Today my children became "Memory Masters"!
"Memory Master" is an honor bestowed on Classical Conversations Foundations students who have mastered all of the memory work during the twenty-four weeks of Foundations class. We define "mastery" of the information as having committed the information to long-term memory, which means we do not cram for a single test and then forget it. I focus on my children being able to learn this information, and retain it, for a lifetime. I have to admit, it is an incredible amount of work -- for both student and parent.
My son has become a Memory Master two other times, which means he has mastered all three cycles of information taught in the Classical Conversations Foundations program. This is my daughter's first year mastering the information.
The amount of information the students recite is lengthy. This year is Cycle 1, so my children have mastered, and can recite, the following:
- 161 events and people in a chronological timeline
- 44 U.S. Presidents
- 24 history facts to add depth to our timeline (several of these facts are 3 - 4 sentences long!)
- 120 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe, and the Old World
- 24 science facts (including classifications of living things and each continent's highest mountain)
- 5 Latin noun endings and their singular and plural declensions
- English grammar facts (including 53 prepositions, 23 helping verbs, and 12 linking verbs)
- Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares and cubes, as well as basic geometry formulas and unit conversions
It's over 400 pieces of information!
During the process, they had to recite this information not only to me, but also to several other adults. Becoming a "Memory Master" is no easy task. Words cannot express how proud we are of them for how hard they have worked and for all that they have achieved.
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