As children begin their education and face the mountains of facts and formulas ahead of them, they will need tools to simplify their learning and master subjects. A good memory will change your child's life. You can help them develop a good memory and have fun doing it!

These are tried and true techniques I have used throughout my life with different types of learners, different ages of students, and differing subject matter. You, too, can make them a part of your child's life and education (and your own).

I received my primary education in a religious school, where I was expected to LEARN. I was forced (yes-forced) to memorize by rote every day. This ranged from multiplication tables to Robert Frost, but every day it was something. Worse, every day we had to stand up in the front of the class and recite the lesson. The performance anxiety was intense. It was pure torture. Little did I realize, from that perceived trauma, that I would develop techniques that would supercharge my brain power. Later in college, I majored in the History of Art, which required memorizing thousands of seemingly random facts. It was nothing to be expected to know 200 dates, artists, objects of art, and the history surrounding them for one exam. Wow, so much stuff and so little time!

I never dreamed that my shortcuts were so special, that they'd be the keys that would catapult me to the top of my class and give me the edge over my classmates.

I thought everyone used them. Whoa... was I wrong! When my classmates were struggling, cramming, and panicking, I slid through the curriculum and exams with ease.

For the last 30 years, I taught my memory techniques to my students (as an elementary school teacher). It was wonderful watching the "skulls full of mush" develop into eager learners.

Recently, I have branched out into studying why and how learning and memory occur. I have been focusing on the brain, how we learn, and how we remember.

The brain is a miraculous thing! Train it properly once and you are its master for life!

Here's the first step: Encourage your child to look at the world around them. Yes, LOOK ... (I told you it was easy.) Just look and talk and talk and talk to your child, almost non-stop, (no matter what their age) about what you see. Emphasize colors, textures, positioning of objects in your surroundings. Point out how various items interact. Ask "why" and "how" questions. Something as simple as how the egg you're frying "interacts" with the pan - how it spits, congeals, gets crispy, etc. Notice the little things. Use your senses; use your adjectives. Call attention to cause and effect.

This gets children interested in all things around them. Depending on the age of your child, elicit input - anything. Help your child to develop his or her natural curiosity about the world.

Encourage participation.

It is critical that they get the gist of this without too much prompting. Take as long as your child needs to develop this "new attention"! This "attention" is the foundation to ALL memory, so perfect it now! Make this heightened awareness a normal part of your conversations with them.

This is the first step in developing your child's memory. Make sure each child gets a grasp of this concept before moving on. I guarantee they will enjoy this "game" and never realize they are developing skills that will serve them their whole lives.

A good memory is fundamental to all learning.