CHILDREN'S MEMORY WORK   Maria #222       DO 2934  Comp.5/94
Some Answers from Mama--By Maria

         1. Question: What are the most important projects for the children to do for memory work?
         2. Answer from Mama: "I suggest that for memory work for our kids, we put the Memory Book song tapes (Songs of Life Collection) first and say, 'This is the first requirement, memorize these.'--Maybe not for the little tiniest kids, but at an age where they can sing along and get the whole thing.
         3. "Kids can learn longer verses--and a lot more verses--if we start them with the Memory Book song tapes and just let them listen to those at naptime and memory time, and teach them to sing along with them. Instead of taking half-an-hour to teach your 6-year-olds two or three verses, by sitting there drilling them over and over, just use the tapes instead and sing along with them! Dance and raise your hands and jump around, and they'll learn the verses quickly! It's good exercise, too! The teachers should explain and make sure that the kids know the words and what's being said, and understand what the verse means and how to apply it."
         4. (Note: In the "Word Curriculum," the verses from the first five Songs of Life tapes [Memory Book song tapes] are listed as the 5- and 6-year-olds' main memory project. Children younger than 5 years old can concentrate on the "Feed My Lambs" verses and "Baby and Toddler Verses and Quotes" as their main memory projects. If children under 5 listen to these tapes often, then when they turn 5 it will be much easier and quicker for them to memorize the verses, since they will already be very familiar with them. They might even have a lot of the verses completely memorized already.)

         5. Question: What about memorizing a lot of different chapters? Should we encourage large-scale chapter memorization as a way to get them to learn a large quantity of Word?
         6. Answer from Mama: "I think the quality of the verses they memorize is more important than the quantity. I realize that in Techi's Life Story Sara suggested memorizing chapters, and even mentioned that they had memorized Genesis 1. But now, in further considering and praying about it, and knowing how very busy our children are, and how many more meaningful verses there are for them to memorize, I don't think they need to memorize all those verses about which day God created the fish and which day He created the trees and the grass and the sun and the moon and the stars. If they need it for a class on creation, they can just get their Bible out and refer to it and show it to whomever they're teaching the class to.
         7. "I feel that if there wasn't anything more important for them to memorize, then yes, we could let them memorize that. It's a good story and an important story, and it's probably interesting to kids. But when there are so many other more important verses for them to memorize, not only for witnessing purposes, but for their own spiritual edification, encouragement, instruction and comfort, why should they be spending all that time memorizing verses word for word about the first week of Creation? Later, if they need to recall the details, they can just remember which chapter it is and look it up!
         8. "Just because chapters may be easier to learn than individual verses is not a good enough reason to have our kids learning so many chapters when they should be learning more meaningful and useful verses! Maybe they can't learn as many independent verses as they can if they learn groups of verses in chapters, but the point is not how many verses you learn, the point is which verses you learn! Whether it's easier to learn chapters or verses is not the point. We're not just trying to do things that are easier. We're trying to do things that are going to help our people, build their faith and their foundation and strengthen them, encourage them, instruct them, warn them--not just tell'm a story! Whether they memorize any stories from the Bible or not, it's important that they learn the instructional verses, verses on salvation, the Holy Spirit, healing, witnessing, protection, comfort, pride, jealousy, etc. Memorizing those verses is going to do them a lot more good and give them the encouragement, edification, warning, conviction and power they need!
         9. "I don't mind people learning chapters. I think it's good to learn some chapters.--Like Dad has talked about in "Hiding the Word in Your Heart" (ML #1062, DB3). It's wonderful to be able to review a whole chapter for your encouragement and edification in times of trial--especially some of the real key chapters like Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 91, John 15, 1Corinthians 13, etc. I would recommend for any of our kids or adults who have not learned those chapters, that they just learn them from our Scripture songs, if those particular chapters have already been recorded. I know that the songs don't usually include all the verses, but you don't always have to worry about learning all the verses and everything perfectly in those chapters. Just learn the main verses from the chapters which are on the song tapes. It's the quickest, easiest, fastest way, and the way you're going to retain it the best."
         10. (Note: After receiving this answer from Mama, the list of chapters to memorize which had originally been considered for this "Word Curriculum" was greatly reduced and an entirely new additional category for chapters was created!--The Familiarization Chapters and Passages! Rather than putting the doorknob too high by insisting that our kids memorize all these chapters, they should simply be taught and explained to the kids so that they are familiar with them. And if a child or JETT or teen [or adult, for that matter] has already successfully memorized the individual verses and chapters from the memory work section, and they desire to commit more Scripture to memory, then some of these tried-and-proven entries in the "Familiarization Chapters and Passages" list could be considered.)

         11. Question: Should the children memorize the quotes from the Memory Book? Perhaps it is better for them to concentrate just on the Bible verses?
         12. Answer from Mama: "Personally, I think the quotes would be quite easy for the children to learn because they are written in simple language, and because they talk about things that are on the children's level. The quotes also use terms that the children can understand more easily than the terminology of the Bible. For example, one quote on the Holy Spirit says, 'The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is an overflowing Baptism of love!--Love for the lost, love enough to witness, love enough to win others to the Lord!' That explains specifically what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is; whereas it would be more difficult to explain to the children exactly what it is by using only Bible verses.
         13. "Now, of course, when we are witnessing, it's preferable to use the Bible verses, because that's what other people will recognize as the Word of God, but witnessing is a different story. I think the quotes are much more useful for the children's personal instruction. And also, knowing it is straight from Grandpa, whom they can see in the Grandpa stories, probably makes it more special and more relatable to them.
         14. "I believe we've got a winning combination with both the Bible verses and the MO quotes, and I think it will be advantageous for the children to memorize the quotes. We adults who have been in the Family for years who are so familiar with the Letters and know them so well have gone far beyond needing to memorize those simple little quotes. We understand the principles and we can paraphrase it or say it however we wish and still get the point across effectively and accurately. We are so full of the Word, but for the children it is an entirely different story, and who knows how far they're going to get with their study of the Letters? There is so little time that these key quotes can almost be like an emergency shortcut to learning major spiritual lessons. So I believe that it is very important to give them this little basic foundation with these key quotes that are so simple I don't think they'll ever forget them."


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