text tool.)
  3. Ann V. at Holy Experience has provided us with motivation as well as announced her participation.
  4. Erin Straza is taking advantage of the MMM challenge to help achieve her bigger 101 in 1,001 goals.
  5. Laure at Weaving the Hours chose Ephesians 1. During MMM, I hope we can become, as she wrote, ”a very real community of encouragement” to her–in fact, to all of us.
  6. Shepherd’s Grace at beauty in the mundane suggests plugging passages into wordle.net as a fun way to see key words presented creatively.
  7. Dea at For His Glory…By His Grace says she’s had a head start, so she’s forging ahead in 1 Peter.
  8. Kelly at Generation Cedar is digging into a portion of Psalm 119 and has set several passages to music with CDs she’s created.
  9. Ruth at Caribbean Wordkeeper is hopping in with Romans 8. It may be daunting, she said, but as she pointed out (and this should reassure all of us): in Christ, all things are possible!
  10. Helen at A Work of Heart chose Romans 12.

    (If you’re still undecided, you could select from Tim LaHaye’s list of Scripture passages he feels that all Christians should master. Helen kindly typed it up for us.)

  11. Veronika of God-Writing is joining MMM, ”definitely ready to challenge [her] soul.”
  12. Pauline at This is the Day. What is she memorizing? Romans. All of it!
  13. Michele at Ramblings of Mine will announce her goal later, but is “glad that God can lead us and guide us by people that we don’t even know in person.” She’ll be praying for us. Thanks, Michele.
  14. Alisa at All Is Grace has chosen to memorize the Apostle’s Creed–a memory project that’s doable for her with all of her kids, ranging in age from 2 to 14.
  15. For Tammy at This Pilgrimage, it’s Psalm 91. And she already has the first two verses down.
  16. For her family’s memory work, Jennifer at Scraps and Snippets chose Psalm 1, along with a poem from A Child’s Garden of Verses.
  17. Scott at The Aging of a Not So Superhero is memorizing three hymns: “This Is My Father’s World,” ”Be Thou My Vision,” and “Be still My Soul.”
  18. More music with Haley at New Jersey Nest. Including John Denver!
  19. Jennifer at PeaceLedge is memorizing a parable from Matthew 20 with her family.
  20. Trish Southard, a non-blogger (but she does have Facebook), is working on 2 Peter 1:3-11.
  21. Angela at Drawing Nearer is taking on the quiet task of memorizing Isaiah 53.
  22. Kate McDonald at The Accidental Traveler has jumped in with Colossians.
  23. Esther at Outward Expression jumped in, and I apologize for adding her so late!

    (If you’re participating, just provide the link to your post, and I’ll drop it in. However, you don’t need a blog to participate! Let me know in the comments if you’re blogless and memorizing along with us–I’ll put your name and goal up there.)

EDITED: Here is the Mega Collection of Memorization Tips & Techniques. I’ve dropped all memorization links and other resources into this one post and will update over time.

For memorization tips, you can visit my last post. (That post’s info can be found at the master list in the mega collection above.)

I already gave you the link to Ann V.’s memorization posts, but here they are again.

Stretch Mark Mama wrote about it back in January.

By Grace Alone posted a cute video of her son singing the fruits of the Spirit to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to illustrate the power of memory work with music.

 

Filed Under: lifelong learning, mega memory month, memorization, mind, self-discovery, taking risks, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Memory Aids to Help Hide It in Your Heart

September 25, 2008 By 8 Comments

I can’t remember the details of Fahrenheit 451 (which is, ahem, ironic, given that I’m writing about memorization), but I recall that the protagonist committed some Scripture to memory in a world where books were being destroyed.

At the end, when the rest of the world is apparently bombed, a remnant, if you will, of people remains–those who have memorized at least portions of great works of literature. They are preserving the words for a time when literature will be used and useful once again.

I peeked at SparkNotes online, since I can’t at the moment find my copy of Fahrenheit 451 (hmmm….a little odd and disconcerting, given which book it is, don’t you think?). Apparently, Montag committed the book of Ecclesiastes to memory. It explains that at the end of the book, Montag, the protagonist, and another man walk upriver to find survivors. Montag tries to “remember passages from the Bible appropriate to the occasion. He brings to mind Ecclesiastes 3:1, ‘To everything there is a season,’ and also Revelations 22:2, ‘And on either side of the river was there a tree of life . . . and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’”

It was there when he needed it.

But that’s just fiction.

Is it there when we need it?

Because this is reality.

In the comments of “What’s In Your Memory Bank?”, some of you wrote that committing Scripture to memory brought rich benefits. You said that it’s an avenue for meditation and allows instant recall of just the words of truth that we need, just when we need them. More than one of you who have memorized bigger sections of Scripture can recall the special things God taught you through them.

I have a lone memory from the movie version of Fahrenheit 451: the camera is panning across the camp and pauses at an old man who is lying down on a cot reciting something (a psalm, I think). A little kid sat next to him, listening, eyes focused and alert. The old man was passing on what he memorized by heart, and the boy’s job was to take those words into his own head and heart to preserve for the next generation.

It makes me think about people who live in countries where they aren’t allowed to own a Bible and must rely on what they’ve memorized. Were I in that situation, what would I be able to pull up from my own memory bank?

Thankfully, I have some stuffed in there. Over the years of my kids’ AWANA participation, I’ve tapped into a variety of memory aids to help the kids pack it in to earn prizes. As I’ve helped them, some of it has stuck in my own mind, as well. Here are a few memorization techniques:

  1. Song. Set it to song or at least a rhythm, and it sticks pretty well. We have to get creative with Scripture, because some translations don’t have all that much rhythm to them. We’ve also applied this to skip counting for math. And can’t most of us remember our conjunctions thanks to Schoolhouse Rock (“Conjunction junction, what’s your function…”)? Anyway, I try to find some beat to the verse and say it that way. It helps.
  2. Hand motions. Get all the senses involved and take in those words every way possible. We come up with hand symbols for God, Jesus, salvation, and other basic words like “all” and “world.” If you actually know American Sign Language, all the better. We don’t, so we just invent motions. They can recall the signs and bam! The words follow.
  3. Pictures. For complicated verses, I’ve drawn little pictures to accompany the phrases. This helped the daughter who scoffed at my overblown hand motions and dance steps. She preferred the more civilized method of memorizing pictures to remember the flow of words.
  4. Key words. If they remember the first word of a phrase that represents a shift in the verse, then often the rest of the words will tumble out automatically. So as we repeat it out loud, we emphasize the key words with exaggerated volume. I probably raise my eyebrows and open my mouth like a clown when I say them, too. I can’t help it. I’ve got Elasti-Face. Might as well use it for good.
  5. Write it out. Okay, now these are the simple, low-tech, basic ideas coming out. Write it out lots of times, and it’ll enter the brain through another avenue.
  6. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is such an obvious one, but it bears repeating (sorry). But, well, that’s what we do. We go over and over the verse (out loud) until it’s drummed in there. Write it on a piece of paper and stick it in your pocket, or tape it to your cell phone and make yourself say it as you reach in your pocket for something or before making a call.

Do you have other memory techniques?

And come to think of it, what would you like to memorize? 

Give it some serious thought–what would you love to be able to pull up at will to ponder, chew on, and contemplate?

Think about that, and then check in sometime tomorrow.

I have a special announcement.

Filed Under: children, creativity, family, lifelong learning, mind, motherhood, parenting, simplicity Tagged With: , , , , ,