Scripture Memory

Ever since we first started homeschooling, back in 2000, we have been memorizing scripture. Before beginning that first year I attended the HERI Homeschool Convention where I attended several workshops.  One person who spoke that year was Pam Tebow. At the time she was well-known in the homeschooling circles as the homeschooling mom of 5 children. Now, of course, she is known as the former Gator quarterback,Tim Tebow's mom.

That year she spoke of the importance of scripture memory and shared how she did it. She told the audience that "What is set to song is remembered long." She explained that she comes up with a little tune and sings her scripture memory. I thought it was a good idea and we tried it that year. We had a little Preskool tape deck with a microphone and used that to record our songs. That year we were doing Sonlight's Core K (now A) which had A to Z scriptures to memorize. At the time, they didn't have the CD that they now have so we came up with our own tunes. I also didn't like all the scriptures that they had selected. There were others that I really wanted my kids to know so I sat down with my Bible and a sheet of paper labeled A through Z down the side. I found scriptures I wanted my kids to know and filled in where they would fit. For those more difficult letters (X, Z?) I used Sonlight's suggestions.

My oldest son is starting his senior year this year. I bet he still knows every single one of those songs he learned in kindergarten. I plan to test him on this just to see.

This system worked so well for us the first year that we used it again the next year. I again came up with my own scriptures using a scripture that would fit character traits. I called them the "Be Scriptures." You know, Be alert, Be kind, etc and again, we came up with songs for those. We were not as diligent at memorizing that list but we did revisit it this past year.

This has been the method of scripture memory I have used even for myself. I participated in First Place For Health a few seasons back where we had weekly scripture memory assignments. Yep. I came up with a little tune.  It just works for me, even though I am not musical. The little Preskool tape deck is no longer with us, but now I use the voice recorder on my IPhone to record my ditty so I don't lose the tune.

Recently a friend shared a scripture memory method shared on the Simply Charlotte Mason board that uses a filing box and 3 X 5 cards. I think I will try to incorporate it into our school year next year. I will start with our ABC scriptures, then add our Be scriptures. We'll see how far we go at filling in the box. Then we will add the BBC Manual scriptures that Timothy began a few years ago (but never completed) and Annie will do this year. This may be just the ticket to get through that list.

Do you memorize scripture? If so, how do you do it? I'd love to hear!