Today I want to tell you about Relational Recitation, a resource that is wonderful for homeschooling families, private school families, and public school families… so basically for ALL families who want to facilitate lifelong and joyful learning in their homes.
Tara Vos, a friend, homeschool mom of five kiddos, and fellow Iowan has recently written Relational Recitation, an ebook and awesome memorization resource. In the book she describes the frustration she felt when she knew that she wanted to incorporate memory work into her family’s daily routine. She writes,
When I decided to add recitation and memorization to our morning time I looked for any books or tools to aid me and was discouraged when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Most of the resources I could find were too expensive or overwhelming in size. I have created Relational Recitation to be be a flexible tool that moms can fit into their group learning time in a way that compliments what they are already learning together, or it can provide a spring board of ideas to explore together.
I read through Relational Recitation this week, and I was truly so impressed. Friend, you will be so encouraged by this book! In the first part of the book, Tara writes honestly about how difficult it can be to teach children of varying ages and with different learning styles. She writes about the benefits of memory work, even in today’s technology saturated world. She then shares how she successfully implemented memory work in fun, relational, loving ways in her home.
Vos writes, “To my amazement the memory work inspired questions and more interest in living books than when I randomly picked them from the library! It felt like I was inspiring them for the first time in a long time.”
And the second part of the book contains 48(!) pages of the actual memory cards that she has created for her family including the topics of geography, math, grammar, science, and more. These cards can be used in a lot of different ways such as including them in notebooks or lapbooks. I plan to cut them out and keep them in a recipe card box on the kitchen table. They will be a great conversation starters as we each lunch together.
So you may be reading this and thinking, “This looks great but we are not a homeschool family. How would this work for us?” Well, we moms hear every year how much information our kids lose through the summer months. Perhaps this could be a gentle and fun learning tool to use with your kids this summer. And homeschool moms, if you’re like me, you’re wrapping up your school year, evaluating what went well this year, and making decisions about what to use next year. Check out this encouraging, helpful resource during this planning time!
You can purchase and download Relational Recitation here. And Tara has been kind enough to offer a free copy for one of our readers. To enter for your chance to win one free copy of Relational Recitation, simply leave a comment on this post. We will randomly chose a winner one week from today, Wednesday May 4th. I pray that the winner will be someone who could really benefit from this. God always provides for our needs! Update: Our random winner is Amie! Thanks to all who entered. If you are interested in buying a copy for yourself, get your copy here.
What a great tool! Been looking for something like this! Thanks.
Sounds like a great resource.
This book sounds very interesting! I hope to homeschooling my kids… We have started a few things and are looking for more things to add as they get closer to school age.
This looks interesting!
Annie – I’m so glad you shared this, or I wouldn’t have known Tara created something!! I was just listening to Andrew Pudewa’s interview about memorization on Your Morning Basket podcast, and thinking I need to incorporate memory work — so this could be just the thing I need! Thank you!
Awesome! Funny how things work like that. I was so glad that Tara told me about this so we all can celebrate with her on her accomplishment.
I know the author and would love to read a book and get tips from her!
This looks like a great addition to anyone’s home! What a great resource!
Amie! You’re the random winner of the free Relational Recitation. Check your email for a copy of the ebook! Thanks for entering.
I am in great need of this tool!
Love! This was a needed resource, I once went on a similar hunt and could not find anything that seemed like a tangible concept to introduce in our homeschool