heartofdakota.com

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if HOD includes the memorization of information such as states (I'm thinking along the lines of how A Beka has students memorizing where each one is located), capitals, countries, presidents, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Gettysburg Address, etc. I'm only through Bigger, so I'm not familiar with what's down the road. Thanks!

Good question! I have been wondering this myself.

countrylivin wrote:Good question! I have been wondering this myself.

Me, too!

Anyone?

I will do my best to answer this. When I hear the word memorization I think of rote drilling over and over until they learn the material. HOD doesn't include that type of memorization except with scripture and poetry. However they do learn and remember where the states are located and the capitols etc by using the programs. My ds did the 50 state study in Rev to Rev last year. It is a workbook style study where he is each week filling out a map that includes the state being studied and the surrounding states. Also a few times throughout the year he fills out a map using the abbreviations from memory if he can, but they were allowed to look it all up. They also periodically filled out a chart that included the state abbreviation, the capitol, the order it was admitted as a state and a few other things. This repetition did result in him memorizing most of this information. He also filled out various Map Trek maps where he labeled the states in the context of the history being studied. For example he filled out a map of the Union States and the Confederate States. By the end of the year he could fill out a blank map of the United States with maybe 1 error. So not only does he know where the states are located, but he knows the role they played in history. As far as the Presidents go as he reads the history he is learning what order they go in and as we talk about them he is also learning the order. I imagine as we do the Presidents study in MTMM it will end up similar to the state study that he will have learned the order just by reading, watching the dvd and doing the work in the Presidents notebook.

I am excited to see this kind of learning continue in the new World Geography guide. In the new Geography guide he will learn the location of countries by doing the history spine Mapping the World through Art where the dc actually learn to draw their own map of the countries. This combined with the other spines that bring the countries to "life" should result in a pretty through knowledge of the Map of the World.

We have definitely memorized the Pledge of Allegiance already but more through our own repetition than the HOD. It has been exposed in HOD but not memorized.