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Seven years old boy, counting on fingers while doing his homework. Back to school
Five methods to help your kids retain what they are learning
“Oh, I forgot.”
How many times have we all heard that from our kids when we ask them why they didn’t complete the task expected of them? The response is often the same when we ask them where they put their backpack or shoes.
Sometimes kids can be forgetful. Not only does having a good memory help with daily tasks, but it’s also essential to success in school.
How can we help our kids retain information? Here are five tips to memory-boosting success:
- Understand their learning style. Not everyone learns the same. Personally, I’m a verbal learner and not a visual-spatial learner. If you give me information only in a visual format, my retention won’t be nearly as high as it would be if you gave those instructions to me orally or in writing. Yet many children are just the opposite. You can verbally tell them all the tasks they need to complete to get ready for school in the morning, but they will remember much better if you also give them a chart with pictures of each task. They might have trouble remembering your words, but they might be able to visualize the pictures
- Sing a song. Something about music gets into our brains and makes it easy to remember. Whether it’s multiplication tables or the chores they need to complete once they get home from school, you and your kids can set just about anything to music with a bit of creativity. Make coming up with memory-aiding songs a fun activity with your kids.
- Make it a full sensory experience. Research has shown that involving more than one sense aids in memory. Along these lines, incorporating movement into language and reading helps boost memory. If you are reading a story with a child, consider making up actions that go along with the story. If you really want to emphasize the tasks a child needs to complete before bedtime, make up a song with actions about picking up toys, brushing teeth and taking a bath.
- Act it out. Perhaps one of the best ways to get kids to remember a history lesson is to have them pretend they are the characters and act out the experience. Or if you are concerned about being able to get everyone in your house up, ready and out the door on time in the morning, have a trial run on a weekend and go through the motions. The more a child feels involved in what he is supposed to remember, the more he will retain.
- Good, old-fashioned repetition. All the fancy memory tricks aside, there is simply no substitute for repetition, and all these methods involve repetition in some sense. Undoubtedly, the more you do something, the more of it you will retain.
When it comes to schoolwork, repetition is especially critical to math success—which is why students typically have more homework in math than in other subjects.
Repetition breeds habit as well. If a child knows there will be no bedtime story until all toys are picked up, she will develop a habit of picking up the toys. After a time, you might even find she just automatically picks up her toys at bedtime, regardless of the bedtime story.
If your child has trouble remembering where he put things, develop a system at home that aids your child in putting all his important belongings in the same place every day. Have a designated spot for his backpack, homework, lunchbox and shoes, and make sure he always practices putting his things in that place every day. This repetition will inevitably help solve the problem of forgetting where things are.
Successfully relaying information
Raise your hand if your child has ever forgotten to tell you an important school announcement or lost a sheet of paper with school news on it. Kids can have a tough time remembering and delivering messages and news from school. To remedy this situation, consider buying your child a notebook and tape an envelope to the inside cover. Then have the child put all announcement-related papers in the envelope and make a short entry in the notebook for each piece of information he needs to relay to you. For every announcement he successfully delivers and explains, he can earn a sticker and, eventually, a small reward.
Allison Gibeson is a Lee’s Summit mom and writer who remembers verbal information best.