The Easiest Way to Learn Anything- Guest Post (by Lindsay Clarkson)
Let me tell you, I LOVE learning from other moms. My best ideas come from you all! I love when we can swap ideas, encourage one another, and inspire eachother on this journey of motherhood. Today I have a special treat for you… a guest post from a very special mama.
Lindsay Clarkson is a great friend of mine. When it comes to inspiration she’s got a Mary-Poppin’s bag to pull from. How could she not? She’s a busy mom to five kids!
Without further ado…
The Easiest Way to Learn Anything
As a mom, you are your child’s first teacher. Your arms teach her security, your breasts, nourishment. Your voice is the foundation for her language development. And your very presence shows her that love is unconditional.
But what about things that are just plain hard to learn?
From their early years, I tried to teach my children simple memory work. Repetition enabled them to easily grasp things like poems and Bible verses. Other things– especially containing numbers– simply wouldn’t stick.
And then it dawned on me: What is the stickiest thing around? A Song!
I put our phone number– all nine digits!– to the melody of an old Sunday School song and we had it down pat in no time! As a disclaimer, my musicality is minimal. I can carry a tune, but barely. I won’t let that stop me! Next came our address. “My address is a big green house, at 1234 R St.” All to the tune of Good King Wenceslas! Things were getting exciting. How far could we take it?
Last year, we studied the continent of Africa. Daily map work notwithstanding, memorizing all forty-nine countries seemed impossible. (Especially for me, the oldest learner in the bunch.) Until I remembered my best tool. I found a YouTube video with all the countries put to a catchy tune. Success! My 6-year old, 8-year old and this old noodle now know them all!
Flipping the calendar page on Monday, I remembered to have us spend a few minutes singing through all the songs we’ve committed to memory. It’s become quite a list! And with a monthly review, I believe this will be knowledge long kept.
You are your child’s first teacher. What do you want her to learn today?
Here are a few tools we’ve used to memorize music:
- YouTube– Anything you can think of, it’s probably there!
- ABC Bible Verse Songs– 26 of them!
- Math Facts the Easy Way– Hap Palmer is my new best friend!
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
My daughter has done the song idea with my granddaughter for years and it truly works. Funny how music is so good for so many reasons. 🙂
Very neat! Yeah, I’m already thinking of a few different ways I can incorporate this idea. 😉
Brilliant!! Thank you for sharing!!!
A catchy tune to help memorise! Wonderful to get a guest on Jessica, but we miss you at same time, Huggs Dear, Terri.