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 use Vocabu-Lit http://www.perfectionlearning.com/vocabu-lit-program love this program. Lessons are simple, not overwhelming, but my kids learn a lot. I love that it uses vocab from Classic and modern literature. There is so much great literature out there, that it would be impossible to read it all. I like that my kids are exposed to different things out there and we can choose to read something in more detail if we choose to, but if not, then they have at least been exposed to the names of the books.
Thank you, Angel! I just checked this out and, Wow!!! I love the look of this for my young son! I really appreciate your sharing this!
Hey, I know this is an older post, but I’m looking into vocabulary for my second grader next year. Would we need the teacher edition also for this, or just the student edition workbook? Thanks so much!
I don’t usually get the teacher’s guide, but it takes a bit longer to grade that way. But so far I haven’t really needed them.
Has anyone used Horizons spelling and vocabulary set? Curious.
We use http://www.spellingcity.com/
With my older kids, we use it with our Apologia Science vocabulary words. I create a word list for them and they play some of the definition match-it games. I’ve also printed some worksheets for them. It has helped them reinforce and get a better understanding of the scientific terminology.
With our youngest daughter, I make up a list of vocabulary words from whatever book we are reading that week for better comprehension. We’ve really gotten a lot of use from this website.
I havent been using a curriculum because we just read so many books. we have been making a vocabulary book and everytime we come across a word that the kids dont know in the reading I have them look it up in the dictionary and then the copy the definition (sometimes we rephrase it to make it more simple) and then they draw a picture of something that they think of when hearing the word. Every 8-10 words we go back and review them all and look at the pictures and talk about other ways of using them. since most of the time they are pretty big words and above the spelling level (my oldest is 2nd grade) we dont necessarily practice spelling it. so far it has been good and I feel like my kids have a great vocabulary but Im wondering if I need to be doing something more. Is there a whole lot more to a vocabulary curriculum? do I need to be doing something formal? thanks for any input you may have!!
No, what you are doing is great. Keep it up.
This past year I used Wordly Wise with my 2nd grader (workbook). I too felt a way about it being secular and all, however, when we come across things like “one million years ago” I was prepared with an explanation.
I do like this program, however, this year I will not be using the workbooks but I’ll be using them online. I’m a part of homeschool buyers co-op which is FREE and they provide it at a discounted rate. If your interested, please look into it and sign up. You can save up to 89%… making it $39.95 for a year’s subscription for one child and $29.95 for any others.
Hope I could be a blessing to someone! 🙂
Vanessa
Could you please identify the homeschool buyers co-op.
I have been looking at the online version of Word Wisely for next year. Have you compared it to the workbook you used? Do you like it? Do your kids like using the computer with it? I am still debating but my daughter loves computer work and tends to not be a workbook person so was thinking that would be good, but I don’t want too much computer work. Are the lessons short? Do you know? Sorry for all the questions. i’ve really been contemplating it. Thanks.
I never liked Wordly Wise 3000 or its predecessor. My older two always asked why they were doing it as it was filled with words they already knew from reading. We found it to be nothing but busywork.
Most elementary kids who read a great deal will not have any need for a formal vocabulary program until they have finished their spelling sequence…usually around 6th grade. Many programs (Spelling Workout, Rod and Staff, for example) switich over to a more vocabulary type study in 7th or 8th grade. High schoolers usually use a formal vocabulary program to prepare for the SAT or ACT tests.
A few workbook options I know of are Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Word Roots (has software, too), and Sadlier-Oxford. You don’t need program at all if your kids are studying Latin and/or Greek and are reading well-written books.
Has anyone used Vocabulary from Classical Roots? It’s inexpensive and I’ve heard great things about it. I think we will try it this year.
I just got Wordly wise for my 7th grader.
We just started our homeschooling journey. We are homeschooling this year through a Charter school and I am thrilled that some of this “non-traditional” curriculum is offered.
Pros
the Wordly Wise 7 –My son who is vocabulary challenged (up until last year in 6th grade)
Likes to do this workbook, and it is making Vocabulary interesting.
He is really understanding vocabulary better, and is LOVING to read further…(Im thankful for that because all he wants to do is math and science….LOL)
There is a website that they can go on attached to each unit and learn more about the vocab words and play games with those words. Very cool tool.
Con–
I wouldnt choose some of the sentence structures they use. That being said, I think it is a great tool for teaching about some of the things I dont agree with 100%. Some of the words are a little easy.
I dont see many more cons, but we have just started like I said.
Thank you for your blog, I love reading about your journey too. I have 5 kids, ranging from College to 5th grade so reading blogs like yours is saving me from crazy right now! HA HA. 🙂
We use vocabulary curriculum from beestar. Questions are all very good and my daughter finds the questions interesting and challenging. She loves to compete on this site with other kids from a lot of other states.
Lisa
We like the online support options for Wordly Wise 3000. Here is the link for the online words by lesson and games.
http://resources.wordlywise3000.com