Memory Work Monday

Memory work, we've had been forgetting to do it. (hahaha) Now that Z is older we decided to move into memorizing more substantial works. My book of choice for memory work is Living Memory by Andrew Campbell. The book itself has memory pieces that will carry you from elementary to high school. It's great for a classical educator as it has a large portion of Latin and Greek selections. However, the quality of the other selections are just as wonderful. We've been utilizing it since its publication.

We diverted a little in the last month as we've been study poetry and focusing on our writing skills. Z's current piece is Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. I'm giving him two weeks for this piece and by Friday he will have it memorized. We've played with the piece in several ways. One was to rewrite the sonnet for an alternative audience. I posted both of those last week, the Redneck sonnet 18 and the Dirty Job sonnet 18. Silliness abounds in our house AND it actually helps him memorize it. Don't be afraid to be silly!

Here is sonnet 18, I'll post how he does on Friday.

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.