Father using mnemonics to help 4th grade daughter in History Quiz Bowl

Hello all!

Came across a substack I suspect many of you would enjoy perusing!

There isn’t too too much discussion of History Quiz Bowl on here
( except this 2013 post which is extremely relevant!
Using Mnemonics for Quiz Bowl ),
but it seems pretty fun, and heavy on the memorization for sure!

The general thrust of the substack is a father working with his daughter who wants to win History Bowl.
He is using memorable structured stories, funny images populating method of loci, and anki (LOTS of anki) along with extremely strategic fact learning (similar to frequency lists used by jeopardy contestants) to train her.

I’ll try not to link bomb, but here are 3 of my favorites relevant to the interests of people here!

  1. There are many discussions about how “there is no creativity without memory” on this site (example: Favorite quotes/phrases related to memory? - #4 by cp3 ), and I think this essay captures it well and comprehensively!
  1. Just extremely good documentation of effective pedagogical technique of both explaining, demonstrating,and tricking the kids into participating via the structure of the talk, having them recall things while talking.
  1. brass tax. Nice

also some cute stories about his daughter growing up and learning how to win (and lose!) gracefully, specific mnemonic devices and chatgpt usage strategies for learning chinese history, etc.

Ignore the typos there are plenty, but they dont detract from what is an excellent writeup!

2 Likes

I just read the first link! Very exciting indeed.

Thanks for sharing!

2 Likes

This was an excellent read, thank you for sharing!
I’m glad to have something to share for when people tell me they don’t memorise/read (or don’t want their kids to memorize/read) “because critical thinking is more important”.
Also as I’m just beginning with a history memorisation project it came just at the right time with practical info.

3 Likes