I recently came across the art of memory forum, referred by a friend. I have young kids and I’m eager to introduce these techniqueas. We’ve tried memorising lists of things and its really working. Now I want to put these techniques to practical use. I want to for example have my kid to memorise 10 things like the below list:
Name
Flag
Capital
Language
Currency
Head of state type (President/PM/King/Queen/Chanellor) - the actual name is optional cuz they would change
National Symbol if any
Continent
Famous landmark
Most famous for - (Pizzas/Hollywood,NASA/Largest Democracy)
What’s the best technique to use here?
You say “young kids”, how young? Memory palaces work very well (you came even use Lego and such if they are fans) but what doesn’t work is having then memorise things they don’t care about.
If they already have geography at school they’re probably interested but if they are younger maybe it wouldn’t feel very “practical use” to them. You know your kids best of course (and maybe you already asked what they’re interested about).
Thank you so much for your prompt response! My kids are aged 7 and 4 years! The elder one is really excited about these memory techniques, we memorized some lists with a memory palace. Before we got introduced to the art of memory, we already learnt a lot of geography (capitals), world leaders etc. Its kind of our daily ritual - we keep themes n all, sometimes it biology, sometimes history. My idea is that I’ll start with geography here and hopefully use the same technique for other interest areas!
My younger one has a 10 loci memory palace that he has used to memorize stuff.
This could be great for experimentation and the fact that you are trying to teach these methods is aplaudable. They are in luck.
When that young, novelty is their default mode of perception. Everything is interesting in actuality, Maybe rather than trying to teach them Method Of Loci out of context, you could teach them to use method when they have tests. This would atleast give those young minds something to relate to. They will upscale exponentially once the method clicks for them.
Method Of Loci is stimulated imagined life event. Given the novelty is there, they could just explore forests, rivers learn cycling, swimming and anything inbetween under your watch. That would actually build their strong sense of self, character and life demanding traits.
Why would I want to stimulate an event in my imagination to remember when I could experience life events that strongly which you know by yourself will be important throughout their existence.
Maybe it is your parenting choice. Just teach them in context of exams and tests. They might integrate it to their habit or they might not. Either way, there is no need to subject them to training harshly.
Of course I agree getting out there is way more important at this age! I try to do this too, but TBH I’m trying to make up for being a working mother, and on weekdays however hard I try, I end up only spending half an hour to an hour or so actually playing/reading with them and it is often in the night. So I’m trying to make the most of this time!
My elder one responds great to games like this and bugs me to do more and I’m kind of excited about it! So I want to make the most of this phase! The younger one wants to be like his brother and imitates his answers, so I gave him a subset of loci to remember - but I give him funny things like chocolate rain and flying monkeys to remember - I thought this would help him too, wouldnt it?
That said, since the elder one insists on learning these, I’d like to give this a try. Would you have some tips on how we can memorize that list for the major players in the world?!
As for applying them for tests, I havent really had to teach them anything for school yet, cuz its pretty simple stuff for now(except hindi). Is there a section in Learn the Art of Memory that I should use to help them prepare for tests when the time comes? Or would you recommend that we systematically learn all the contents of this document before applying them in real life use cases?!
I am not sure if there is something on how to teach children them. But we have good community @Hari-P, @LynneKelly, @metivier, @TheHumanTim can you look on this?. And @Josh, do we have section on teaching children the methods?.
Okay great! Thanks for the references! I was actually not looking for a dumbed down version of how to teach. I’m trying to figure out myself, how would I create a pattern to remember 10 things about 10 people/country/animal etc! Do I create a memory map that links to the 10 things and then use that memorised list as loci to remember stuff about sth?
For example: I need to remember the “name, currency, language, continent etc” (list1) of 10 countries.
Do I start by using a memory palace to remember list1 and then consider list1 as the loci of reference for every country I learn?
Pardon my ignorance, I have only familiarised myself with the memory palace technique. Do you recommend learning another technique for this use case?
Somebody linked on a substack of a father helping his daughter preparing for history quiz bowl.
If my memory serves they used memory palaces and spaced repetition with anki.
Whoa @Hari-P !! This is exactly what I was looking for!
I got some fantastic advice from both the articles — and the second one was a total aha! moment. It literally talks about learning 10 things about each country, which is precisely what I was struggling to structure.
In just one day, I received so many thoughtful, helpful responses and landed on the perfect solution to my problem.
I have taught memory palaces to many groups of children. I find the countries of the world the most useful. They will use it for the rest of their lives.
I would not limit to ten, though. I would set a large palace, and add a country every day. You can go on forever, just add to the palace as you want a new location. You don’t have to set it up all in advance. Mine goes around the house and garden then off down the street!
I use population order, because that gives more information, and you start with countries they will have heard of (except you get to Bangladesh by number 8 - that’s a revelation to many people!).
I use large palaces - locations with lots of hooks within them - so I can add more data to each location. As they add a new country, if they get interested to know more, you can add continent, capital, population, flag … to the one location. This will enable your oder child to get more data recalled than the younger one, but both will be using the same palace.
Each day, you can add more countries by moving on to the next logical location on your walk, or you can add more data to an existing location. You can do the same - you will find the palace just as useful!
For the benefit of other parents like me, I’d love to share some awesome inputs from @thelearningbee , my de facto mentor.
One idea he suggested really blew my mind: having a memory palace for each country.
I’ll be honest—it sounded like a bit much when I first heard it. But boy, it’s insanely effective.
In this approach, each locus in the memory palace represents one feature you want to remember about the topic. You vividly picture the feature and its value in that location.
For example, take USA.
Imagine all the DC Comics superheroes washing a mountain of clothes in your hallway—each wearing their caps. That hallway is the locus for Capital.
CAP-ital = Washington DC
Another locus is the ironing room, where a bobblehead of Donald Trump is laughing as a ninja juggles nunchucks, which fly off and dent the pressing table.
HEAD = President
Honestly, I think this is genius. Kids remember this stuff effortlessly—and so do adults
CAP-ital = Washington DC
