What any parent would give to have their children have the sharpest of minds! I am definitely one of those parents. In my quest for that prize I have discovered 3 fun ways that help my kids sharpen their memory.
Sometimes you want to be subtle about school, so games then come in. One of the games we have grown to love is a memory game. It seems so easy if you are just watching, but once you get in you will see that it challenges you. So I take a number of objects, say 7, and lay them on a table. I give the kids time, maybe a minute or 2 using a timer, to look at the objects and memorize what they see. After the given time, I use a cloth to cover the objects, then ask them to give me the list of what is now covered.
To make the game more interesting for big sis, I ask her to use descriptive words. So instead of cup, she has to give more detail such as color, size, the owner or something else that distinguishes it from all other cups in our house. Soon, I will ask her to write the words down, spelling lesson right there!
The second thing we do is memorize scripture. Not just verses but whole chapters. Initially I was a bit apprehensive if they could do it but I soon saw they loved the challenge. It is indeed one of the 3 fun ways that help my kids to sharpen their memory. In this venture, as I teach them I also learn. We started with short popular chapters such as Psalm 23. Other short verses we learn in song. The goal is to remember, so we do one chapter very well and spend as much time as needed on it.
The last of the 3 fun ways that we use to help the kids to sharpen their memory is storytelling. To be honest this was an accidental discovery. It was one of those days when I was tired and didn’t feel like reading them a bedtime story, and they were insisting on one. I told them I wasn’t going to read but tell them one; which I made up. How they enjoyed it! The following day they asked to please tell stories again, and I agreed. But this time I asked them to share theirs. The stories I heard were eerily similar to mine 😁. They retained the storyline and associated lessons much better than I had thought. It also made me realize how careful I needed to be when using the gift of speech to them, there could be far-reaching consequences if done carelessly.
There are so many other ways of enhancing cognitive function in children, one just has to be creative. What fun activities do you do with yours?
