Memory Crafting in Hong Kong

Here's another project. Can I get a group of 14 kids, 8 to 11 years old, mostly second language English speakers, to be conversant in 12 books by June. I see them for an hour on Saturday morning about twice a month. That's about 12 meetings. I run a little club at my kids' primary school called the 'Reader's Circle'. I started it because I heard about a competition called 'Battle of the Books' in which a group of up to 12 kids read 12 books and then participate in a quiz where they answer questions about the contents of the books. 'In which book does a dog cry because he misses his family' etc. The answer is always the title and author of the book. The kids have 20 seconds to pool knowledge and discuss the answer. It's fun and you can't cheat it by a teacher drilling answers into the kids. It has to involve kids reading and interacting about the content of the books. I thought my own kids would enjoy it and would be able to meet lik...

Some villagers who haven't demolished their historic house and wall are updating the wall-paintings in quite a traditional style. There is a lot of mural painting going on in the village this year, on all kinds of buildings.  The area where I live is always in flux, construction, development. A typhoon several months ago knocked down what felt like 1/3 of the trees around the areas where I walk. Several favourites. And as housing estates go up and older properties get bought and sold, man-made landmarks disappear. Industrial shops get strangely gentrified in commercial experiments that often flounder. Shops change hands. A plant shop becomes a pet shop. So many are real-estate agencies. I also find a lot of the new houses just ugly and don't want to put them into my permanent files. However. I've set my mind to noticing what might work and to getting over my judgemental huff. In the area where I walk around on weekends and sometimes evening without any special effort...

There are so many. Which of the mnemonic devices should we try? I'm planning to start with the Animacy Alphabet (visual alphabet) and then focus on the ones that are most attractive. The Bestiary for names seems too immense to tackle, especially as the name issue I face is with Chinese names and I don't think the structure will work. I should find something that integrates name characters. Surnames are much more limited than English. The winter count looks really fun as I could embroider it. I haven't read that chapter so I don't know how you chose just one symbol nor how you use it, but the spirals and the rolling up and the incomplete-until-you-die are really attractive. A page of Kelly's Visual Alphabet The memory palace is the one I want the most. The description of Medieval monks going off to collect various cathedrals to add to their memory palaces is a great idea. One thing I DO have in my area are historical buildings from before colonial times i...

Hello, Sam here. I haven’t read Memory Craft yet. I’m planning to but I basically just pass out when I get home. Going to soon though. I think I want to start off with the Visual Alphabet. I want to try and use it for stuff like Chinese Dictations where I have difficulty. I’m also rather forgetful so it may be useful for more menial things like homework assignments. I also like reading books (Even when it’s not necessary) From beginning to end, or it feels a bit wrong. I’m going to take Memory Craft to school tomorrow to read during my English Reading Time. (Called Drop Everything And Read or DEAR time.) Procrastination is a curse that must be smitten (smote? I have no clue what smite in passive voice should be. Smote seems weird but smitten is as well.) I love Lynne Kelly’s work and I’m looking forward to applying her memory stuff to my day to day life. Lynne Kelly just does so much. Memory Craft seems to be quite useful by what my mum tells me. I have no clue how to end thi...

Hi There, This is the first post for my project to journal and document reading Lynne Kelly's book 'Memory Craft'.  https://www.lynnekelly.com.au/memory-craft/ I'm inviting some other people to read and journal alongside. At the moment my knowledge-loving son Sam, who's 13, and my friend's curious and artistic daughter Janet, who's 17. I'd love to have some more friends joining us. Maybe Ian? I think this is an important process to journal along the way. To begin with, I feel a lot of resistance to trying out the Memory methods and a strong pull to just keep muddling through with my various memory frustrations. After all I'm used to them. For example I teach in a school with 50 teachers and about 550 students and I have great trouble remembering their names. Partly because they have both Chinese names (some Cantonese, some Mandarin, some both) and English nicknames. In the case of kids, they change their English names now and then. After 11 yea...