Top Ten Ways to Review

It doesn't matter if you homeschool or your kids are in public or private school, you've got to review what you've learned if it's going to stick.  Nobody ever said, though, that review had to be boring.  Here are some of our favorite ways to study stuff:

1. Roll a giant die.  There are lots of different ways you could use the giant game die, from using computer paper or cardstock to create a life-size game board to simply having review cards labeled with numbers -- roll a two, select a review card from stack number two.  Don't forget the fun rolls -- like double points or roll again for rolling a six.
 
2. Review cards.  We like to review history and science as we go, by keeping review cards on a ring and stuck in our notebook for daily or weekly review.  


3. Play bingo.  Bingo is one of our favorite all-purpose games and it's great for review.  Just put the answers on the bingo squares and use the review questions as the call cards.

4. Adapt paper bag book report.  Rather than use the paper bag to hold items representing key facts about a book, use it to hold items representing science or history (or whatever) facts.  If your child can tell you why the items are significant, he probably understands the material.  


5. Do a presentation for the family.  There are lots of ideas in the paper bag book report link for different types of presentations your child could do.  You could also utilize a tri-fold presentation board or let her prepare a short speech for Mom, Dad and siblings.  In addition to reviewing the facts while preparing for and giving the presentation, your student will also get some public speaking practice.

6. Make a bookmark.  Brianna is doing Apologia biology this year and DonnaYoung.org has vocabulary bookmarks for each module.  Brianna is supposed to be reading over the bookmark every day as she does her biology work for the day.  I think this is a great study idea for most any subject.


7. Play "Memory."  We love learning with games whenever we can.  Memory (a.k.a. "matching") is a great study tool for just about any subject.  Put the question on one card, the answer on another.  Each question/answer match makes a pair.

8. Play Jeopardy.  This one really only works with at least two players, so you might have to drag in Dad in a pinch (which can be fun because maybe, since it's been awhile since he's studied the facts, he's not smarter than your first grader, fifth grader, or whatever grader).  Let your players choose from subject related categories.

9. Adapt Scripture Memory Box.  We love Simply Charlotte Mason's Scripture Memory System for learning Scripture, but lately I've been thinking that the same premise could work grade for cumulative review throughout the school year.

10.  Adapt a board game.  This is another one we use a lot.  Just about any board game will work.  You can play a few different ways.  Roll to see how many questions you get and move a space for each correct answer.  Roll to see how many spaces you move if you get the answer correct.  Or, for games where players take turn making a move, like checkers or Connect Four, the player has to get a correct answer before he can take his turn.

These are just some of the ways we've found to make studying more fun.  What are some of your favorite fun ways to study, memorize, or review facts?