Yep, this is pretty much the extent of our vocabulary curriculum. Actually, I would consider this “extra”. Good conversation is all that’s really necessary for a substantial vocabulary. As someone mentioned in the last comment thread, if parents simply speak deliberately–enunciating clearly and being liberal with the words they use, even with the youngest children, there’s no need, as far as I can see, for a formal vocabulary curriculum.
Remember, your children began learning an entire language at birth, and you were their primary teacher. Their vocabulary continues to grow and I submit it can continue to be taught in the same way you’ve been teaching it since birth. (If your vocabulary is limited, you can learn alongside them with this small idea.)
Words used throughout the normal flow of the day are much more likely to “stick” than 15 random words on a sheet of paper that the student is supposed to memorize. It goes the same with any piece of information: experience creates context in which information is best retained.
So back to our board: this contains our WOD (word of the day). Sometimes I leave it for a couple of days. The challenge is to use the word as often as possible in the correct way. Sometimes we have a contest to see who can find the most uses for it.
Fun, simple, quick.
A good place from which to glean WODs is your read-alouds as you come across words that may not be understood. Context is best. 😉
31 comments
Ryan (my five year old) learned the word “famished” this week. He has used it over and over. It is so fun when the little ones use big words!
You can also subscribe to word of the day (to your inbox). My boys like to hear the audio on this. They usually laugh.
http://wordsmith.org/
I think the word you’re looking for is “enunciate” 🙂
That’s the upside of formal vocabulary learning, I guess – one learns the spelling as well as the usage.
Good thing this isn’t a post about spelling. This is how you spell enunciating. {giggle}
LOL! Thank you. I told my husband when I hit “publish”…”you know I’ll have some blaring grammatical or spelling mistake in this post”. Just glad it wasn’t in the title or something 😉
What’s up with my spell check anyway?
My sister and I were talking about this very topic yesterday. She taught for a couple of years in the PS setting. We were talking about how useless it is for kids to learn large amounts of vocabulary words without putting them in some sort of context. They may retain some of the rote knowledge, but without context, the kids forget the words very quickly!
I totally agree, Kelly. I think it is also worth noting that daily reading is also beneficial in increasing vocabulary–for us and our children. Particularly useful for children are the “living books” you have written about a few months ago. We were reading Peter Rabbit the other day and came across this little gem: “Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself”. I love it!
Love it! Vocabulary is not a problem in this house. 🙂
I hated vocab lists in school. I could often properly use any word in the list, but to be able to remember word for word the definition and write it on a test? No fair. I spent all my time trying to memorize exact definitions, and I couldn’t tell you know any of those words on my list. It’s more important to be able to grasp the meaning and use the word properly, even if you can’t match a dictionary word for word. I remember much better words that I learned by reading or having conversations. “Politesse” for instance. Such a great word. 😀 I had to look up the exact definition, and when I did I found that I was exactly right in what I thought it meant and how it could be used.
It’s another subject that can be taught just by talking a lot, using interesting words, reading good books, and playing with the language. But I might do a daily word just because that looks like fun.
When my kids are older fun, geeky language books (Eats Shoots and Leaves, for instance) are totally going to be on their required reading lists.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves is amazing. I also loved Word Power Made Easy… it’s very dry, but I was the kind of child who enjoyed reading the dictionary. I love the little etymology tidbits.
Looks a lot like our homeschool grammar lessons. What a great word to showcase, however. I would like to use it in a sentence. “Children, you have a plethora of clothing on the floor. Now it is time to evacuate it.”
Have a great day!
Great post! Everyday, applicable knowledge will stick more than quickly memorized facts. And I have a great (often mocked in working years) vocabulary, and I still cannot spell well. With an almost complete English degree. So maybe they don’t always go hand in hand…
We have a lot of fun with vocabulary – my girls were in public school for two years and grew to l.o.v.e. the spelling tests…we use words that stump us, most often from the KJV, spell it, define it, use in a sentence – it knocks out copywork/handwriting a few times a week, too…if it’s a memorized verse all the better. It is amazing to see their ability to internalize language – that part of the brain is at full tilt from 3ish to 12ish, and it’s an intuitive type of learning. They connect the structures, meanings, derivations almost automatically. It doesn’t require a lot of structure, but it sure fun to watch (while I wonder what happened to my own brain 🙂 )
[…] » Relaxed Homeschooling: Our Vocabulary Curriculum […]
Boy, this is SO true! I wished my fellow homeschoolers would relax and not try to cram in so many things. My oldest is 16yr (we have 5 kids) and we have never had formal vocabulary work. I try to skip as much busy work as I can and keep things in a real-life context. We simply use a dictionary (an old one) to find out what a word means at the time we hear it. We do a lot and listen to a lot as a family…sermons, creation videos, read alouds (of all sorts..even the dead guys), conversations with others etc. We come across a lot of words and we simply look them up and then tell the rest of the family what it says. Then the next thing we know we hear that word being said by MacArther or in a book somewhere. When I talk to my 4yr old I will simplify what I say but only after using the word I normally would use. That way he knows both words rather than just avoiding the more ‘complex’ stuff. From the beginning all my kids have always been complimented on the large vocabulary they use (to me…not to them. So they are not using big words to impress people.) We also read the Bible aloud in a round (each person taking the next verse). One of the benefits of that is that you hear how your kids pronounce words and can correct them if they are wierd sounding. For the most part I think we dumb down the kids. In the past kids learned what only lawyers know now. We we just speak the words they will learn them easily. It is when they never see or hear it that they have difficulty. And now days it is cool to spell things wrong. Signs and products etc. It is especially stupid when they intentionally do it on something for kids.
And I’d agree that vocab and spelling do not necessarily go hand in hand. One is more analytical (sp? lol) than the other.
PS…I think your sign is cute! You could even let the kids find words they’d like to share (like show and tell or something, lol). When we do our homeschool newsletter we include interesting ‘words to know’ which are just words the kids thought were really cool and wanted to share with family and friends.
My 3 year old always peppers his language with “big words” (more than 3 syllables). Lately, though, we’ve been focusing on Thesaurus lessons. For example, if I ask him with turtle is the large turtle, he can’t tell me unless I use the word big. Funny how certain things stick and certain things do not. He can wrap himself up in a blanket and call out, “Mom, I’m a chrysalis! Watch my metamorphosis!”
Candace,
I agree about daily reading….and not just simple little beginner reader books (those are great for beginner readers but not for mommy who can read quite well.) Dr. Seuss is a great one for cadence, though I’m not a big Dr. Seuss fan….nothing personal or educationally based. I’m just not a fan of his weird world. I love the way Beatrix Potter wrote her books and A.A. Milne wrote the Pooh series. When my son watches TV, he often watches British children’s programming. To be honest, the language, grammar and subject matter are better than American children’s programming which can be just feel-good and dumbed down.
My brother majored in linguistics in college and there has been a de-evolution of language over the years and continents. Yes, today’s general American English language worse than today’s general British language (though Britain has her share of dumbed down dialects, too.)
Oh dear, I’ve just gone on and on.
Great observations, Kate!
That’s so clever!
I love what you did on that little “schoolboard”, I’m definitly going to use that!
My 5 year old loves learning new words, well actually he loves to talk 😉
Most of my friends who’ve been homeschooled have issues with spelling and grammar. To be fair, one whole family I know struggles with dyslexia, so that explains some of their issues. Another family, however, takes a very relaxed approach to homeschooling. I do believe in homeschooling if you can, but the results THIS family has demonstrated have not impressed me.
This family has an adult son who pluralizes things by adding ‘s, misuses their/there/they’re, and makes lots of common grammatical mistakes (for instance: “Pastor’s must guard there flock carefully.”). This son is called into ministry, so he makes these mistakes in full view of everyone (in bulletins, fundraising letters, and update letters). Their adult daughter is not any better, but her grammatical errors are less problematic because she does not make them publicly. Their second son, who is in his late teens, cannot write anything without making some kind of spelling or grammar error. Their vocabulary is limited to that of everyday standard conversation plus the “hard words” in the KJV. The rest of their kids are too young for me to criticize; their education is far from complete at this point. The mother also makes the same mistakes. Parents, especially those who homeschool, have to be really careful not to pass their own mistaken quirks down to their children.
Encouraging your children to read challenging books (besides the Bible) which are slightly above their grade level will do wonders for their vocabulary. Word of the Day is wonderful, but over the course of 16 years of this in your home (from 3 to 18), that’s only about 365 words per year, or 6,000 words.
According to research on vocabulary acquisition, past the fourth grade, almost all of the new vocabulary we learn comes from reading. By the late teens, avid readers have four times the vocabulary of those who don’t make a habit of reading. The average student learns 8 new words per day in elementary school, or 3,000 new words per year. Voracious readers learn more, and those who don’t read very much learn fewer words.
Word of the Day is an excellent start, but it’s no substitute for good books. I do agree, however, that mindless vocabulary drills are not the best way to teach children new vocabulary. Fun games like this are great, but reading a wide variety of literature from different genres and on different topics is absolutely essential to vocabulary development.
Not criticizing your method, as I’m sure you do encourage your children to read, but I just wanted to share what I had discovered in my own research into vocabulary building in case you or others might find in interesting.
God bless!
“This family has an adult son who pluralizes things by adding ’s, misuses their/there/they’re, and makes lots of common grammatical mistakes (for instance: “Pastor’s must guard there flock carefully.”). ”
I don’t think it’s necessarily because of homeschooling. I was in public and private school through most of my primary education, and I developed some bad habits there. Plurals and apostraphe use is a problem for many, many people (thus the book mentioned a few comments ago). And some people, no matter how excellent the education, get an error stuck in their brain and it can take years to correct it. I didn’t start spelling “their” correctly consistently until I started blogging and people kept reminding me when I’d switched up the e and the i. My brain automatically goes to “i before e except after c” and I don’t always realize that I’ve made the mistake. And I was taught by state certified teachers. 😉
Kelly,
I thought your readers (and yourself) may find this post a worthy read (and not because I wrote it). It is actually related to your post “50 Years after the Pill”, but I thought that post had enough comments already:-) Anyhow, this relates to that. There are actually two posts:
1: http://eight-things.blogspot.com/2010/03/family-treemissing-branches.html
2. http://eight-things.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-on-tree.html
Food for thought….
Blessings.
Coram Deo,
Wow…I just hammered out a short post about a Scripture I found reflecting God’s sovereignty over life. I also just saw an illustration yesterday of a “pruned family tree”, resembling just the point you made. LOVE it!
All biblical discussions aside, part of me just thinks it’s downright creepy to exercise the ability to alter the very civilization, based on the points you made (who wouldn’t be here?)
Thanks so much for sharing the link–hope everyone will go read it!
I saw that same tree this week…really added to the clarity of my thoughts:-)
Eerie indeed. Actaully, that would make one of those great sci-fi type edge-of-your-seat movies that are so popular today…..hmmmm….maybe we should do a movie?
There is a fun word game called “Boggle”.
You shake up the bubble with letter cubes. You are given three minutes to write as many words as you can see. Whoever gets to 50 points at the end wins. We love that game. Of course we keep a dictionary nearby to make sure we are spelling our words correctly or making sure that mom (me!) didn’t make up some bogus word to try to get points. It is a blast and everyone is learning.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Boggle-Reinvention/11039570
Margaret,
It’s completely true that children can pick up the same kinds of errors in public school as they can in home school. My point was that these friends make the specific errors they make because their mother makes the same errors. In public schools, a child gets a new teacher almost every year, resulting in more opportunities for correcting a previous teacher’s incorrect teaching. In a home school, there are one or two teachers at most. Therefore, homeschooling parents have to be careful that they don’t pass their own incorrect usages down to their children. I am very pro-homeschooling, but parents have to be vigilant.
The main point of my comment, which I suppose didn’t come through as the main point, was that I agree with the research showing that reading books is the absolute best way to build vocabulary. Games like Word of the Day are good, too, but they do little to build vocabulary. One word every day only introduces a child to 6,000 new words total from 3 to 18. By contrast, to build an appropriately large vocabulary, the average child learns about 3,000 new words per year (or 48,000 new words in the same time period).
Take home message: Make sure your kids are reading books, and not just the Bible. (Kelly, as I said before, I’m sure you’re already doing this with your own children…just wanted to share what I was learning.)
My dd is 3-1/2, and I’ve been reading older-age children’s books to her since she was at most 1-1/2. She asks a lot of questions, whether we’re reading Little House, American Girls Collection, or anything else (we’re reading one of the Josefina stories at the moment.)
Great Idea!! Started this last week! Magnanimous… I shall be magnanimous towards my enemies…
The thing is, research actually does not suggest “reading books is the absolute best way to build vocabulary”. In fact, the enormous achievement gap in the US has been the catalyst for what is now a huge research base showing that simply reading books does not improve students vocabulary. By that logic, those underachieving students would be improving as they advance through the grades, however, they only far further behind because they don’t have adequate vocabularies (and some other skills) to cope with the advancing work and concepts. Vocabulary learning doesn’t occur through osmosis. As with any learning, it takes good explicit instruction.
When it comes to vocabulary, the research points to very important components of instruction for it to be effective. Parents using a wide range of vocabulary words and EXPLAINING what they mean is absolutely worthwhile and helpful, but it simply can’t replace explicit vocabulary instruction. This activity is great, but it is really more of an after-thought or side-note than actual vocabulary instruction. I think the reason people hate vocab instruction so much is that it tends to be done incorrectly in many classrooms and is often done in a very boring way when there is no need. Context is so incredibly important, and equally important is the relationships between the words. Giving students a random list of words and definitions to memorize is NOT an effective way to teach vocabulary, but using themed stories containing the words is.
There are also various exercises and activities students can do to help strengthen their understanding of word definitions and uses. Many great ones can be found in the book “Bringing Words to Life” by Elizabeth Beck. A little disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this author/book/publisher and no vested interest in the sales of this book other than helping more educators become more informed on research-based best practices in teaching.
I agree there is no need of a formal vocabulary in general if the parents use a good vocabulary with the children as well as the children reading good books. My school-age children all have quite impressive spoken vocabularies for their ages, and actually the 11 yo and 10 yo use richer words than many adults.
There are some exceptions though. My 11 yo son reads on a high school to college level, but it’s all sight reading. He has some significant auditory processing issues that kept him from learning phonics and with an outstanding visual memory, we didn’t even realize for years. He will use words that he’s read but hasn’t heard spoken enough or hasn’t connected with a spoken word, and he’ll use them correctly meaning-wise, but they may be very badly pronounced. We correct him as this happens, but without regular practice, he often doesn’t remember the pronunciation. So we do vocabulary on a weekly basis with him, and with a few minutes practice everyday, he is able to learn how that set of letters should be pronounced. But, again, this is vocabulary practice primarily for the purpose of pronunciation not meaning.
Heather–that is so interesting! I’m so glad you have the time and opportunity at home to tailor his learning needs.
Love your posts and hope you will post more about relaxed homeschooling methods for high school ages! I’m feeling so much pressure yet not sure my kids REALLY need all that load o stuff, ya know?
We do vocabulary tge same way..by talking, looking up a craxy word we hear from books, sermons etc. we give them old versions of books and read a wide range of things aloud like biographies, puritans, sherlock holmes etc. Never had a bit of troubke.
Sorry for the funky looking comment from my touch pad,lil