Classical Homeschool Memorization + DIY Memory Boxes

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Repetition and Memorization are such a key piece to a Classical education. Today I’m sharing how we practice memorization and diy memory boxes that I put together to help my students.

Repetitio est mater studiorum, repetition is the mother of all learning.

How we practice memorization in the homeschool

Repetition along with recitations and additional review practice is what we’ve found helpful in memorizing important facts.

But it wasn’t until we started implementing two key factors in our homeschool before things really started “sticking” with my children.

Those two things are introducing short rhyming verses and songs for various facts like math, history & timeline dates, geography, latin, and more.

I believe that if you put anything to song, the children will absorb it quickly.

And thanks to the suggestion of Memoria Press, my children memorized all of the Presidents in less than one week! Set to the tune of “10 Little Indians”.

Children’s minds are like little sponges!

We also really love using these Catholic Classical Enrichment with our morning work. There are 3 cycles in the set which can also be bought individually. The books are fairly small, but also come with MP3 downloads – which includes memory verse and songs for various topics!

The second thing that really helped was implementing color coding and coordinating flash cards for memorization.

tabs and index cards inside of the memory boxes.

Setting up the memory boxes

Although, we don’t use all of their curriculum, I love a lot of what Memoria Press provides. They make creating flash cards for various subjects simpler because all I have to do is cut and paste them on to colorful index cards.

For other subjects, I have to create them myself. No big deal, arts & crafts is a big part of homeschool planning, right? 😉

index cards inside of the index memory box.

color coded flash cards and memory verses and tabs on a table.

This system is incredibly simple and I update it each week when lesson planning. Basically, each child gets their own box to be responsible for.

Mom also has her own memory box for scripture, Latin, personal academia, and storing extra supplies.

📚A few tips to get started:

Something I did at the very beginning of our homeschool was to assign each child their own color for all things. If this is of interest to you, I would suggest keeping them with basic primary colors so that things are easier to find when shopping.

Example of how we do this:

child 1 – all things teal
child 2 – all things red/dark pink
child 3 – all things blue
child 4 – all things yellow

I did allow them to choose their own color too.

I found this set of index boxes in the shades I needed, but it is only a 3 pack so I eventually found this one too for the blue shade I needed.

Next, I used these colorful divider tabs and labeled them like this:

Daily → Monday → Tuesday → Wednesday → Thursday → Friday

Then I continued to label them by specific subjects. These subjects are for storing extra cards that I pre-made for future lessons and aren’t used by the student until I move them to that specific day of the week.

In addition, there are divider tabs labeled 1-31 which they will review on that specific date each week.

divider tabs and index cards with memory box on a table.

How we use the memory boxes in our homeschool

Now, I’m going to share how this system works for us in our homeschool. I hope that it is helpful for you, but please feel free to edit it and make it work for your home!

First off, when I prepare the lesson for the week, I also organize the flashcards and create new ones if needed.

Each subject is color coded to keep it organized and make it easier for the student. I use a few different options of index cards to make sure each subject has its own color.

Once I make the new memory cards, I file them either under daily or day of the week for the student to study during that week. I will also move previous cards that have been memorized to the relevant date in the 1-31 section for additional repetition/practice.

I also give my children various times to practice repetition throughout the week. We use hymns, songs, recitations as a regular part of our learning. They also have the opportunity to use their memory boxes in the morning and afternoon each day.

🖤 Favorite products:

Here are a few of my favorite items as mentioned in this post.