I recently came up with an easy way to learn the 13 colonies in chronological order. Stories are a great memory technique because they follow a sequence. The brain stores information using a sequence or pattern, so this is why it works so well.

What children need to do, is visualize the story. As you read the story, draw simple little pictures. Use stick figures and have the children draw along at the same time. It makes the story memorable and it’s fun to do. Tell 5 other people the story to reinforce the memorized information.

Encourage the entire family to get involved and see who can remember all the colonies in order.

A  girl named Virginia went to Mass (Massachusetts) every Sunday.

Her family always ate a new ham (New Hampshire) after church.

Her sister Marilyn  (Maryland), was playing a “Connect-the-dots” game, (Connecticut) but stopped when her dad  said,

“Let’s hit the road for the island!” (Rhode Island).

He called to his wife, “Hurry up Della and get something to wear”. (Delaware).

While driving, they all sang Christmas Carols (North & South Carolina). 

Suddenly they saw a Jersey cow (New Jersey) 

It had a tag saying it was from New York in a big Pen (Pennsylvania) and the cow’s name was Georgia.  So they took it back to it’s home.

That’s the end of the story and now you can remember all 13 colonies in order! Tell someone else the story to lock it in your memory.

All Memory Joggers products come with an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee.

I recently found the most amazing book Mapping the World by Heart by David J. Smith, that teaches students (5th grade through college) how to learn the names and locations of 190 countries in the world. And if that isn’t enough, the student is able to draw and label all the countries including rivers, mountains and major cities, starting from a blank sheet of paper!

“How is this possible?” you ask. Well, the brain remembers information, not in words, but in pictures. By drawing the shape of Africa and remembering where some of the major rivers run; students are able to begin drawing the borders of the countries and using mnemonics they remember the country’s name.

“Why is that important?” you say. Understanding the world, the countries and the people, make our children globally minded.  We need to begin thinking of our world as a village. There may be a variety of people, religions and economic differences but we are all human with the same needs and desires for our life.

“The brain remembers information, not in words, but in pictures.”

Begin with the U.S., learning to draw the outline, adding the Mississippi River and mountain ranges. Add the state boundaries and capitals. Using Memorize States & Capitals makes the process easier. But don’t stop there. Move on to the other countries in North America, Central America and South America. Hmmm…maybe I need to think of some mnemonics for remembering these countries. (This is how the seed of an idea is planted in the brain!)

I love the idea of learning and remembering with pictures. Students who draw their own maps remember 100 times better than those who only read about the location. Try it. What a great family project to do together.

All Memory Joggers products come with an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee.

It’s easy to remember a list of things. Let’s say we want to remember the 7 continents in the world.

• Africa
• Antarctica
• Asia
• Australia
• North America
• South America
• Europe

Step 1 – Analyze the list.
Four continents begin with the letter “A”.
Two other continents begin with “A” but have a “North” or “South” in front of them.
One continent begins with an “E”.

Step 2 – Visualize and make up a story.
To remember the four “A” continents, visualize a lion in Africa leaping down to Antarctica where it’s cold. A penguin jumps on the lion’s back and off they fly to Australia and pick up a koala bear who wants to see a panda in Asia. Draw a picture of the animals, showing the names of the continents.

Step 3 – What “A”s are left?
The other two “A”s are for North America and South America which are easy to remember.

Step 4 – The easy “E”
That just leaves the “E” continent which is Europe.

All Memory Joggers products come with an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee.