When I taught high school English I couldn’t understand why my students didn’t love their vocabulary workbooks. I mean here it was: WORDS and LISTS all in one place. How could you not love that? And so I would make up games to pique interests but in the end, some of them memorized enough words to pass the test and most of them forgot all the words afterwards.
“Teaching” vocabulary is a waste of time, in my opinion. Learning vocabulary isn’t. I’m a huge fan. But our understanding of the way words are learned is crucial if we want to make the best use of our time.
Vocabulary is learned the same whether you are 2 or 24. We learn words by hearing them and reading them in context. Even when the words are too hard to understand, over time, they become a natural part of our vocabulary if they are a regular part of it. (Conversely, trying to memorize words that are not used regularly will be forgotten. Ask anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language without practicing it regularly.)
We would do well to continually revisit the way a baby learns. It’s so natural and none of us stresses about it (until the latest hogwash propaganda about “learning readiness.”) Then someone convinces us that even though we were brilliant at learning when we were babies and toddlers, we lose that ability at 5 or 6 then someone has to come in and rescue us to keep us from becoming idiots.
Language builds upon itself. With a rich environment of reading and mature conversation, the formal study of vocabulary pales as a rival.
This is fantastic news for homeschooling parents. Vocabulary doesn’t need to be a separate subject. Instead, we need to grow our own vocabularies, use them in our daily conversations, and make sure our children are reading rich literature instead of twaddle.
Because we learn vocabulary through what we hear the most, other things that profoundly affect a child’s language development are peers and media. Most children are with peers for the majority of the day and so their vocabulary reflects that. As a homeschooling parent, be aware of the numerous opportunities in the day that you are teaching just through dialogue.
And make sure those opportunities aren’t being robbed by the constant distraction of media. Conversation will not take place unless it is given space to happen.
If your own vocabulary is lacking, I would suggest learning a new word each day as a family. Write it on a chalk board or prominent place in the house and then challenge everyone to use it as often as they can.
Learning language is phenomenal and yet quite simple. Save your time and put away the unrelated lists of words. Instead, weave them into the fabric of your life.
27 comments
This is such an awesome post! I would never think to “teach” my home schooled kids vocabulary. It seems almost redundant to me seeing as we are conversing all day long. an reading. Our oldest son who is 9 has always been advanced with language…or so we thought. He is gifted in many ways, but now that he had several siblings younger than him and their vocabularies are pretty awesome too we can attribute that to the things you mentioned in your blog. We read aloud daily to them rich Literature. They also listen to audio books and when they watch media for the most part it is not “dumbed down”. We always talk to them in English. Not “baby talk”. We don’t use easier words when they are around.
I love this. I just saw “vocabulary” on someones daily homeschool schedule on another blog. I thought ” what in the world does that mean? a word a day?” Spelling…maybe….vocabulary…not so much:)
I’ve always thought this to be true, but didn’t feel like I had the experience/knowledge to claim it. I’ve felt guilt over the years for not using the provided vocab words in our curriculum. No more! This just makes so much sense. Why is it when something works so well for young children naturally, we feel the need to change it and do something more official or maybe measurable? Thank you so much for sharing this.
I agree with what you are saying and it’s been how we’ve educated the past 4 years…this year we are implimenting more focused attention to spelling as my daughters are auditory learners, so spelling the English language has been a bit difficult. Any advice would be appreciated. 😀
Completely unrelated but I’m wondering why you are promoting Harry Potter under sponsors on your side bar?
Thank you for standing strong and sharing truth! God bless you and your family!
Thankful for God’s Grace, I don’t know whether or not Kelly has a sidebar that, “promotes Harry Potter,” and I certainly am not an apologist for her, nor her spokesperson. However, what if she is? Are you inserting your own agenda, and your own conscience into the question? By virtue of your question, I can easily deduce that you don’t approve. But, what if not all Christians are offended by it? Does that mean that they love Jesus just a little less than you? Or that they aren’t strong believers, or contenders for the faith? If Kelly IS promoting it, and I doubt that she is–again I have no idea one way or the other–but, rather, that random ads come up because of different sponsors. For example, Lake Tahoe is on the sidebar right now. I’m guessing that Kelly has never been to Lake Tahoe, but I have been there many times. So, the ad may be random, or it may be based on my interests, as in cookies that allow for popups based on recent searches…just my guess. But, the point is, again, what if she is promoting Harry Potter…would you think less of her personally, or be dismissive of her thoughts, opinions and advice?
I offer you this link for your consideration.
http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2013/09/what-does-it-really-mean-to-cause-someone-to-stumble.html
Well geez Cathy! Yikes! A little offended?
Not offended @ all, Paula. However, I believe we have liberty in Christ, and that extends to reading Harry Potter. I think the link that I provided merits reading and that it gives great insight about our liberty.
I had no agenda. I was truly wondering because I respect Kelly and her ministry a great deal and wanted her thoughts. Maybe I should have fleshed it out by adding that I’ve been reading Galations Chapter 5 and verses 19-21 has jumped out at me regarding the topic of sorcery (witchcraft). It states “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” That’s a pretty strong warning! So my question is does Harry Potter (or any book/movie that includes witchcraft) fall under the catergory of “sorcery” or under “Christian liberty” referred to in the rest of Chapter 5? I truly am curious about other Christian’s interpretation of this passage but realize this may not have been the place or time to ask. Forgive me for interrupting.
By the way, I talked with my husband and neither of us have searched Harry Potter so it may have been a random thing. I had just never seen anything like that on this site before so I thought I’d ask. We are all learning day by day! Blessings to all of you!!
OK, fair enough. I don’t want to hijack a thread, nor the blog, particularly since it’s not my blog, and it’s off topic. I was merely pointing out that a lot of ads pop up based on searches, and what the advertisers perceive as your interests. I was also pointing out that not all believers are in lock step about Happy Potter and the like, The irony is that I’ve never read a Harry Potter book, nor seen a Harry Potter movie, because it’s not a genre that interests me. Just as an aside, though, consider that many old fairy tales have witches and magic potions, etc., and authors like C.S. Lewis includes magic and witches in some of his writings. But, if your conscience is pricked by those kinds of things, and you and your husband believe that those kinds of things are something from which you should abstain, then you should follow the Spirit’s leading.
However, I’m no authority on anything, and these are solely my thoughts, so I hope that I didn’t offend you. Please forgive me if I did.
Praise God, I’m so thrilled that you are reading God’s word and seeking to obey it! Not everyone who professes Christ is actually saved so we cannot only by what other people say or do..we must always test it and seek to honor the Lord and his word. We may differ in what we think we are reading but we must bend the knee and seek to follow. Thank you for the encouragement!
TfGG,
I’m no authority on technology, but I think Cathy and Liz are right about ads appearing based on recent internet searches. I haven’t seen any Harry Potter or Lake Tahoe ads, but I started seeing ads for the University system in my state after our daughter got hired there and we researched the place online. I would be willing to guess you’re seeing the ads you are because you or someone who shares your computer is looking up information about Harry Potter.
Regarding your spelling question, I recently came across this video from Andrew Pudewa talking about how we learn to spell. I think it might have info that would be helpful to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0YjAN-UbCY
Jenny, thank you so much for sharing this video. It’s an answer to prayer! 🙂
Wonderful! I’m glad it helped someone.
Thank you SO much! That was unbelievably helpful! Especially since I am a visual learner so spelling worksheets were easy for me. I’m excited to implement the Spelling City while I put aside money for the Phonetic Zoo. Thank you again. 😀
You’re welcome. The things he said were so simple and yet so profound to me. It just makes sense.
I sure wish the comments could be edited by the writer. I just submitted a comment, and made a couple of errors that I didn’t catch while proofing it. Writing in a small box, using a touch screen @ which I stink, and eyes that are decidedly old, makes for a recipe for missing mistakes during the proofing process. Ugh.
Yes it’s usually random or based on our personal searches. Lands End has been stalking me for a year now. lol
Love this! When we are watching TV, we frequently pause it to ask our girlie what a seldom used word means. She has always had an excellent vocabulary.
I would say the game, “Apple’s to Apple’s,” is a fun game to expand vocabulary. If you get the adult one, go through the cards. I removed 2, I think. Evidence of the level of some words, this is a game she plays with her homeschooled friends. Her other friends are not fans because they don’t know the words.
I know. We always get comments About how well spoken our kids are. Usually it’s by an older generation. I think a lot of what they’re referring to is there extensive vocabulary. We have a just turned four-year-old who always stops us if he doesn’t know what a word means.
Most kids we are around will let you talk over them and not really ask what a word means. My kids always ask if they don’t know. I love it. Occasionally if I’m reading aloud I will stop at a word just to make sure they comprehend. My son 99% of the time knows what the word means just from the context. We homeschool and they’re pretty young so I know exactly what they been exposed to. So even though they’ve never heard the word they’re able to pull it out with the context of the story.
I love Webster’s 1828 dictionary because the word definitions are so rich — twaddle-free, if you will. Learning a new word a day out of there would certainly help expand one’s vocabulary in a meaningful (no pun intended) way. And that might help combat the problem I hear in communication so much these days — peppering one’s language with words devoid of meaning in the context in which they’re used.
My favorite one (NOT) is “like”:
“And I’m like, ‘No way you’re going to do that.’
And he’s like, ‘Yes I am.’
And then he, like, goes and, like, does it.”
I don’t like “like” when used like that! OK, end rant. 😉
Anyway, I think a wider, richer vocabulary would help reduce some of this superfluous language. Maybe? I can hope, anyway. 🙂
I love vocabulary and grammar, but I also use slang. Language came before rules, so like I’m OK w/using it in everyday parlance.
LOL! Where’s the “like” button on here? 😉
Parlance — ooh, I think you just gave me our vocabulary word for the day. 🙂
6 arrows I think the “like” fad came first from television then it filtered into the youth culture in the early nineties. I never read more than six books growing up; yet my vocab and spelling are excellent (according to an ex history/English teacher friend of mine.) I have always liked talking and I believe hearing how words sound all the time and thinking about that has helped tremendously. On the other hand my husband who read voraciously growing up struggles with spelling and pronunciation. I may have to simplistic of a theory here but it’s a work in progress ;-D
That’s interesting, Hayley. I didn’t watch very much TV once I started college in 1980, and even less after becoming a parent in 1990. Now I’m to the point where I watch none, so, in other words, I’m not too knowledgeable on the evolution of language through the medium and into the youth culture. 😉 It sounds quite plausible, though.
ok and learning gr 4/5 grammar also helped ;-D
Thank you for this post! I was quite tempted by the pictoral vocab cards I saw at Teach Them Diligently, even though Charlotte Mason has taught me that good readers make good writers/communicators.
I hated vocabulary workbooks when I was in school. We used Wordly Wise and none of the words relate to each other. Just a random list of 15 words. Bluch! Could you make it any harder to retain these words? Sheesh.
I’m am not currently a homeschooler. However, given the fact that my kids are in public school, I do try to bear in mind from birth that I am responsible for their education and that I have less time than your average homeschooler in which to accomplish that.
I particularly despise the way in which spelling and vocabulary are taught. They’re useless. Witness my son, who pretty consistently makes As on his spelling tests by rote memorization and yet, at 8, consistently misspells (butchers, actually– I am not a stickler for perfect spelling, but it makes my head hurt) simple words when writing.
His vocabulary, however, is excellent. I believe the reason for this to be twofold:
1) I never “babyfied” the language I used with my kids. My one concession to their immature language skills was to keep commands simple and concrete (“Stop running!” “Come here!” “Sit down!” “Hush!”). Other than giving commands with about the same vocabulary one would use with a dog, though, I use big and complicated words frequently in the course of daily conversation. They CAN pretty accurately decode them from context and nonverbal cues; as far as providing an exact meaning goes, they learn to use a dictionary voluntarily by 10 or so.
2) When I’m reading to my kids and come across a word I think might be unfamiliar to them, or just a really good word, I finish the paragraph or conversational exchange, and then go back and reread the word in context. I ask them what it means. They are accurate a surprising amount of the time; when they’re not accurate, I give them a few possible options (some close, some based on phonetic similarities, some waaaay off-base, one correct). They are ALWAYS able to choose the correct answer, usually as soon as they hear it.
The only other thing I do that might have some bearing on vocabulary development is to correct them when I hear them seriously misuse a word. Maybe that’s right and maybe it’s wrong, but it is something I always appreciated when I was younger and still appreciate today.
We also have multiple dictionaries (a Webster’s, a children’s dictionary, and a two-volume dictionary, as well as having the Oxford English Dictionary bookmarked– I’d love to own a hard copy, but that’s a massive investment of money and a mighty table to support it), and they see me use them frequently when I come across a new word myself (or want to understand the origin of a familiar one).