Curious about your strategies to improve vocabulary

[SKL]

For both of my kids.  They are on the young side and had very limited screen time for most of their childhood.  (They also spent their first 9mos/12mos in a non-English speaking environment, which may or may not still matter.)  One of them has auditory processing issues.

 

Anyhoo, this year they are getting to watch some Mom-approved videos, and I bought some vocabulary workbooks such as Wordly Wise.  Of course they also pick up vocabulary from school and books and from what I hope is a rich life experience.

 

Do you have anything in particular that you do, or philosophies that you follow, to expand your kids' vocabularies?  Just thought maybe this group would have some good ideas I have not thought of.

[regentrude]

My "philosophy" is that kids develop an extensive vocabulary if they are exposed to high quality spoken language and literature with a varied sophisticated vocabulary.

In addition to lots of reading and read alouds, we listened extensively to quality audiobooks, and this was a tremendous benefits for their vocabulary. We do not have a TV and, during the elementary years, limited DVDs etc to weekend evenings (none during the school week). In addition, the kids were included when we had adult company, and they grew up hearing adults debate politics, literature and history over lunch or dinner.

We have never used a dedicated vocabulary program; I do not consider it necessary, since I find that vocabulary is best learned and retained when encountered repeatedly in context. DD's great results in standardized testing and her performance in upper level college literature classes at age 16 are proof that, at least for her, our approach was very successful.

 

My kids grew up bilingually; they did not become exposed to English until ages 4 and 2, respectively.  I do not think your kids' first year in a non-English environment would matter at all.

[Caroline]

Like regentrude, we don't use vocabulary programs. My kids pick up vocabulary in context, through reading, through being involved in conversations, etc. My kids are exposed to lots of people from different walks of life through our activities and friends. Honestly, watching English soccer games and listening to the commentators has really helped with their vocabulary. It helps that they are around adults talking a lot. Also, since they do have good vocabularies and like to chat, adults tend to speak to them at a higher level, which in turn increase their vocabulary. Like regentrude, my oldest had the test scores and college grades to prove his vocabulary is great.

[marbel]

We found vocabulary programs a waste of time.  It's an artificial - and to my kids, boring - way to learn words.  We did and continue to do a lot of reading aloud, with me reading above their level and stopping to explain words - or not, sometimes, allowing them to get the words from context.  We did Latin and Greek word roots when they were young and continued with Latin.  My husband and I always used "big" (not pretentious) words with them starting at a very young age and explained them.   Reading and talking I think will do much more for a kid's vocab than any workbook.

[sunnyday]

I've gotten aware of this too. My DS was slow to pick up language so I've simplified my word choice for years, but now that I see them absorbing vocabulary like sponges if they watch a morning of PBS kids at Grandma's, I am consciously bringing up the level of my vocabulary when I speak to them. DD is particularly great about either pausing me to ask for a word definition, or just bringing it up mid-thought in other contexts. Lots of read-alouds are another way I can consciously get vocabulary into their everyday experience and break my habit of talking down.

 

I'm also starting a vocabulary program soon (MCT Building Language) because my son is so logically-minded that it really fascinates him that he can learn a few roots and stems and have better insight into a whole range of unfamiliar words. Similarly, because of the way his mind works, starting grammar has been great for him. Yesterday we had a conversation about honesty that started out with him asking me, "Why are you mispronouncing 'honest'?" LOL. I was able launch straight into explaining the noun/adjective relationship there, and then we tried out some sample sentences and agreed that in fact those were the noun and adjective versions of the same idea. ;)

[SKL]

Thing is, I'm not much of a talker, and my kids aren't either.  ;)  I have never been one to "talk down" to kids, though.  More likely I'll say a grown-up word and also provide the simpler verson or the definition.  I also often point out the roots/origins or prefix/suffix and give other examples with the same word parts.  (I've always found linguistics fascinating.)  Some of it sticks, but there is only so much talking I'm going to do....

 

I don't usually discuss politics because I'm not around people who can do so respectfully.  The adults my kids see almost daily are my workaholic business partners ;).  Hence I suppose their business/finance vocabulary is exceptional.  ;)

[HS Mom in NC]

We read a loud outstanding children's literature a total of 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. These are not all in 2 sittings at first.  We started them out at a about age 3 and worked our way up from there until they were in 2nd or 3rd grade and hit the hour long sittings. There are lots of threads at these boards for what to let your kids do while you read aloud to them, where to find lists of great children's literature and where to get book recordings. 

 

We introduced Latin and Greek Word Roots by 1st grade.  If you do 10 week until the kids know almost all of them you're off to an excellent start. There are some materials designed to just match the root to its translation and others to look up multiple words with a shared root.  We do a mix.

 

The neighbor kid once had our 6 inch thick English dictionary out with my older two (who were Jr. High age) randomly opening it and pointing to words and saying them out loud and my girls could tell him what every one of them meant. In college both have said new vocabulary is no trouble at all because they can almost always figure out what a new word means by breaking down the word roots and reading the context. In a few situations, they just looked it up.

[ElizabethB]

McGuffey Eclectic readers, 1879 version. I had ny daughter read the vocab before and after until she figured out how to intuit vocab from context, then just after. Start slightly below reading level, the vocab even at the lower levels is,challenging and archaic so there is plenty of novel vocab words even at the lower levels.

You can see hem online in PDF form from Gutenberg Press to see how they will work for you before buying. The set you want has orange and blue covers.