I just thought this was so cute, I had to share. We love Eleanor Estes' books here and are reading The Moffats. I read a quote by CM yesterday about memorizing then read this today.
In the book, Rufus is a 5yo boy and at this moment he is trying to stay clean before going to church. His sister, Jane, is trying to memorize her catechism.
"Rufus sat down with his back to the railing. Jane read her 'duty towards her neighbor' out loud for the hundredth time. Then she tried to repeat it from memory. No use! Halfway through she stumbled and groped for the right words. Rufus supplied them for her and on she went.
Rufus knew it perfectly and he was only in the kindergarten! He had heard Jane read it so often, it just stayed in his head without his even trying to learn it. Just like when Sylvie was learning her Latin: 'bonus, bona, bonum.' Rufus always got it as soon as she did. Or Joe his history. 'First-shot-Civil-War-shot-Fort-Sumter-four-o'clock-in-the-morning.' Rufus could say it just like that."
It really encourages me to do natural memory work with my children. 