Reviewing at the Table

When I was growing up, I traveled in airplanes quite a bit (I remember when airplanes had smoking sections!). My husband and I like to use the airplane reference of 'putting the oxygen mask on yourself before helping someone else' when we talk about taking time for ourselves. Sometimes I just have to get away and put my oxygen mask on so I can come back and be a better mommy. Well, the other night I had a chance to do this when I met with some dear friends for dinner. One of the things we talked about was how we review our memory work each day (we don't always talk about CC, I promise!). So, I thought I'd take some pictures and share with you how we do Review at our house. 

Almost all of our review is done at the kitchen table. We do review two ways here. First, before Mary can be excused from the table, she has to review certain subjects. We have a Review Wheel I found on C3 (GameSpinner.pdf by meljohnson) that she gets to spin a few times and say the memory work (she likes the wheel!). Second, if she finishes her meal before everyone else (happens very often), I have a bowl of review stuff that she gets to do. For example, in the picture above, Mary is done with breakfast and is playing a quick memory game of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Here's another look at our Review Command Center, aka kitchen table:

We're a small family of four, but we love this big table. The hubs and I sit on the end with the girls sitting next to each other. The side opposite the girls is full of review materials (file folder games, more details below), the Review Bowl in the middle, and then you can see a stack of stuff that I'm working on (not always on the table). And there's also a winter fairy wand, but that, too, is not always on the table (and has nothing to do with our review time). ;)

Here's a close-up of our Review Bowl and what's inside. Also, in the picture above you can see our Math Review Book. This stays right in the middle of the table for the girls to look at while they're eating. This has REALLY helped Mary with her numbers!

Here's what's in the bowl: (All files can be found on C3 by searching for file name and user listed) I keep the spinner (file listed earlier in this post), mythology flash cards, 5 kingdoms matching game (Science Memory Game.pdf by grismar), some skip counting numbers to put in order (Turtles_x1.pdf by beknike), sight word cards (still in the bowl in this picture), and Trivial Pursuit review cards (Trivial Pursuit Cycle 1.pdf by brandyferrell). I plan to add little things each week as we go. Also, my favorite review thingy in the bowl is the bag of Ten Commandments:

These are the same images we used in our handprint activity for Week 1. I just printed them out itty bitty, laminated them, and then Mary puts them in order to review.

As you can see, she's just so excited reviewing here, right? ;) Ha!

Here's my Memory Work Review Board that I kind of copied from Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood (if you're not copying from Brandy, you're missin' out! ;)  ). This is the view from where the girls sit.

Here are the timeline cards labeled with the days of the week to go with our Timeline Card & Bible Story Integration Schedule.

And here are some of the file folder games I keep at the table for quick review. If Mary spins the review wheel and lands on Science, I hand her one of these and she does it (except for the pictures of the U.S. Presidents, that's obviously not Science, but we pull that out at least once a week and sing and point). We have a plant cell file folder game (CC C1 Wk 4 Science_Plant Cell_FF_KRK.pdf by kkillingsworth) and an animal cell game (CC C1 Wk 3 Science_Animal Cell_FF_KRK.pdf by kkillingsworth). In the bottom right of the above picture you can see an animal cell model I put together really quickly for Mary to assemble. I laminated it, put velcro on the parts, and she puts it together for review. On the front of the file folder for this (and on the inside of the plant cell game to the left in the picture) I taped the Science Snippet (2012 Cy1 Science Snippets 1st semester(4).pdf by foundations) for that week, which tells what each part of the cell does. This has proven very helpful to me; I don't remember learning any of this stuff in school! Speaking of really great file folder games, an extremely helpful one for Latin review (C1 Latin Match Game - Noun Endings.pdf by kkillingsworth) can be used for all of Cycle 1.

Well, that's it! That's how we review. Because she can't get down from the table before she does some sort of review, Mary's reviewing at least three times a day, more when we have snacks. I think I'm going to have to make a few changes soon, though, as the memory work increases. I like the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory method used by The Adventures of Bear, so we'll switch to something like that soon if I feel like review is becoming too all-over-the-place. You know I like things neat-n-tidy!

What about your family? What's your favorite way to review the weekly memory work? Please leave a comment and share, share, share (it's what all the cool kids are doing). ;)