Caesar's English

[joannqn]

How do you actually use these books? Do you just read through them and talk about it? Do your kids actually understand how to use the words properly from just this?

 

My vocabulary is poor thanks to a less than stellar public school education. Half the time I don't know the words and I don't feel I know them any better by the end of the chapter. So, I'm wondering how you actually use these books.

[Jen500]

How do you actually use these books? Do you just read through them and talk about it? Do your kids actually understand how to use the words properly from just this?

 

My vocabulary is poor thanks to a less than stellar public school education. Half the time I don't know the words and I don't feel I know them any better by the end of the chapter. So, I'm wondering how you actually use these books.

 

Yes, we sit and read out loud and discuss. IMO the layout encourages a thorough discussion, and I don't think they'd get AS much out of it if they were reading it independently w/o the discussion. My dc love it when they find vocab words in their everyday reading, and my eavesdropping ds6 knows a lot of the vocab words :lol:.

My dc do review the cumulative word and stem lists on their own, and I give the chapter tests and they always do well.

[krisperry]

I do it as a read-aloud. You can write pronunciations in pencil in your TM [;)]

 

I'm working with an older child but we typically - Read the entire chapter aloud in one sitting (fairly long). Review the other school days that week using the list at the end of the chapter. When she can't recall, I state the word in one of the sentences from the chapter rather than telling her the answer. That often jogs her memory. On the last day of the week, we review a final time and then test.

 

I don't usually use the questions at the back of the book that cover more than the vocabulary.

[Crimson Wife]

We're using the series with Red Hot Root Words from Prufrock Press. That provides more practice exercises with the roots.

 

I have found that CE 1 & now 2 have improved DD's vocabulary quite a bit, but she is a very verbal child who loves words.

[KS_]

Yes, we sit and read out loud and discuss. IMO the layout encourages a thorough discussion, and I don't think they'd get AS much out of it if they were reading it independently w/o the discussion.

 

We use it as a read aloud also, along with discussion. My dc enjoy it :)

[StephanieZ]

Yep. We use them & love them. My vocab is strong, but there are still plenty of new words for me, especially in those synonym lists. :) We might not look up EVERY word we don't know well, but we'll pick at least 2 or 3 from those lists to look up and talk about. I love CE. Love it. My olders are doing CE2 now and the two of them together can actually do it on their own w/o my help (but that's after doing CE1 with me, so they have the pattern down).

[radiobrain]

:lurk5:

 

We plan to get started with it soon. So far I have only thumbed through. I'm happy it's meatier than Building Language.

 

Told you so. *snort*:D

[Kalmia]

I take a full week with each lesson. It is easier to absorb over time, so don't try to do it all in one day. The cumulative review has made this program work SOOOO much better than Wordly Wise. Since the words are drawn from classic literature we find them all the time in our literature studies and that is great reinforcement. For a fun activity I copy the Wordy Story page. Lightly cross out the vocab words and ask ds to insert the meanings. Then we read the story both ways, once with the complex vocab words and then with the simpler definitions he inserted. We find it fun, but then again our definition of fun might not be normal.