Another tip that American schools taught me and my children, is that using acronyms or acrostics can definitely help you memorize some lessons. The brain and memory are so different from one another. Some lucky children just read a school lesson once and they will remember it forever, while others keep repeating, copying, singing the same lesson without being able to memorize it.

I am pretty sure you know what an acronym is, but to be honest, I didn’t know what an acrostic was: basically, you create a sentence where the first letter of each work represents an idea that you need to remember. Let’s go over a few examples to be more explicit.

Writing – how to write a constructed response? Use the RACE acronym!

Remember this word:

“RACE“

R – Restate the question.

A – Answer the question completely.

C – Cite evidence from the text.

E – Explain the text evidence.

Math – How to remember Math order of Operations? use the PEMDAS acrostic and acronym!

Remember this sentence:

“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally“

The first letters of each word form PEMDAS. This trick is for remembering the order of operations, i.e which steps to take and when: Parentheses/grouping symbols, Exponents/roots, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract

Science – how to remember the planets, from the closest to the sun order? Use this acrostic!

Just remember this sentence:

“My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.”

for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

Geography – how to remember the compass directions? Use this acrostic!

Just remember this sentence:

“Never Eat Soggy Waffles“

for North East South West.

Geography – how to remember the Great Lakes? Use this acrostic!

Just remember this sentence:

“Mother Has Some Extra Oranges“

for Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

And you can create as many as you want!