Homeschooling is Fun: 10 Memory Work Review Games

One aspect of homeschooling that may discourage some parents is their fear of becoming bored. Some parents may run their classrooms so rigidly by doing the same thing over and over, they end up feeling defeated or robotic.  Well don’t fear, even though this is my second official year we have not had one monotonous day yet. How do we keep our excitement and enthusiasm about learning full of joy and lots of energy? We play games, go on field trips, stay active, and value flexibility.

Our main curriculum is separated into twenty four weeks of new information across at least 7 subjects. I’m sure you can probably imagine that are days are busy, aside from school work, there is housework, doctors appointments, family/friends to visit, etc. Life can feel overwhelming at times. When life happens and we feel overworked then we take a break, just like schools have teacher work days, or days off, sometimes we have to do the same.

This week I wanted to share how we stay motivated to complete all of our memory work by playing review games.  I believe the memory work is enjoyable and easy for kids to learn while they are young. Below are 10 games we rotate occasionally and use along with our Foundations Guide.

Our favorite 10 review games for our memory work

  1. Jeopardy – This game is the one I like the most because it’s constructive, inexpensive, easy to make, and allows kids to cover all of their memory work. I made out Jeopardy board last year and it still looks like new even after we moved. I only had to pay for the poster board because everything else we owned. Last year, I used the color coded memory cards made by Classical Conversation (CC), but this year each week I write the information on index cards (mainly because it helps me learn information and index cards are larger so they are easier to pull out of the pockets.)
  2. Candy Land – In order to play Candy Land you will need the original board and cards as well as the color-coded CC cards. In order to play, your student will pick the normal candy land card and then pick up a CC cord that is the same color. So you will need to have two stacks one with the CC cards and the other stack with the Candy Land cards. Double squares, require the student to answer two questions from the same color. Special candy cards are Latin questions.
  3. Bag Toss – The square boxes with a subject and the amount of points the player will receive. Once your student tosses their bean bag they then can pick up a question from the box.
  4. Bike riding while reviewing – While bike riding, we ask our kids review questions for each week. This type of review is my kids favorite. They often sing their CC songs while riding as well.
  5. Memory Work Bingo – When my children attended their CC class last year they really liked when their tutor played bingo with them to review their information. Because they enjoyed it so much I created one for us to use at home as well.
  6. 1-2-3 Challenge – This game is a little “Old School” the parent/tutor calls out a subject and week and the first person who raises his or hand gets to answer the question or fill in the answer on the board.
  7. Clever Cars (Dollar Store math Game) – This is a game we repurposed. Instead of using the math cards that came with the game we use replace them with cards from our weekly memory work. For each correct answer, the player gets to move one space.
  8. Beach Ball Review Game / Hover Ball Review Game – This is fun for kinesthetic learners who learn best when doing something. Throwing a ball around from student-to-student is more play then work so kids just think we are playing ball. I recommend the crayola dry erase markers or washable markers to write your questions on the ball. 
  9. Memory Walk – This was a fun repurposed game. It’s just like musical chairs. We play the timeline song and then pause it. Which ever number the student is on he or she will have to answer a question from that week. (We use the spinner, below,  to determine which subject the questions will come from).
  10. Memory Work Spinner – I got the idea to create a spinner from Pinterest, but I was never able to find a download so I created a printable that we enjoy using to practice the material.

Many of these games are repurposed, it’s all about creativity and making the information desirable. If you are on CC connected, I believe they have many games available as printables. Last year we participated in a CC Community, but I never used CC connected, I just created my own games or repurposed games we had. This year, we get together with another family who is also learning CC and we review the memory work together once a month. The best part about a smaller class is that we have more flexibility to complete information in it’s entirety.

**Free Printable***

If you are using Classical Conversations for your homeschool curriculum, each week I share the visual materials I create for my students based on the Foundations guide

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