Calvert School Blog

Hi Gretchen. I am Jeanette in Johannesburg and am homeschooling three kids on Calvert. I am thrilled to see that you will be sharing your experiences with the rest of us through this blog and look forward to reading your future posts.

For now, I wanted to remark that I agree with you 100% on the value of memorization. When I was in high school, my aunt (who was a gifted and talented teacher in a brick and mortar school in TX) gave me some additional advice on memorization which made my life in high school much easier and helped me in courses, like chemistry, that did not capture my interest.

She recommended the following:

1. Before reading a text, read the titles and review the illustrations and their captions (this gets your mental juices flowing and “prepares you” for the text.

2. Review all of your notes and skim through the previous day's text each evening before starting the new assignment for that day.

I found that by using these two simple techniques (which only take a few extra minutes a day, once you get into the habit), I was able to easily “memorize” and recall information when test time rolled around. I also found that my long-term retention (as opposed to cramming for a test and forgetting about it) was greatly enhanced and my understanding of the subject “lightbulb-effect” increased daily.

I am trying–with mixed success–to teach my oldest daughter, who is in sixth grade now, these same disciplines to help her with science, which she finds difficult to memorize.

Such an interesting article!

I wonder though, why anyone would object to memorization. II'm a grandmother and it was a tool that was used when I was in school. Why, I'll never forget the year we spent memorizing the X's tables. Writing 5x's each, 10x's each, saying them together as a class, testing, the poems we learned in history that helped us remember the States and their Capitols, the Presidents. I STILL remember those. My children also benefited from memorization. And my daughter is using it still with her children.

There are just too many things we take for granted – like instead of knowing automatically what 12×12 is, preferring to have our kids use all their fingers when they're ready to graduate. A little extreme, yes, but considering the fact that we are constantly reminded that less that 25% of high- schooler's are proficient in math when they graduate, memorization might be a road to be traveled again, and how wonderful home-schoolers have that opportunity!

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onion on a sesame-seed bun. Still said as fast as an auctioneer. Oh my! Thank you for the Memorization article. My 6 year-olds reading skills have increased so much with the addition of “sight words”!

I'm one of those parents that will not embrace memorization! Looking back on my own education and that of my 16 year old and now my 10 year old I will continue to believe that it would not serve us well. It's good to know that there are many ways to become educated.

I'm one of those parents that will not embrace memorization! Looking back on my own education and that of my 16 year old and now my 10 year old I will continue to believe that it would not serve us well. It's good to know that there are many ways to become educated.

HI Judy — one of the most frequent comments I hear from moms regarding memorization is that the disliked it, and therefore do not want to do it with their children. The irony is, it is a learned skill, that the more it is practiced, the easier it is to do. Our current education climate does not promote it. In fact we had a dinner table discussion last night about Greek mythology, and my 4th grader's public school friend had never heard of the characters and dynamics my highschoolers and 4th grader were so enthusiastically discussing. I think that in our zest for new and innovative, we have sometimes abandoned what has worked REALLY well in the past.

Hi Jeanette — I have a little experience with developmental stages (my degree is in Child Development – Psychology), and can honestly tell you that it is easier to learn to memorize when children are 5-6. However, you might find success with showing your 6th grader the advantages of memorization — for instance, my 15 year old just tested out of college English (she will NOT have to take either Freshman or Sophomore English) — and she says it is because she learned to memorize the grammar of sentence diagnostics, and literally, the list of coordinating conjunctions… The bottom line here for her was economics — two $600 college classes, gratis, because she was willing to memorize…

LOL! And all those camp songs from Girl Scouts — I have REALLY enjoyed the discussions with my teenagers about “I don't listen to the words, just the music” — yeah, that was my excuse too –but then when I can embarrass them with a word-for-word rendition of a Led Zeppelin song, hmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it.

I think it is very, very important to remember that what works well for some doesn't always work well for all. If it works for you, fabulous! But it would be wrong to state that it would work for everybody. What is wonderful about choosing to home school is that we can use what works for our families.

My name is Carolyn, I have been a home school mom for 16 years. My pedagogical approach is a mix of Waldorf/ Summerhill. I use Calvert because it is organized and the content is excellent.

You are not alone Carolyn. Fewer and fewer educational institutions ask us to engage in the act of memorization — yet we DO do it… directions for your favorite dessert, or how to drive to the gym etc. In fact, if the truth were to be really told, memorization was the bottom line for my becoming a homeschool parent. It was my 3rd grader's teacher saying she did not need to memorize her multiplication tables that drove us to explore homeschooling in the first place.

I believe I am speaking about the deliberate act of memorizing, through rote, mnemonic,etc. I did not need to take a trip to the gym several times outside of actually going there to remember how to get there. I did not need make my favorite dessert several times outside of the times I did it for joys sake to remember how to make it. Those Girl Scout songs, we didn't practice them, we enjoyed them, soon we remembered them by heart. My children do not need to sit down and repeat times tables over and over to remember them. What they need to do are math problems on a daily basis and as they come up in their work they will soon remember. What they gain is joy in seeing the process of how numbers work with meaning behind them instead of robotic repetition of numbers that they will eventually memorize. As with everything in life, for us, it is the process that matters. So we do not DO memorization! We live and it happens. There is a reason why I am not alone!

I DO agree with you Carolyn. I have even found that you cannot expect to do the same things for each child in the family. You have to do what is best for each child. Even after 16 years of homeschooling, I have a 4th grader who, this year, decided that he wanted to go to public school. It has been beneficial for him. He has had a wonderful year. The first grading period was a breeze, because he found that much of what he did was a repeat of Calvert 3rd grade =D And, I have a longtime home school friend who is is a user of Waldorf. She has been very pleased with the results.

While I agree wholeheartedly that memorization is important, I have to say it has been nearly impossible with my oldest son. He's in 4th grade now and has FINALLY managed to begin to memorize spelling words and multiplaction facts. Before now it was a struggle to get anything to stay in his head that wasn't music. This is part of my reason for homeschooling, his brain works differently and up until now memorizing has not been anything but a battle. While it is important that this skill be developed, it is not worth sacrificing my relationship with my son, or his love for learning.

While I agree wholeheartedly that memorization is important, I have to say it has been nearly impossible with my oldest son. He's in 4th grade now and has FINALLY managed to begin to memorize spelling words and multiplaction facts. Before now it was a struggle to get anything to stay in his head that wasn't music. This is part of my reason for homeschooling, his brain works differently and up until now memorizing has not been anything but a battle. While it is important that this skill be developed, it is not worth sacrificing my relationship with my son, or his love for learning.

I hear and understand you Heather!! I too have a child who had tremendous problems with memorization – he never learned any of the typical nursery rhymes – in fact, we thought for a long time that he just marched to the beat of his own drum. And for him, music was a completely empty set — he did not even hear tones. (He has the hearing of a bat however!!)

However, in Kindergarten (5 of my children have gone to public school kindergarten) we realized that there was indeed something wrong with the way he processed language.

I won’t belabor you with the long story here, but I will tell you that one of the first diagnostics the clinicians used with him was how many bits of info he could hold in his short term memory – at the age of 5, the vast majority of children should be able to retain 5 pieces of information – which is why most children can easily commit their phone number to memory by age 5 or 6.

The key here was that he could NOT do that – he could only retain 2-3 bits. It took us some serious work with a neurodevelopmentalist to assist him in learning to process info correctly – so much so, that he was 8 1/2 before we began to teach him to read.

But now, at age 10 ½, he is reading on grade level – albeit it a little less fluidly than some of his peers. He has FINALLY begun to learn to spell (although a little creatively — wasn't it Mark Twain that said “Poor is a man who knows to spell a word only one way”?, and surprisingly, he has begun to memorize some things. Multiplication tables are there, but there is not the rapid recall that I have seen from other children — part of his language processing issues mean we have to give him the space to retrieve — something that is difficult when you are trying to be task oriented!!

How fortunate your son is that you recognized that he is different and wonderful and you can help that “wonderfulness” come out — That is one of the best things about homeschooling — being able to do for each child as THEY need.

Is there a way to “process info correctly”? My son was the same way. I never had him diagnosed because I was focusing on his other strengths and I new that he would eventually process and I had read many studies and first hand accounts of boys reading at a later age and that eye tracking wasn't developed enough for children to stare at pages and follow linear symbols. Very hard for boys. I'll never forget the day my son and I read an article about Paul Serrano the paleontologist that discovered a dinosaur in Argentina! I can't remember the dinosaur's name because I don't care! Ok all flippancy aside…My son who seemingly had such a problem with memorization could remember every dinosaur fact there ever was
(because he cared!) and he didn't practice memorizing them. Anyway, Paul didn't read until he was ten and neither did my son. He is now a voracious reader and has been writing a book, an epic tale, for the past several years. In working in classrooms with young children pre-school age upward I did notice that most, not all, boys definitely had strengths in other areas. I first started “teaching” my son to read when he was seven and I look back and think what a waste of his time. He taught himself how to read when he was ready. So little faith I had in the miracle that is my son. I am no longer in a rush to keep up with others so much as I am in a rush to slow down. The rushed seedling is tall and spindly and cannot support it's own weight.

I am looking into homeschooling because the new school system we just moved to does Every Day Math. I despise it with a passion. I do not like how it skips around before the children have a good grasp on it. I also do not like that they do not teach them confusing ways to remember their multiplication. I am glad to hear the Calvert teaches children to memorize.

I am looking into homeschooling because the new school system we just moved to does Every Day Math. I despise it with a passion. I do not like how it skips around before the children have a good grasp on it. I also do not like that they do not teach them confusing ways to remember their multiplication. I am glad to hear the Calvert teaches children to memorize.

HI Karen — I am not familiar with the particulars of Everyday math, but it sounds like it is taught in the spiraled presentation of presenting a concept and giving the student a couple of shots at it and then presenting another concept and layering on a little of the first with the second. I know several math programs that teach that way, and if you are a proponent, and it works for your child, it is bonus. It was NOT a good fit for any of my children – so far (vote is still out on the preschooler). You might consider calling Calvert's education counselors and asking them to explain to you how Calvert math is designed. I won't presume to get the technical details correct, but we have found it to be very beneficial. You can reach them at 1.888.487.4652, and as anyone who has known me for even a little while knows, I think they are the BEST thing about a Calvert curriculum.

HI Carolyn — I have not responded you sooner because I was waiting to see if I program was going to come together this week or not. You might want to listen to this internet radio program today, Friday, March 5, 2010 from 5-6PM Eastern time: http://toginet.com/shows/thesociablehomeschooler. Julie Meekins, the neurodevelopmentalist we worked with for my ten year old son will be on the program, speaking about how children learn and ways to reach them. If I know Julie, she will indeed be speaking about “processing information correctly”. Best regards!