Master the Cards

I recently purchased "19 Apps: Leadership Education for College Students". I'm a little late to the party on this one because I've known about it for about a year and I have two children in college. Somehow I just missed it and didn't think it was too important to bother with.

As usual...that was not the right attitude to have about this little gem.

I've been racking my brain about what to do to "Jump-start Our January"  beyond the typical things we do...6 month inventory, six month No, and six month purge. I am still digesting this e-book, but felt we would go ahead and get started with applying some of the apps....especially App 7: Master the Cards.

Hmm...."The Cards" huh? My first reading of this topic made me want to gag. I hate memorizing. I've never been good at LONG-TERM memorization, but I learned how to cram in high school and college. I can do maybe a couple weeks tops on memorizing and then the info seems to just seep right out of my head.

Dr. DeMille seems to have always preached against rote memorization, so I never included it much in our homeschool. However, many other great homeschool methodologists have advocated it, like Charlotte Mason, which I have always liked.

I decided that we'll give it try. I have nothing to report as of yet since we are just getting started on it this week. I introduced the idea to the children today, Marly is 18 and taking BYU-Idaho classes and Chris is 16 and still studying basic topics in prep for starting college next year.

I suggested that we start with one of two methods to using The Cards.

1. Choose vocabulary, facts, or other information from what they are already studying: Seminary, online classes, or books they are currently reading/studying.
2. Choose items from "The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know" book.

I decided to start with option #2 in the American History to 1865 section for my cards. At first, I wasn't too thrilled about making my own cards (bad attitude, go away!).  However, after a couple of cards I started to find the information very interesting and my selection process was one of "chaining" topics together, letting one topic/factoid lead me to another.

For me, I feel that maybe I need to strengthen my memorization skills. I am getting very forgetful in my middle age and watching my mother's memory disappear was scary for me. I don't think it can hurt anyway (not too much I hope).