Our Memory Work Index

Scripture Memory

Passages that are bolded are the ones we emphasize in review so the younger crowd picks them up, and are the ones I would start with if we were doing it over from the beginning.

Psalms

1
8
15
16
19
20
23
24
25
29
32
33
34
37
42
46
92
97
98
100
107
110
112
115
116
121
139
145
150

Proverbs

3:1-12
6:6-11
6:16-19
9:7-10
10:9
10:12-14
10:19-21
10:23
11:17
11:23-25
12:1
12:16
12:22
15:1
19:5
19:11
20:11
21:25-26
26:20

Passages

Lamentations 3:21-40
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Micah 6:6-8
Matthew 5:2-16
Matthew 6:5-13
Matthew 22:37-40
John 1:1-5 & 9-14
John 3:14-18
Romans 8:1-4, 26-39
Romans 10:9-11
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Galatians 5:22-26
Galatians 6:7-10
Ephesians 4:25-32
Ephesians 6:1-3
Philippians 4:4-9
Colossians 1:9-23
Colossians 3:1-4, 12-17
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
2 Thessalonians 2:13-15
2 Thessalonians 3:7-16
2 Timothy 2:3-7
2 Timothy 2:20-26
2 Tim. 3:14-17
1 Timothy 6:3-16
Hebrews 2:14-18
Hebrews 4:12-16
Hebrews 11:1-16
Hebrews 11:1-6
1 Peter 1:3-19
1 Peter 3:8-17
Titus 2:11-3:9
1 John 1:5-9

Sing Psalms & Hymns

The primary goal I have for our Morning Time singing, and therefore how I choose what we’ll learn, is that the children learn hymns we sing regularly at church so that they can participate better in worship. We also regularly sing together the service music (Doxology & Gloria Patri). I absolutely love hearing my 2-year-old sing the Doxology in her crib — all of my 2-year-olds have, and it is a blessing.

The Psalms and hymns I’ve bolded are ones that I’d start with or that I repeat a lot so that our younger crowd learns them well, too.

PH stands for Psalter Hymnal (we had the blue version) and CC stands for Cantus Christi (the red edition).

Psalms

Psalm 1: That Man Is Blessed (PH 1) (the tune in our PH is different than the one linked)
Psalm 8: Lord, Our Lord Thy Glorious Name (PH 13)
Psalm 22: Amid the Thronging Worshippers (PH 37)
Psalm 22: To All My Brothers I’ll Declare (CC 34)
Psalm 29: Now Unto Jehovah, Ye Sons of the Mighty (PH 51)
Psalm 40: I Waited for the Lord (CC 74)
Psalm 72: Christ Shall Have Dominion (PH 135)
Psalm 76: God the Lord is Known in Judah (CC 115)
Psalm 100: All People That On Earth Do Dwell (PH 195)
Psalm 103: O Come, My Soul, Bless Thou the Lord (PH 204)
Psalm 124: Let Israel Now Say in Thankfulness (CC 162)
Psalm 136: Give Thanks to God, for Good is He(PH 284)
Psalm 144: Thrice Blest Be Jehovah (PH 296)
Psalm 148: Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah (PH 304)

Hymns

And Can It Be That I Should Gain
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (with the Diadem tune)
Be Thou My Vision (CC 342)
The Church’s One Foundation (PH 398)
Come, Thou Almighty King (PH 317)
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (PH 314)
Crown Him with Many Crowns (CC 293)
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies (PH 448)
For All the Saints (CC 281 – the Cantus has 8 verses; our hymnal only has 5)
God Himself Is with Us (PH324)
Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken
The God of Abraham Praise (CC 328)
Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah (PH 407)
I Know Not Why God’s Wondrous Grace (PH 378)
Have Thine Own Way, Lord (PH 452)
Holy, Holy, Holy (PH 318)
Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun (PH 399)
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (PH 444)
Not What My Hands Have Done (PH 389)
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus(CC 264)
O Worship the King, All-glorious Above(PH 315)
Praise the Savior (PH 361)
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (PH 327)
Rejoice, the Lord is King (PH 368)
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me (PH 388)
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus(PH 497)
This is My Father’s World (PH 374)
To God Be the Glory
To All My Brothers I’ll Declare (CC 34)
We are God’s People
We Have Heard the Joyful Sound(PH 377)

Creeds & Catechism Memory Work

We generally start off our memory work time by reciting together a creed. I have three we alternate between:

Catechism for Young Children

We memorize and regularly rotate for review the Catechism for Young Children, with all 145 questions. You can find the full version here.

Selections from the Heidelberg Catechism

Lord’s Day 1 — What is your only comfort in life and in death? Q2: What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
LD 5, Q12 — According to God’s righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after: How then can we escape this punishment and return to God’s favor?
LD 7, Q13 — What is true faith?
LD 10, Q27 — What do you understand by the providence of God? (another of my favorites)
LD 12, Q32 — But why are you called a Christian?
LD 23, Q60 — How are you right with God?
LD 25, Q66 — What are sacraments?
LD 30, Q81 — Who are to come to the Lord’s Table?
LD 32, Q86 — We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we earned it: Why then must we still do good?
LD 45, Q116 — Why do Christians need to pray?

Poetry for Young Children

Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson
Brown and Furry by Christina Rossetti
The Elephant by Hillaire Belloc
Good & Bad Children by Robert Louis Stevenson
Happy Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson
If Wisdom’s Ways (found in Little House)
The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
Marching Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
My Friend by Lela Birky
Once I Saw a Little Bird
Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess
Summer Sun by Robert Louis Stevenson
Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti
The Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson
Where Go the Boats? by Robert Louis Stevenson
Windy Nights, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Wise Old Owl
The Year’s at the Spring by Robert Browning

Poetry for Elementary Kids

Bath Song by J.R.R. Tolkien
Bombadil’s Song by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Book by Emily Dickenson
The Boy We Want
The Bugle Song by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Cat Morgan Introduces Himself by T.S. Eliot
Children’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
Crack the Plates by JRR Tolkien
Crossing the Bar
Daffodils, Wordsworth
The Duel by Eugene Field
The Gardener by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Lamb, Blake
A Good Play by Robert Louis Stevenson
If, Rudyard Kipling
Jim by Hillaire Belloc
Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold by JRR Tolkien
Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson
Four Things by Henry Van Dyke
A Pirate Story by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Proper Addressing of Cats, TS Eliot
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Song of Drake’s Men by Alfred Noyes (found in My Book House)
Song of Mr. Toad by Kenneth Grahame
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
There Was a Naughty Boy by John Keats
Tiger, Tiger by Blake
The Village Blacksmith

Poetry for Middle & Upper Years

Blow, Bugle, Blow, Tennyson
The Character of a Happy Life by Henry Wotton
Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson
Destruction of Sennacherib, Byron
Dolci et Decorum Est
Happy the Man by John Dryden
Henry V before Agincourt by William Shakespeare
Hymn, Addison
In Memoriam, Tennyson
Macavity, the Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot
The Man in the Moon by J.R.R. Tolkien
Not Marble Nor the Guilded Monuments, Shakespeare
The Patriot by Sir Walter Scott
The Private of the Bluffs, Doyle
The Sluggard by Isaac Watts
To Be a Pilgrim by John Bunyan
The Troll by JRR Tolkien
The World by George Herbert

Poetry for Mom

All the World’s a Stage by William Shakespeare
An Apology by Anne Bradstreet
As Spring the Winter Doth Succeed by Anne Bradstreet
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare
Death Be Not Proud by John Donne
God’s Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Happy The Man by Dryden
Holy Sonnet IV by John Donne
Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne
A Litany by John Donne (modified)
New Every Morning Is the Love by John Keble
The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained by William Shakespeare
Redemption, Herbert
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
She Walks in Beauty, Byron
Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare
A Valediction Concerning Mourning, John Donne
The World Is Too Much with Us by William Wordsworth

Quotes & Speeches to Memorize

Henry V’s speech at Agincourt by Shakespeare
Patrick Henry
George Washington’s Farewell Address (abridged)
Hamlet’s Soliloquy
We Shall Fight, Churchill