Instead of doing the poems included in their grammar text (First Language Lessons I decided to have the kids memorize scripture mastery cards (C) or a primary song (Mo, because she learns really well with music.) For the songs we just let her go through the children’s songbook and pick one she likes. We’re just doing first verses for some songs, all of the verses for other songs. On Monday after her grammar lesson we’ll read the words of the song, sing it through (I might attempt to play it on the piano!) and listen to it on the church music website. Then I write it out (in cursive) and over the week she copies the lyrics out. Depending on song length it may take more than a week, I don’t ask her to copy more than one sentence at a time but she’ll often do 2 or 3 lines at a time.
For the scripture mastery I ordered the four card sets online from LDScatalog.com (free shipping!) and they are $.50/set. I also got the scripture mastery bookmark that has all 100 scripture mastery over the four books. Good for reference/prompts. I pulled out the ones that I thought were a manageable length for C and hole punched them and hung them on a key ring. There are about 35, though I left out a few that were short but didn’t really make sense out of context. We also read the notes on the other side of the card about historical setting, doctrinal teaching, missionary & personal application.
I let C pick one to work on and I try to have him look it up in the scriptures themselves (cement scripture reference with actual location in book) and then I write it out in cursive and have him copy over the course of the week. Again, I don’t ask him to do more than a line or two at a time because I am looking at his cursive effort. The writing helps cement his memorization but this is mostly handwriting practice.
I hadn’t thought about doing the primary scripture of the month, mostly because I know they do memorize that during primary and it’s usually very short. I think that would be a good length for K/1st but I wanted the lengthier songs/scripture mastery for the older kids. I also wanted to make sure they were memorizing things that are beautiful, but also useful. It’s fun for both kids to be at church and hear one of their songs chosen or their scripture being read. And same thing with the primary songs – Mo memorizes songs really quickly so with just the Sunday teaching she’s getting those down and I wanted to do something extra to challenge her during the week. When she’s a bit older I may switch her to memorizing the scripture mastery as well. As they get older I’ll add the longer cards into the rotation. I figure it will make their seminary years easier, too.
Update: As I’m watching the IEW program I realize we’ll also be using these memorization materials for the writing program, in which they’ll practice outlining key words & summarize the scripture/song in their own words.
Great ideas. I think we’ll copy you with one adjustment. I think we’ll do the Articles of Faith first and then move on to scripture mastery. The kids in primary have been marking them off most weeks, when they’re ready to say them from memory and the presidency is pretty good about keeping up on that. That keeps it fresh in the kids’ minds that it’s there as an option. My girls are learning them better than they have before (and had only learned the first few anyway…).
Do you write it out in cursive on wide-ruled paper leaving space for them to write underneath? Or do you write on one piece of paper and then they write on another?
Yes, I’m glad you mentioned that – we did start with the AofF and stopped though I’m not sure why… need to get back to those!
For Mo I write a line, skip two then write the next line so she can copy directly beneath my work. For C I write out the whole thing and he copies it below on the same page. We use wide ruled standard notebook paper for all of their work in a 3 ring binder, it’s divided into sections for spelling tests, grammar lessons, math work, and now writing.