Remember, Remember

Memory is a tool that improves with practice.  The more we challenge ourselves, the more we can improve our memory.  Memory is also an important foundation for further learning.  This means that the more you expand your childrens' memory, the better they will learn as they enter school.  Memory games can be a great way to prevent boredom.  For example, as soon as your children are old enough, playing 'I went to market and bought...' is a great game to play during journeys where more active play is prohibited. Similarly, a good game to keep children occupied in restaurants is to line up a number of table items (salt, pepper, knife, spoon, ketchup, napkin, coin etc.) and then have one item remove whilst the other players look away. They then have to name which object is missing.  Playing memory games helps both to entertain in otherwise relatively confined spaces, and helps the long term goal of improving memory and building that foundation for later learning.