Miller's Mind training for children Book 3 (of 3) / A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses

by William Emer Miller

STUDYING HISTORY

The study of history is largely a matter of Remembering What You Read. Children who have difficulty in remembering what they read, as a rule, do not like to study history. The lesson made into a visual picture will fix the points in mind with one reading, but this reading must not be careless or hasty. Help the child to read slowly and to pause long enough to make a mind's eye picture of each circumstance and change. It will be helpful to take a piece of paper and draw the scene of the battle. Mark in roughly the hills, mountains and rivers. Show the positions of the opposing armies, then roughly sketch the changes which take place. This drawing will help you to make a definite picture impression.

Take advantage of the pictures on the page of the book. The child's mind will naturally associate with the picture the many circumstances happening before and after, if he hears or reads them while the picture is visible.

For example, the picture of the landing of the Pilgrims on the shores of Massachusetts will bring to mind the facts which led to their making the journey. It will also suggest circumstances after the landing.

Those stories and facts which the child hears, while looking at the picture, are joined with it in the mind by the law of association, and the operation of the same natural law will tend to recall them whenever the child sees the picture.

A series of large pictures, which all of the class can see while the history lesson is being studied and recited, would help in fixing the facts in the minds of the children. Children who are taught to visualize can form their own pictures and have a wonderful advantage.

Remembering History Dates

This troublesome matter is easily mastered when the child understands the use of the number code as given in the book on Memory. This principle can be applied in every case. As a rule, the century in which the date occurs is not confusing, and the effort can be confined to the particular year. For example, in order to remember the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill, it is only necessary to remember '75, for the year, as every student will know that it was in 1775 and not 1875, or 1675.

A boy twelve years of age learned more history dates in one week after knowing how to use the Number Code than he had learned in weeks before. The knowledge of how to visualize the lesson and how to remember the dates will overcome any prejudice or any difficulty which the child may have with history lessons.