To all you PROS out there... and anyone else...

[Pam B]

To all you pros and anyone else who would like to jump on in and give a girl a hand:

 

:grouphug:

 

(I wanted to make a poll for this- but couldn't find how to. Is that just for administration?)

 

 

Getting to the point...Drum roll please! :thumbup:

If you had to choose: Would you recommend learning vocabulary words, or the decoding process- Learning prefixes, suffixes and roots?

 

I have another question- but I will wait until there are answers to this one first. :nopity:(I know, you just can't wait for me to pick your brain some more!)

Edited August 3, 2010 by Pam B

[MIch elle]

You have many years to homeschool. Some years we do vocabulary & other years we do roots (English from the Roots Up cards) and still other years we do a little of both.

[Cynful]

Well we do vocabulary but in the context of good books. I concentrate on the decoding. So I guess its both, but only decoding is done formally.

 

Good luck,

[Wee Pip]

I am a pro! (Having hand wildly).

Sorry, sometimes I just have to boost my own ego. Otherwise I feel like a rather lousy homeschool mom.

What we do for vocab is - I use big words (hopefully in the right way). If our family comes across a big word together and I don't know what it is, I look it up in the dictionary and read it aloud (usually I look on dictionary.com, lol). Eventually, someday, I hope to teach root words from Latin and Greek. But for now, I just talk about things. I usually like to look up words and tear them apart, and share those things with my kids. It is just something I do naturally. I (conversationally) mention that "sarcasm" comes from the Greek word "to tear flesh". Or that "photo" actually comes from the Greek word for light, and we find other words that relate (photosynthesis, photography). Someday I hope to be more formal about it, but for now, I think my kids are doing fairly well with vocab.

[robsiew]

The main place we focus on vocab I guess (beyond just what we read) is in Latin. We don't do vocab as a separate subject. To me (a big picture person) it makes more sense to approach vocab from roots as opposed to a list of individual words. Once you learn the roots you can apply them to individual words you come across.... JMO though and probably reflective of how I learn. I'm sure my detailed dh would say the opposite! :D My ds has loved learning Latin roots and then coming across an English derivative. But, he's kind of geeky that way like me! :lol:

[Capt_Uhura]

SWB says on her high school MP3 that vocabulary study such as Wordly Wise doesn't seem to carry over. What she does recommend is Vocabulary from Classical Roots - learn most common roots, prefixes and suffixes in addition to Latin.

[littlebug42]

I am not a pro at homeschooling yet but I can speak from personal experience with my own education. My senior year English teacher in high school placed a heavy focus on vocabulary. We had lists of what he called difficult words which might not fit the normal decoding patterns. Then, we had other lists that had roots, prefixes and suffixes. We had to learn the meaning of each, and be able to tell the literal and the functional meanings of the words. I now am employed as a medical transcriptionist and I can tell you that knowing all of those prefixes, roots etc have truly helped me the most with being able to spell all of the medical terms. I am able to break down words and spell them, even if I don't know how to spell it outright or even the meaning of the word. My plan for my kids is along the same path although hopefully they won't have to cram as much knowledge into one year as I did.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We study Latin and spend a good deal of time on the derivatives. Before we started Latin we used Vocab. from Classical Roots. That would be my preferred way to study words. Even when we come across words from our science, history or lit. reading we will try to determine its meaning from the root\suffix\prefix. My two oldest did vocab in ps and they haven't retained any of it. I will here them outside of our school time coming across words and discussing what they mean based on a root that they recognize.

[Pam B]

Hmmm.... Ok, so the breaking up the words and learning them like that is what I was thinking- although I do want them to study their vocab from their books like their math or science, etc.

 

For sure you all gave me some good things to think about!

 

So, my next question would be HOW you STUDY them. Do you go with the ole' index way, or some other way?

 

I ran across this site a while ago, and am thinking of doing their memory work this way... HOWEVER- I was also thinking there may be a way to do vocab in the same way as well- whether I go with the whole word or parts.

 

;) Ah, yes! The site would be nice, huh?! LOL

Here ya go! Check it out and let me know what ya think!

 

Index Form

Binder Form

[KarenNC]

We tried Vocabulary Vine (index card method) but it didn't really stick for my daughter. I had her doing it more independently, so it might have been more successful if we had reinforced it more.

 

This year we are working through Caesar's English I. http://www.rfwp.com/series33.htm We've just started, but I like it so far.

 

I also enjoy tearing apart words and will frequently do so in conversation with my daughter.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Hmmm.... Ok, so the breaking up the words and learning them like that is what I was thinking- although I do want them to study their vocab from their books like their math or science, etc. We kinda do this :) We learn roots in our language arts program (The Phonics Road and The Latin Road), and the vocabulary we use does focus on roots, then gives examples using said root as the vocab. words for the week. We also study words as topical vocabulary, where we can apply all the root learning as we come across it. Good stuff :)

 

For sure you all gave me some good things to think about!

 

So, my next question would be HOW you STUDY them. Do you go with the ole' index way, or some other way?

 

I ran across this site a while ago, and am thinking of doing their memory work this way... HOWEVER- I was also thinking there may be a way to do vocab in the same way as well- whether I go with the whole word or parts.

 

;) Ah, yes! The site would be nice, huh?! LOL

Here ya go! Check it out and let me know what ya think!

 

Index Form

Binder Form

We study vocab words using dication, copywork and creation of original sentences. We also us online flashcards and generated games via Quizlet. Even though they write as much with dictation, etc. it is much less boring than just writing out flashcards and has gone over better for our family.

 

For jargon type vocab, we write out definitions and put them in our notebooks, then study them via re-reading from the paper or Quizlet.