In teaching History or other subjects requiring memorization, can you suggest a good strategy to help students become interested and not bored?

(Manvel, TX, USA)

In teaching History or other subjects that require memorization, what is a good strategy or teaching technique to keep the students interested and not bored?


RESPONSE:

Thank you for your question. This is certainly one of the most challenging obstacles to helping our children discover the joys of learning.

What I recommend is to first identify what type of learning style your child has and then focus on activities that use that style. For example, in History, my children really enjoyed watching videos of an instructor that dressed the part of the characters. They still remember facts presented to them during those videos.

In general, make it fun for them, many times just doing a hands on activity covering the main facts you want them to know will make the connections they need to remember the facts.

Be careful-not to overload and do quick reviews. If your curriculum is heavy on reading and writing help your child identify the key points and make a game of it in a morning review session...no pressure to memorize just a fun game like review-think 20 questions or bingo

I'd like to open this up for discussion. So if anyone else has ideas or suggestions please send them in!

Thanks
JulieD