I'm Sonya Shafer with Simply Charlotte Mason, and we're excited that you are ready to form
a habit of Scripture Memory.
This system makes it simple to learn new passages, plus you will regularly review all of the
passages that you have learned.
And it takes only five minutes a day.
Let's walk through how to get started.
You will need your Scripture Memory box with the dividers for Daily, Odd and Even, Days
of the Week, and Dates of the Month, 1 through 31.
If you need help setting up your box, check out the Scripture Memory System video.
I'll leave a link to it in the notes.
Along with your box, you will need index cards with your selected verses or passages on them.
You can write those cards for yourself or you can download the free verse cards that
are available on our website.
We also have printed sets of verse cards with dividers all ready to go that you can purchase.
Do what works best for you.
Those options will be linked in the notes too.
Once you have your box and your cards, you're ready to start.
Select one card and put it behind Daily.
That will be the only card in your box to start with.
The verse behind Daily is the new one that you're trying to learn, so you will work on
memorizing it daily.
Pull out the card, read the reference, everyone repeats the reference, then you read aloud
the passage and everyone pays close attention.
At the end, everyone says the reference again.
As you continue to do this every day, portions of the passage will begin to sound familiar
and everyone can start joining in on the parts that they know.
After everyone can join in on the whole passage—you have all memorized it and can recite it together,
with the reference—then move that card to Odd.
And here's a little helpful tip: jot down the date in the upper corner, so you know
when that card graduated.
That date will help you later.
Grab a new verse card and put it behind Daily.
Now you have two cards in your box: one behind Daily and one behind Odd.
You will continue to work on your new Daily verse every day.
But now, you will also review the verse behind Odd every other day, on the odd dates.
So if today is the 6th, you will read your new Daily verse card, and that's it.
Tomorrow, on the 7th, you will read your Daily card and you will review the card behind Odd.
The next day, the 8th, you'll do just the Daily; and on the 9th, you'll do Daily and
Odd.
Got it?
And you do all the cards the same way, whether it is a new passage or a review card: read
the reference aloud, everyone repeats the reference, read or recite the passage with
everyone joining in on the parts they know.
Of course with a review card, everyone should be reciting the whole thing.
Then everyone says the reference again at the end.
Once you have memorized the Daily card, it moves to the next open slot: behind the Even
divider.
Jot the date in the corner.
Then put a new card behind Daily.
Now you have three cards in your box: Daily, Odd, and Even.
So you will be saying two cards every day: Daily and Odd on the odd dates; Daily and
Even on the even dates.
Once the Daily card is memorized, it should go to the Odd or Even section.
So look at the dates that you wrote on the two cards that are behind Odd and Even.
Find the oldest one.
The new card from Daily will pop into its place behind Odd or Even, and the oldest card
will graduate to being reviewed weekly.
Since all of your Days of the Week dividers are empty, you can simply put the graduated
card behind the first open slot, Sunday.
Put the next verse card behind Daily, and you're ready to go again.
You're making progress!
Good for you!
As you continue to graduate cards, they will first replace an Odd or Even card—whichever
is oldest gets replaced.
And that card then moves to the next open slot in Days of the Week.
Once you have a card in every Days of the Week slot, you'll be in the regular cycle
of using your box.
Every time a card is memorized, it graduates to the Odd or Even section and replaces the
oldest card there.
That card then graduates to the Days of the Week section and replaces the oldest card
there.
That oldest card goes to its permanent home behind one of the Dates of the Month dividers.
Once it gets to those numbered dividers, it stays there forever.
You will just keep adding cards to those dates once they have worked their way through the
Odd and Even and Days of the Week sections.
And by the way, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to memorize the Daily card.
This isn't a race.
Take as long as you need to make sure everyone can recite it with confidence.
It doesn't matter if you work on that passage for two weeks or for two months or longer.
The point is to make sure everyone knows it well before you graduate that card.
Do you see how the progression works for graduating cards?
A passage is worked on Daily until it is memorized; then it is reviewed every other day, then
once a week, and finally once a month.
Keep only one card behind each divider in the front of the box: the Daily, Odd and Even,
and Days of the Week.
The Dates of the Month section in the back of the box is the place for multiple cards
behind each divider, as every verse you've memorized eventually finds its permanent home
there.
If your family already knows some verses when you start using the box, that's great!
Go ahead and spread those cards behind the Dates of the Month dividers.
Put them in their permanent homes, and they will already be in place for you to review
one every day even as you work through the new passages.
Be sure to watch the other videos that give more details on how to use the system each
day and what it looks like in real time.
Check the notes for those links and for the links to the verse cards that are available.
Thousands of families are using this system to memorize and review God's Word.
Now that you know how to get started, why not join in and cultivate your own habit of
memorizing Scripture together.