Memorisation fades unless it is used. The routine that works is small and boring: everything learnt in the last month gets revised every week, and everything older gets revised in a rotation, a little every day. Ten minutes daily protects more than an hour on Sunday.
Why it fades
A surah learnt this week sits in short-term memory. It moves into long-term memory by being recalled, not by being learnt harder. A child who memorises five surahs and never says them again will lose three of them by the summer, and that is normal rather than a failure.
This is also why children who read their memorised surahs in salah keep them and children who do not, do not. The five prayers are a revision schedule that already exists.
The routine
- New surah
- Revised every day for the first week, then every other day for a month.
- Last month's work
- Once a week, all of it.
- Everything older
- A rotation -- two or three older surahs a day, in order, then start again.
- In salah
- The strongest revision there is. Encourage the child to use what they know rather than the same two surahs.
Making it survive a busy week
- Attach it to something fixed: the walk to school, the car, after Maghrib.
- Listening counts. A recitation playing while they draw keeps the words alive.
- Let them recite to a grandparent on a video call. Being heard beats being tested.
- On the worst days, one surah is not nothing. A missed day is only a problem when it becomes a missed month.
Related
How children memorise the Quran
The methods that work.
Short surahs for kids to memorize first
Where to begin.
Online Hifz for kids: a weekly plan
What a full Hifz week looks like.