When it is actually worth it
Not for everything. Some material is where a palace pays off most.
- Long lists in order — Planets, stages, rulers, the points of a plan — anything where the next question is "and then what".
- A talk or a retelling — The child walks the route and never loses the thread. More reliable than a sheet of notes.
- Material for a test — Twenty facts placed around the rooms come back whole rather than in fragments.
Six steps
The first palace takes an evening. Every one after that takes ten minutes.
- Pick a place the child knows by heart
Your own flat, the walk to school, a grandparent's room. An invented place does not work: you would have to memorise the place itself first.
- Build a route of ten stops
Door, wardrobe, lamp, table, window… A fixed order, always the same, following how you move rather than jumping about.
- Walk the route empty
Two or three times aloud, with no material. The stops should surface on their own, otherwise there is nothing to hang the images on.
- Put one image at each stop
One, large, moving and slightly absurd. A small, still image will not hold.
- Walk the route and collect it all aloud
From the first stop to the tenth. Wherever you get stuck, that image is weak — redraw it bolder.
- Repeat after 10 minutes, in the evening and after three days
Three short walks. After that the route holds for weeks.
One palace, one set of material. To reuse it, first walk it and clear the old images out, or they will blend with the new ones.
One way round, always the same directionWhat it looks like with the eight planets
A route through the flat and material that has to come back in order. We show the whole thing, so you can see a finished palace rather than just the instructions.
Without a palace
- The child repeats eight names in order, ten times in a row.
- The first three and the last go in straight away; the middle of the list keeps swapping places.
- Asked “what comes after Mars”, they have to run the list from the beginning — the order has nothing to hold on to.
Eight planets along a route through the flat
- Door — Mercury: a thermometer glowing red hot is stuck in the handle.
- Wardrobe — Venus: a dress covered in glitter tumbles out.
- Lamp — Earth: instead of a bulb, a small globe is glowing.
- Table — Mars: a red rover drives across the top, leaving tracks in spilt cocoa.
- Window — Jupiter: the whole window is filled by the huge eye of a storm.
- Sofa — Saturn: a hoop hangs off the back like a hula hoop.
- Rug — Uranus: the rug lies on its side, because that is how this planet turns.
- Kitchen door — Neptune: dark blue water pours over the threshold.
- Two stops are left empty — and that is fine. Empty stops do no harm; forcing extra material in ruins the order.
Building this takes about ten minutes; repeating the list ten times takes about the same. The difference shows up on “what comes after Mars” and on the review a week later: the route comes back whole, the list comes back in pieces.
An apple lying on the tableAn apple the size of the table bursting with juiceFive stops and a shopping list — five minutes
Build a first palace on something that is not graded. A shopping list is ideal: the result checks itself, in the shop.
- Five stops in their own room
Door, desk, bed, window, lamp — in the order you walk past them. The child names them aloud twice, with no material.
- Five things to buy
Bread, milk, apples, cheese, toilet paper. One item per stop, in order.
- Images large and absurd
Not “bread by the door” but “the door is made of bread and crumbles when you open it”. Milk pours off the desk in a waterfall; an apple the size of a pillow lies on the bed.
- Walk the route once, eyes closed
One minute. The child goes stop by stop and says what they found there.
You check the result later, in the shop or in the evening: five items with the note put away. All five came back — the route works and can grow to ten stops. Two dropped out — usually the ones whose images the child made calm and well behaved.
Do not start with material for a test. A first palace is there to show that the technique works, not to decide a grade.
What the research says
Two papers on this specific technique.
Dresler et al., 2017 — training with the method of loci
Six weeks of half-hour daily practice gave ordinary adults a lasting gain in recalling lists — it held four months later. A memory palace is the method of loci, a technique first described in antiquity.
Ericsson, Chase and Faloon, 1980 — memory as a skill
A student with average memory practised his way up to recalling 79 digits. His memory did not change — the way he encoded the material did. That is why we talk about a technique rather than about ability.
Both papers are about adults and about the technique itself, not about our course. For a child of 8–9 a palace works in a simplified form: five stops, with the images invented together with an adult.
Four beginner mistakes
They are why the technique "does not work" on the first try.
Too many stops at once
Start with ten. Thirty stops in a first palace is the most common reason people give up.
Stops that look alike
Three identical chairs will merge. Choose stops that differ in look and size.
Small, static images
The image should move and exaggerate: not an apple on the table, but an apple the size of the table.
One palace for everything
The material blends. Keep several routes: the flat, the walk, the school.
From what age
Younger children use a simplified version — it works too.
| Age | What the palace looks like |
|---|---|
| Ages 8–9 | Five stops in their own room, images invented together out loud. |
| Ages 10–13 | A full ten-stop route, on their own; the material is a chapter or a list. |
| Ages 14–18 | Several palaces for different subjects, talks and exam preparation. |
Check your child's memory in seven minutes
Before building a palace it helps to know how the child does with visual memory and attention. The free test shows that in seven minutes, with no sign-up.
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Who wrote this
The memory palace is a level-three technique in our classes: images and associations first, then chains, and only then routes. In that order almost every child picks it up.
Questions and answers
What age can a child manage this?
The full version from 9. From 8, use the simplified one: five stops, images invented together.
How many stops should there be?
Ten for a first palace. Twenty later, but only once the first route runs without stumbles.
Can a palace be reused?
Yes, and it normally is. Walk it first and clear the old images out, otherwise the material blends.
Will the old material be lost?
Whatever needs to stay, repeat twice more — after a week and after a month. The rest fades on its own, which is convenient.
Is it good for a talk?
Yes, one of its best uses: the points of the talk become the stops, and the child never loses their place.
Does it help with exam preparation?
Yes, for dates, stages and classifications. Formulas do better with images and scenes, texts with a chain.
More on memory
- How to improve memory for kids
- How to memorize multiplication tables
- Why children forget so quickly
- A child who does not remember what they studied
What next
The techniques a palace stands on, and the material where it pays off.
Memory course for kids
The same techniques in weekly classes with a coach, on material from school.
Memory training for kids
What memory training is and what a child practises in class.
Memory test for kids online
Check for free how your child remembers now — before you start practising.
Mnemonics for kids
Images, associations and chains — the foundation a palace is built on.
Method of loci and the Roman room
Why one technique has so many names and what practising it looks like in the 3D room on our platform.
Solar system for kids
An interactive model of the planets: check the order your child has memorised.
How to memorize a poem
Six steps for text that has to come back word for word.
Space Memory — online memory school
How classes work, terms and how to join.
A first palace is easier to build with a coach
In one class the child goes through all six steps and tries them on their own material straight away. The first lesson is free — a manager will suggest a time.
Request a callA manager will call and answer your questions