Top 3 Games to Play With CC Memory Work Flashcards

When I first joined Classical Conversations, I was trying to pace myself in how much I spent on materials.  Sadly, I decided to leave the cute little deck of memory work flashcards off of my list.  However, for my birthday that year (conveniently in July), my sweet mother bought them for me!  I remember flipping through those cards and thinking, "Wow!  I have no idea about any of this stuff!"

Five cycles later, and four years of completing the Memory Master challenge with my children, I am becoming more familiar with the material and so thankful for the opportunity to learn so many wonderful facts.  I've found the best way for me and my family to continue to practice our memory work is to play games.  Here are our top three games we like to play with these flashcards.

Jeopardy is a classic trivia game, and works well with the flashcards.  I purchased a piece of foam core board, attached tiny envelopes (from the card making section of the craft store) in 6 rows of 7, then made score tags for the front.  I used little stickers for lettering the categories.  I made this board in 2009 and it is still intact!

With six rows of scores (100-600), it is the perfect storage for 6 weeks of memory work.  I like the envelopes because I can mix up the memory work to keep the kids guessing.  If you're using it as a tutor in class, I would create a speed variation so you didn't spend all of the time waiting for a student to pick a category and value.  I would ask another parent to help me, and we would each take the category/value request from both teams at the same time.  This way, if they wanted the 600 value questions, they would have to stay on their toes!

You don't need a fancy board to play Jeopardy with memory work though.  Just write the scores on the whiteboard and erase as the students select the category and value.

The Trivial Pursuit board game is perfectly suited for CC memory work flashcards.  All players get a circle, and travel around the board answering a question relating to the color space they land on.  The only tweaks are the brown spaces relate to the Science category (red cards), and the purple roll again spaces relate to the Timeline Cards (purple cards).  There are only six wedges, and seven memory work categories, so we play that once you have your circle filled, you have to return to the center of the board and recite the Timeline to win.

This game can be slow if you're not careful.  Don't be afraid to modify the play to keep the memory work the primary focus of playing.  In real Trivial Pursuit, you can only earn a wedge on the big circle spaces, but if you want your game to move faster, allow players to earn a wedge whenever they land on a color space and get the question correct.

I've found these game boards used at Goodwill or garage sales.  Don't spend full price for something like this if you plan to ditch the cards!

This is one of the simplest games to play with the memory work flash cards.  All you need is a bowl and the flash cards.  Pass the bowl around and players select a card from the bowl to answer.  Players save the cards they get correct, and their score is the week number multiplied by 100.

As a parent, the most effective way that I have found to help my students with their memory work is to learn it myself.  The more familiar I am with the material, the more I can enjoy playing games like the ones above with them.

What are some of your favorite games to play with CC Memory Work flashcards?