Good morning all! Welcome to another homeschool curriculum forum. Today we’ll be discussing vocabulary curriculum!
This upcoming year will be the first year I’m introducing a more formal vocabulary program into our homeschool. Up until now we’ve just been reviewing words that come with our spelling program and in our Abeka readers.
However this year we’re going to be working through Wordly Wise workbooks just to include a little more vocabulary focused work. I’ve heard fairly good reviews for Wordly Wise products. However I’ve also been cautioned that they are a secular curriculum so some of the terms used might not be appropriate if you prefer Christian materials.
Pros:
-
- Fairly inexpensive workbooks.
- Students work independently.
Cons:
-
- Secular curriculum.
- TBD as we progress through it!
One other vocabulary curriculum I’ve had my eye on and planned to use this year, but haven’t been great at it are the Vocabulary Cartoons. It is a book full of funny cartoons that help students remember vocabulary words through visual reminders as well as mnemonics.
Pros:
-
- Fun and memorable cartoons
- Includes reviews and quizzes after every 10 or so words.
Cons:
-
- Only two levels are available, the elementary and SAT word power.
- Unless you want to use the book to “show” students the cartoons, it is difficult to photocopy pages to allow students to color them.
Wordbuild Online: This is a new online program that we recently tried out. My son loved that it was computer based, as he really doesn’t love to have to do worksheets. I found it a little on the easy side, but overall I liked it. The lessons are fairly short so they only take about 10-15 minutes per day. You can go back and check their scores on each section, but I haven’t found out how to repeat a lesson if they needed to.
IEW Fix It Grammar!
As many of you know we switched to a new English/Grammar curriculum. We’ve been using Fix It! Grammar now for about 2 years and so far I really like it. Click below to see the full review on this English/Grammar curriculum.
What I like about Fix It! Grammar:
- It takes less time, about 15 minutes per day.
- It includes vocabulary, which I have found sufficient and so when using Fix It!
- I like that we’re learning to edit a continuing story line.
- Story is interesting and kids are excited to see what happens next.
- It correlates well with the IEW Writing program.
- Helps reinforce proper paragraph formation, writing structure, etc.
- Teacher’s manual is easy to read and concepts are clear and concise.
- Love the extra teacher notes, so far any questions the kids have asked have been listed in the teacher notes which is great!
- Like the easy reference flash-cards.
- Cost is great!
So, now comes the fun part!
What are your favorite Vocabulary curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards VOCABULARY, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
We used Wordly Wise this past year for our 4th & 5th grader & we loved it!! It was easy to use & very helpful. My girls learned so many new words & it was very easy for them to do the lessons independently. We already received their test scores for this year & in vocabulary both girls scored at a High School level. : ) I would highly recommend! 🙂
My kids will be in 3rd & 1st in September. I have not done a Spelling or Vocabulary curriculum before. We did My Father’s World 1st grade for my 2nd grader this year because he was struggling with reading and it really helped. He’s still not the most confident reader, but he is reading now! Anyway, would Wordly Wise be something I can use as Spelling and Vocabulary together? I’m not sure which to do, I don’t want him to miss out on important lessons, but I also do not want to overload him with stuff.
I have heard of people using the lists as spelling words as well. If you look at their website it shows you the whole word lists for each grade level so you can decide if they would work for you before you buy.
I’m planning on starting Wordly Wise next year with my second grader. Any advice on what materials are necessary at that age? I’ve definitely gotten the impression that the teacher’s guide isn’t, but will I be sorry if I don’t purchase an answer key for that level? Are the tests helpful, or is there enough material in the workbook to make them unnecessary?
I’m not planning on using any tests for Wordly Wise. I’d say that the exercises are enough. Definitely get the answer key. I didn’t have a teacher guide this year so I am not purchasing one for next year. I usually just read through the list and all the definitions with my child on Monday and then they work independently through the week on the activities.
My son used Word Roots this year but I was planning on going with Wordly Wise 3000 for next year. I am so please to hear all of the postive reviews!
Hi Erica, thanks for having these forums! They are very helpful as I am planning my curriculum for next year (I am doing my research before my homeschooling convention in June). My daughter will be in 2nd grade and I hadn’t even thought of including Vocabulary into the curriculum!
I just purchased Marie’s Words at our recent homeschool convention. It is a stack of 550 index cards with pictures to help learn the meanings. On the back of the card it has the definition, synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation, and a sentence using the word. My son will be starting 2nd grade so I am thinking of doing a card each week or maybe more frequently if he likes it. 🙂
http://www.marieswords.com/
I would also like to know what materials are necessary to begin Wordly Wise. You all talk as though you only order the Student book, and not the teacher??
Regina & Linda,
Definitely can leave out the teacher guide. I just read through the words and definitions with my child on Monday and then they work independently through the week. Order the answer key to check work! =) Only about $4.
Where are you purchasing the answer key at? I am only finding the Wordly Wise K book and teacher manual. The K book is between $10-12 and the teacher guide is between $63-75.
I do not see an answer key available.
I have the same query as Regina… The teacher’s book costs USD75+ and that’s a lot more expensive than the student book. Can we leave out the teacher’s book?
You should check Hearts at Home.. they seem to run cheaper on the whole.
I don’t see just an answer key for $4…
I bought mine on christianbook.com and they had the answer key for under $4. The workbooks were less expensive there also.
Thanks! As I look at the level 2 book, it seems like it would be boring. Any thoughts, anyone that’s used the program?
My very advanced 2nd grader did level 2 and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t terribly challenging for her but she wasn’t bored by it either.