Our 5-year-old son had done well in both years of Cubbies, finishing each book at or before the end of the year, but it took a lot of work. We knew he could memorize and, because we review our memory work every day, he retains what he has memorized over the long term. We got our memorization technique from this article. 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/activeboards.html).

We found the review enjoyable, but wanted a less laborious method of adding new verses. I bought a CD from IWannaSing, but before we started using it, I read one of Katherine B's informative posts on one of The Well-Trained Mind discussion boards.  

I was intrigued by the ideas from NACD, and, as I read more of her posts and articles, by the phenomenal successes attributed to "Memory Tapes". I decided to give the technique a try. Since Katherine pointed out that once you learn something to music, you can't remember it without singing the whole song, I decided to put the IWannaSing CD away for the time being. I could always go back to it later.

After the first night of club, I took a handheld tape recorder and recorded the material in the Gate Test. I read through the whole thing 5 times. Why 5? The sections were short, and I knew repetition was helpful in memory work, but I didn't know how many repetitions were best. Five seemed like a good place to start. I bought a portable tape player with headphones at Wal-Mart for $5. (Lenoxx Sound was the brand.) I didn't know how carefully my son would handle his tape player, and if he broke it, I would only be out $5. I cut the wire to the left ear. (It had taken him some time to settle on a dominant hand, but after charting his hand choice on the calendar for the last month, we were confident he was right-handed.) 

He listened to his tape once each morning that week, and each evening we said the verses aloud together to make sure he had them word-for-word. (We found that if we skipped this step, he didn't get every word, and would just mumble over the words he wasn't sure of.) The next week, he passed his Gate Test.

That night, after the kids were in bed, I added the material in the Skipper Rank Path. A lot of it is review, so I kept the first reading of the Gate Test, and taped 5 repetitions of the Rank Path over the other 4 repetitions of the Gate Test.

The next week, he passed the Rank Path. I added the first two Red Jewels in the same way, but we only really worked on Red Jewel 1, because I thought that might be too much to work on all at once. The next week, he passed both Red Jewels. That's when we started hearing words like "genius," "gifted," and "over-achiever" used about him. We had to smile, because only weeks before many of the same people had seemed to think he was "special" (as in "Special Ed"). A few asked how he was learning his verses so quickly, assuming we must be putting tremendous pressure on him. When we told them, they wouldn't believe us. "Oh, that would never work!" Some people just need to put a label on everyone. 

After that, I only added one Red or Green Jewel to his tape each week. He was way ahead of the rest of the kids and having a good time at club, so why rush things? He still finished his book by Thanksgiving. It's supposed to take a whole year. Kids who finish early can earn an extra award by reviewing the book – saying all the verses again, plus a few more. Most kids seem to take as long the second time through as the first. The verses never made it into long-term memory, and they have to actually *learn them all again!* Since we review all his verses every day, he'd never had a chance to forget them.  

With all the special events in December our club did not meet that month. (They meet Sunday nights.) We've had two meetings in January, and our son has finished reviewing his book. After the last club meeting, the AWANA Commander said that our son said his verses very well. We were surprised that he was saying them to the Commander, and not to his usual leader, but the Commander told us that when a child finishes his book that quickly, it is AWANA policy to have him say a few verses to the Commander to make sure he really knows them. He added that once our son started, he insisted on continuing until he had recited every verse in the book! 

There is an additional workbook for "over-achievers", but it's backordered. We're not worried. We're working on Spurgeon's Catechism. 

We also use Memory Tapes for poetry memorization. We are working through the poems in The Harp and Laurel Wreath by Laura Berquist. He can recite 18 poems so far, ranging in length from one stanza to six. We use the same methods with poetry as with Scripture, but we haven't been nearly as diligent with it. And he occasionally quotes a few lines from poems we haven't worked on yet, including Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This from the kid who has a hard time remembering his alphabet from one day to the next.