Woman shares ingenious hack to help kids memorize parents' phone numbers: 'Works impressively well'

As kids grow, parents often struggle to teach them crucial bits of information, like phone numbers and addresses. However, kids can not always be expected to remember lengthy and tricky details like phone numbers and addresses. The best way to try and get kids to understand the same is by making learning fun for them. Reddit user u/missmediajunkie shared how she got her children to learn phone numbers through a simple and easy trick. By linking the phone number to a catchy rhyme, she found a fun way for kids to learn, inspiring other parents to share their successful strategies.

“If your kid can sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ they can memorize your phone number,” the mom said. “The easiest way to get your kid to memorize your phone number is to turn it into a song and sing it to them until it sticks." She further added that the rhyme she used worked for her kids, but parents can opt for any rhyme their kids prefer. “You can make up your own or use an old tune like ‘Twinkle, Twinkle,’ ‘On, Wisconsin’ or ‘Oom Pah Pah,’” she said.

The mom emphasized this trick as foolproof, making phone number memorization easy and accessible for kids. “It does not have to sound good. You do not need to sing well. The only downside is that you probably won’t ever be able to get it out of your own head,” she added. Commenters shared alternative easy ways kids can memorize phone numbers. u/bestem pointed out a superb way and said, “The easiest way to get your kid to memorize your phone number is to make it the passcode on a device they use (iPad or other tablets, phone, password to log into a console, etc). When you hand them the device to play on, say, ‘The password is Mommy's phone number, 555-867-5309,’ while either putting in the number yourself or letting them put it in."

The kid is incentivized to remember it much more than they are by it being a song.” u/EmGeeRed said, “Jingle Bells is the ideal melody for phone numbers. Used it for years and years working at preschools and summer camps without fail, it sticks.” u/sanisannsann confirmed, “Came here to say this. My kids knew my phone number by age 2, using this method.”

u/Sensei_Ochiba shared another example and added, “Setting things to music has always been a great way to memorize them based on how effectively music is encoded. It's specifically why the alphabet by default is taught to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it's easier to memorize. Try and recite the alphabet without it, it feels wrong and pretty quickly falls into a rhythm of some sort anyway.” u/Forensichunt said, “Much easier to use the Mickey Mouse song. M-i-c-k-e-y, M-o-u-s-e.” u/Enigerdad said, “My town's police department did that before we got 911 and taught it to the school children. To this day, I can immediately tell you the non-emergency phone number of a police district I haven't lived in for 20 years.”