How can I help him with retention?

[LynnH]

I will admit I am getting frustrated. My ds really struggles with retention of things, especially the history material. I kept thinking it would get better, but it really isn't. I will give you an example. This morning my ds wanted to show my dh the trireme he made. He demonstrated it to him and I asked him to tell his dad what it used to move around other than the sails, he says "a motor". I told him no and gave him some clues like 3 levels of...., people using them... and finally I had to use motions to get him to remember oars. Then I asked him "who used the triremes" and he did come up with Persians after a few minutes and then I asked "who else" and he says "Germans". I tried to be encouraging (when I wanted to bang my head on a wall) and said well you have the right starting letter. I even gave him the gr sound and he couldn't begin to come up with it. We have been talking about the Greeks all week!! I just don't know what to do to help him retain things. I know he learns best using a spiral method like we use for Grammar and Math and he is definitely more visual than auditory. He is in 5th grade I feel like he should be able to remember at least the key points of what we have talked about all week. I really, really don't want to go to an all textbook, fill in the blanks kind of curriculum for him. He loves Preparing and all the activities in it so please help me figure out some ways that I can make the lesson stick in his head.

[pollo_la]

ugh, that does sound frustrating. My dd certainly doesn't retain everything, but she does pretty well for only being 5, so I don't worry about the little things she doesn't remember. She happens to be a very auditory learner though, so I'm sure that helps.

Hummmm, I'd say one really great thing you can continue to do is having him share what he is learning! Even though you had to give him promptings, he was learning and cementing what he has learned when he was sharing with his father. Keep on doing that kind of thing, and even if you have to give him some help, he is continuing to learn through sharing. Just make sure he doesn't pick up on any frustration from you.

[Kathleen]

We like looking at the timeline. We can see the main things we've talked about in a nutshell. We had to move our timeline last night. I was thinking that each "flight" of stairs would be the same length, which it is not, so it does NOT fit in our cabinet any longer. It has now migrated to the bathroom door. Anyway, Grant had a lot of fun giving me the cards and reviewing what we've read about so far.

Having grown up using text books at public school, I can tell you that changing from HOD to text books really won't help with retention. I would say the opposite will be true! I could snap a picture in my head of what I needed to "memorize" for a test or worksheet - and could ace them all, and then a week or 2 later forget it all! HOD's way of learning is much more memorable. I think you'll get your spiral feel with HOD. This year in Preparing we're going through the big picture of history - with those main events on the timeline. Then the next 4 years will be going into more detail of what we cover this year. So, it will be going in again.

But...even if he doesn't retain history well, I'm quite sure that you won't be failing him as a teacher or parent! (I honestly didn't remember much of anything from my social studies classes in school....and I think that I was functioning just fine. I'm loving seeing God's hand in history now with Grant though! ) It really looks like Noah is loving school and being with you! And, if HOD is helping him grow spiritually through God's Word, you've got the truly important things covered! (I know that's what it's doing for my family! We love the opportunity to look to the Lord daily during school - and I want nothing more for my kids than to love Him wholeheartedly!) And, you can keep using what works for math and LA for him.

Keep up the good work, Lynn! I love seeing Noah's smiling face on the weekly-check-ins.
Kathleen

[LynnH]

Kathleen thanks for the encouragement. It is what I needed to hear. Yesterday was just one of those hard days, but things look better today. What you said makes sense about the spiral method and this being a faster overview of history, but then we will revisit it more closely in the following years. I hadn't though of it that way before. I don't remember anything from my school years as far as history either. I am watching my "gifted" high schooler who has been in advanced social studies since 6th grade and the things she doesn't know are amazing. So I know you are right that textbooks are not the answer for his retention. You are right the most important thing is his spiritual walk and the relationship that he and I have and both of those things are growing in leaps and bounds. I guess he woke up at 4 am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. He has a device that acts like a small word processor that he used for typing at school. Well at 4 am he was thinking about things he would tell non-believers if God really does call him to be a Pastor. He typed out several answers to questions people typically ask about God. He saved it and showed it to us this morning. So he gets Greece and Germany confused, but he sure has a strong sense of Who made him.
On the practical side I will continue to have him share things with his dad just to reinforce things.

[Carrie]

Lynn,

Kathleen is right that Preparing Hearts is a whirlwind one-year overview of world history. Its main purpose is to give kiddos some familiarity with world history and also to give them some mental pegs on which to hang future information. It's also good to remember that most kiddos (especially those coming from public school) have mainly had only American history up to this point, so world history will feel new!

Compare this year to a trip that college kids or adults often take, visiting multiple countries in a short amount of time. Often, upon returning, it may not be easy to remember each country that they visited, or all about the various people groups that were encountered. But, if they took another trip in the future and stayed longer at one place, they'd remember much more. Plus, the previous blips from the whirlwind tour would come to mind and make more sense. This is how our guides work. You get the whirlwind tour first. Then, you visit each time period again for a longer tour and begin connecting the dots as you go deeper into the various time periods in subsequent guides.

Blessings,
Carrie