Memorization is the key to learning new things. Studies have proved that equating known things with a list of stuff you need to learn and remember can make it easier to retain all the new things. This is known as the Memory Palace technique or memorization. This is how you can teach the technique to your homeschool students and help them get more memory power.
The Memory Palace Technique
Think about a familiar place. It could be the homeschool classroom, or the children’s own room. A place that they know the location of major furniture items, window placements, etc. Now think of the list of things they need to memorize such as the steps of the water cycle. Allot each familiar attribute in the room one step of the water cycle.
For instance the bedside table in the homeschool student’s room represents evaporation. Then the fan on the ceiling represents precipitation. In this manner allot each aspect of the room a step of the water cycle. Now take them through this memory association once or twice to reinforce the connection.
Once that is done ask them to close their eyes and think about items in their room while speaking out the steps of the water cycle associated with them. Most of the children will find it very simple to come up with all the steps of the water cycle using this method. This is how the Memory Palace technique works.
What Can You Use It For
Needless to say the method is easy to learn and can be used to memorize a number of listed items. You can even use it to remember your grocery shopping list if you have forgotten to write it down. Just think of your living room and each piece of furniture therein.
Now allot the bread the couch, the peck table the eggs, the music system the milk and so on till you have all the items on your list accounted for. All you need to do to fill up your shopping cart correctly is to mentally walk through your living room picking up the items associated with them.
