Kelly,kellybell wrote:I'm addressing this to the few families who have already done EX1850.
Tell us (my family) about memorizing either all or part of James. We're going to go out on a limb (I have trouble memorizing my own phone number) and go for "Plan A" (a for all?) and memorize all of James. Oh boy, that's a lot.
My ds, upon hearing my enthusiastic, "guess what we're going to do" talk got overwhelmed, called me crazy, and then said, "There's no way I can do THAT." Which is not true AT ALL because he is great at memorizing Bible (and violin music). Recently we asked that all the kids memorized the Beatitudes. When we showed it to him, he said, "too much." There was a bribe riding on it, and the next day (within 24 hours of our first assigning it) he came downstairs and said it flawlessly. He's still very much able to recite it (so it wasn't just a short-term memory thing).
I was hoping a few families (moms AND kids) could chime in and encourage our family. As for my ds, he's able but doesn't believe. As for me, I'm not that good at memorizing, so I need the encouragement too.
Thanks.
You're right. It is a lot to learn. We aimed for Plan A, worked hard. No, my oldest did not memorize every verse perfectly. That’s ok with me. She learned a lot more than Plan B. Maybe we finished at Plan A-/B+. I’ve been more blessed that she recognizes the verses in other places. We’ve heard a lot of James verses in various Sunday sermons over the year. On the Christian radio station around here, they were reading from James chapter 5 one day, while we were in the van going to dance class. Turns out -- we were in chapter 5. God was faithful to help us in small ways. And when the verse was needed, it was there. When the kids were fighting, nothing like a quick verse to break up the fight. What? You don’t have perfect kids either. :)
Child #2, 8y.o. She was on Plan B as her goal, but she was constantly around older sister and 8 y.o heard all verses over and over. She learned more than plan B. She would fill in the missing sections with her verses while we read out loud together. She’s one of my special needs kids.
Marie puts in some suggestions for helping with memory work. You have to practice it more than just in the morning. One is a little incentive to practice 3 times per day and give a little treat (tic tacs worked for us). And some other stuff in the manual to encourage you a bit. Yeah, it’s hard work. The 2 Hazell daughters who pre-piloted EX1850 wrote little letters and they are in the t.m. to encourage you to keep on keeping on. David tells the story in various workshops where it was very hard for them. They almost scrapped the idea of memorizing the whole book, but the kids were determined that, “You made me do this much, you’re not making me give up now are you?” The youngest Hazell took a break from the pace and caught up later to older sister. All that to say --- they worked hard on this part as well.
The pace in Plan A is about 3-4 verses per week on the weeks you are learning verses, alternated by a week of using the Kay Arthur study book. Plus a lot of review built in.
In my kitchen, to help us, we printed out the whole book of James – nice 16 pt font so I could read it. I highlighted the plan B verses so I’d know which ones to concentrate on child #2. We would read it out loud together. Or I would play prompter and just help when they were stuck. And – at Sunday School class, child #2 was able to earn tickets for a little prize with her verses. So she even had another incentive to press on and keep going. And it helped that someone else other than mom and dad was interested in hearing her say her verses. (We’re talking little prizes here folks --- just enough to help motivate my child to try to say her verses in front of someone else. Remember, she’s one of my special needs, delayed kids --- she needed tangible encouragement to do this.)
We got stuck and just pressed on. Some sections we didn’t really memorize but just read out loud many times.
Hang in them, you've got a full academic year to learn 108 verses. {hug}.
--crystal
. So it may be that you would want to read these books in the evening and do the study part during the day.