Moms of many, I need advice that I can actually put to use to increase vocabulary

[plain jane]

My second grader doesn't seem to have the greatest vocabulary. While she does understand some complex words, others are completely lost on her. Just today she was reading aloud to me (Charlotte's Web) and she didn't know what manure was. :confused::001_huh:

 

Drat. I feel like I'm failing her. She could sound it out but thought it was comparable to a pile of hay. ;)

 

Anyways, I'm noticing that her vocab is not what my oldest's was at that age. I know the reason is because I don't spend as much time reading aloud to her as I did with my oldest.

 

I also know I don't have that same time now. I have a 5th grader, a K'er and 2 more littles. There's only so much of me to go around. :(

 

So, how do I fix this and increase my 2nd graders vocabulary. I feel so guilty that I don't have the same time to spend with her. :( What's the most efficient use of my time? I can do audiobooks, and we listen to those a lot but short of pausing all the time and asking her if she knows the words, she's not big on asking what a word is that she's not familiar with. I dont' want her to fall through the cracks. Sigh.

[Ester Maria]

Can you have her write down the words she doesn't know and then look them up with you later? It shouldn't take a lot of time.

[Beth in SW WA]

My dd7 didn't know manure in Charlotte's Web either. How would she have known that word? :)

 

The key to building vocab is extensive reading of classics. It will come.

[ElizabethB]

I like the Parker Readers. You can figure out the level she needs and then order an original for a reasonable price for a book from the 1800's from Alibris or ABE books. (Usually less than $20, keep watching for a while if they have none for that price or cheaper.)

 

My guess would be Parker's Second reader, here is the direct Google link for that, it has integrated vocabulary study into the stories and the stories build in difficulty.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=6sFEAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=parker+reader+inauthor:parker&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=YU-nR6O_LIaUzATRuPhK#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

The whole series is linked from my Webster page if you want to see links to other grade levels. If she reads the vocabulary definitions both before and after she reads the story, that would be best.

[caedmyn]

Queen's has a vocabulary study that's done with pictures. I think it's 5 new words a week and there's several levels. I image it's self-taught but I just glanced at it in my catalog and haven't researched it any more than that.

[mom31257]

I think vocabulary is something that really comes with experience and reading, reading, reading. Wordly Wise has this site where you can listen to explanations of the words from their books and play games reviewing them. You have to click on students, then choose a book. I'm going to have ds start with book 2 and do a lesson a day, then review games where they fall.

[my2boysteacher]

Read Aloud! 30-60 minutes a day, 60 being better. They will be exposed to many new words including pronounciation, grammar and context.

[EmilyGF]

I don't think manure should be in her vocabulary unless you live on a farm.

 

Try to not speak down to your children. I think that more children make it more tempting to speak down (so they understand THE FIRST TIME and don't ask so many questions when you're rushed)! I think children learn most of their vocabulary from speaking with their parents, not from books.

 

Best,

 

Emily

[MerryAtHope]

What about bedtime reading? You can start with a picture book or two for your littles, and then a chapter book that might appeal to your K-5th grade kids (books like Charlotte's Web have appeal for many ages). We always have a chapter book going & my kids are 14 & 12 now, I just make it one of the top priorities. Or read over lunch when hands & mouths are busy. Or maybe Dad could read aloud sometimes? Audio books are good too. See what you can do to find creative solutions.

 

Merry :-)

[acurtis75]

Have you considered asking your older child to read to the younger daily? Audiobooks are another option. Also, I would think based on the other thread where you said she's not reading chapter books yet that you probably just need to give it some time. If your first child was a little accelerated it may be that your expectations are a little too high. I don't think it's unusual for a 2nd grader not to know what manure means. I pile of hay was probably a good "in context" guess.

 

I mention expecations because I've found myself getting frustrated when I teach kids in Sunday School several years older than my daughter who don't seem to have the same reading ability and comprehension as she does. I've realized that my expectations were just a bit off because dd is ahead of where most kids are at her age.

[plain jane]

Read Aloud! 30-60 minutes a day, 60 being better. They will be exposed to many new words including pronounciation, grammar and context.

 

I know this is the ideal. I truly don't have 60 minutes a day to read aloud. :willy_nilly:

 

The problem is also that she doesn't tell me what words she doesn't understand. So unless I stop at every big one, I don't know.

 

Drat. It is hard to homeschool the way I want to with so many littles. :tongue_smilie:

[WeeBeaks]

I have 4, roughly the ages you are saying. I have the same situation in my 1st grader. He never told me all he *didn't* understand. The key for us was to have him speak up and ask each time he didn't know what a word meant. Does your DD do that?

 

We personally do audiobooks. They can learn a lot by context alone. Imperfect but it does help.

 

We are doing formal spelling with this one. He encounters words in spelling he doesn't know.

 

And we are targeting the audience level of bedtime read-alouds towards him for now. We are reading aloud to a 9yo, 6yo, 4yo and 1yo so it is tough. We had been grouping the 9yo and 6yo, but the level was just above what he could handle, and we didn't realize it at first. But the 4yo books are too low. So for a while we are doing books we think are right for him and the 9yo and 4yo deal with it. ;) Actually the 4yo sometimes gets one book and then a few chapters of the chosen nighttime readaloud picked with the 6yo in mind.

 

I also have made it a priority to choose readalouds I read to my oldest during the school day. It is not easy by any stretch. But again I was focusing on my oldest and letting my next "tag along" ... and it wasn't working in our situation. Thankfully my oldest is enjoying tagging along for a while since he fondly remembers these books. :grouphug:

 

Edited - I had skipped the Usborne First Thousand Words series I used with my oldest for my next in line. That was a mistake and I have gone back to that. There are all kinds of words in there we don't encounter in daily life in the city.

Edited November 18, 2011 by WeeBeaks

[SunshineMom]

If you don't have time to read to her, then you could try audiobooks. Libraries are full of children's classics on tape/CD. Additionally, I would recommend the Wordly Wise series but only if you want another workbook.

[BlsdMama]

Read aloud and have her read. That's it. No reason to complicate your life with a bunch of stuff. ;)

 

We read aloud from the Bible in the AM, read to little people in the late AM, have them read alone during nap time, then read aloud as a family before bed... It all adds up, plus it benefits ALL of my children.

[BlsdMama]

I know this is the ideal. I truly don't have 60 minutes a day to read aloud. :willy_nilly:

 

The problem is also that she doesn't tell me what words she doesn't understand. So unless I stop at every big one, I don't know.

 

Drat. It is hard to homeschool the way I want to with so many littles. :tongue_smilie:

 

The catch here is that if you don't have time to read you won't have time for a workbook either. You'll buy it but it will end up a band aid. And the other catch is that workbooks won't improve her ability to write or narrate. Long term, I KNOW you have littles coming up and I'll tell you, mama to mama, you cannot afford to replace reading aloud with a band-aid.

 

Don't look at it as an hour per day, but as three twenty minute slots. And if your littles can't play quietly it will be time well invested to train to this goal.

[plain jane]

The catch here is that if you don't have time to read you won't have time for a workbook either. You'll buy it but it will end up a band aid. And the other catch is that workbooks won't improve her ability to write or narrate. Long term, I KNOW you have littles coming up and I'll tell you, mama to mama, you cannot afford to replace reading aloud with a band-aid.

 

Don't look at it as an hour per day, but as three twenty minute slots. And if your littles can't play quietly it will be time well invested to train to this goal.

 

Oh no I wasn't looking for workbook ideas. lol

 

And, it's not that the littles can't play quietly. It's that they all want me to read their books to them too.:lol:

[acurtis75]

Just in case this thread is making you feel like you're the only mom in the world not getting your 60 minutes in....I wanted to post and say that I work while homeschooling and although my daughter is a voracious reader we don't get 30 minutes or an hour every day where I read to her. I understand it's ideal but it just doesn't happen and probably isn't going to any time in the near future. I try to schedule it but it's a lower priority for me than some other things. That doesn't mean it's not important, it just means it can't get done every day. I have her read out loud to me in the car, we read lesson stuff outloud together (like WWE for example, we discuss what she's been reading, we do narrations but we just don't sit down and read for 30 minutes (or even 3 twenty minute sessions).

 

I don't think your child's overall education will be a failure if for a few years when you have all the little's she doesn't get 30 minutes of mommy reading time daily. Keep encouraging your children to read, read to them even if it's below their level because you have the little one's there too, keep lots of books around and they'll be fine.

[foxbridgeacademy]

One of my little sister's (10 years younger ) favorite memories was of me reading to her. Have your eldest read to her, stopping when needed to define words. This will give them something special to share.

[morosophe]

I have to disagree with all those who say that you should stop and make sure she understands every word. If she isn't interested enough to ask what it means, just let it go by. (If she's so lost that literally every word is new, find something slightly different to read.) Just make sure that your inflections indicate as much as they can about what you're reading.

 

Then, five months from now, you'll be visiting a farm and be told "Watch out for the manure!" Five years from now, she'll be learning about gardening and help carry some composted manure to enrich one. Fifteen years from now, she'll be watching Back to the Future and see "I hate manure!" By that time, she'll know what manure is and appreciate the scene.

 

That's how vocabularies are built. And sometimes, we guess what a word means and get it wrong--but often, we guess and get it right, which is why sometimes we don't know what words we don't know. It's not like reading with phonics; guessing a word's meaning and getting it slightly wrong (like hay, manure is soft, is often put in piles, and is found around animals, so she wasn't completely off, right?) does not mean that we are using a bad approach to reading. It may mean that we'll be embarrassed a few years down the road when we use a word we thought we knew and learn that we are wrong about its meaning, but that's just life.

 

More important, to me, is that a child is following a story as best they can, despite the minor details that may not be understood. I'm reading The Door in the Wall to my son, and you can bet that there are loads of words and phrases he doesn't understand (what's a breviary, anyhow?). But as long as he's following the central thrust of the story, I'm not going to stop every time we encounter new vocabulary.

[silliness7]

My second grader doesn't seem to have the greatest vocabulary. While she does understand some complex words, others are completely lost on her. Just today she was reading aloud to me (Charlotte's Web) and she didn't know what manure was. :confused::001_huh:

 

Drat. I feel like I'm failing her. She could sound it out but thought it was comparable to a pile of hay. ;)

 

Anyways, I'm noticing that her vocab is not what my oldest's was at that age. I know the reason is because I don't spend as much time reading aloud to her as I did with my oldest.

 

I also know I don't have that same time now. I have a 5th grader, a K'er and 2 more littles. There's only so much of me to go around. :(

 

So, how do I fix this and increase my 2nd graders vocabulary. I feel so guilty that I don't have the same time to spend with her. :( What's the most efficient use of my time? I can do audiobooks, and we listen to those a lot but short of pausing all the time and asking her if she knows the words, she's not big on asking what a word is that she's not familiar with. I dont' want her to fall through the cracks. Sigh.

 

I am sure you are doing fine!!! I just asked my 2nd grader if she knew what manure was. She did not. I told her it stinks and you can find it on a farm. No clue. However the 4th grader knew what it was without any clues. My 4th grader missed out on the abundance of read-alouds too, although she herself is an avid reader. It'll come. Don't stress. :grouphug:

Edited November 18, 2011 by silliness7

[Myeightkiddies]

The children keep a notebook (small notebook) near them when they read (or on their desks). When they come across a word that they don't know, they write it down in the notebook. Each morning we go through the words together (all of us). It has worked out well.

 

A second grade student not knowing the word manure is not unusual. She does now, and that is the important thing.

[crazyforlatin]

People underestimate the benefits of audiobooks. I can't tell you how many words DD has learned from just listening to books. I don't check up the words for her unless she asks me, but I've observed that she mainly learns the meaning of the words through context.

 

I usually need to work while homeschooling but can pull out a few minutes here and there to read aloud (not ideal, right?), and during the meantime, she listens to books while doing copywork or math :glare:.

[BlsdMama]

Oh no I wasn't looking for workbook ideas. lol

 

And, it's not that the littles can't play quietly. It's that they all want me to read their books to them too.:lol:

 

:D

 

I'm afraid that I might have come across harsh when I didn't mean to! I just want to really encourage you to read aloud! I believe in it so strongly that I would tell you to toss EVERYTHING else before leaving out reading aloud good literature. Read the Bluedorn article"Ten Things to do Before Age Ten" and that might help you as well. I'm in the opposite camp where I truly believe you can strongly impact a child's ability to write as well as their love for literature simply by reading. :) Throw out everything else if you must.;) (I wink be but I'm serious.)

 

On a personal note, I truly understand what you' re saying! I belong to the "five in six years" club, Lol! There are days when, for sanity, you think, "If I move breakfast later and supper earlier then I could skip preparing lunch. Wow! That could buy me a good twenty minutes." (And you are hoping for a ten minute shower ALONE!) :lol:

 

We took the Bluedorn's advice and cut out math for the Kind-3 crowd very intentionally.

[Homeschooling6]

I didn't read all the responses, so please excuse or ignore if it's already been said.

 

The past couple of years I have not been able to read to my children like I use to so I have invested in audio books. I know mama is best but having the children listen to audio books seems to work too. People (including their own cousins) are pretty impressed with my children's vocabulary.

 

I use to read at least 2+ hours a day (use to use SL) but sadly lately I no longer have the time to read that much and my allergies (itchy thoat) won't allow me too anymore :(

 

But thankfully my children love to listen to audio books and do so for hours a day.

[GingerPoppy]

I have to disagree with all those who say that you should stop and make sure she understands every word. If she isn't interested enough to ask what it means, just let it go by. (If she's so lost that literally every word is new, find something slightly different to read.) Just make sure that your inflections indicate as much as they can about what you're reading.

 

Then, five months from now, you'll be visiting a farm and be told "Watch out for the manure!" Five years from now, she'll be learning about gardening and help carry some composted manure to enrich one. Fifteen years from now, she'll be watching Back to the Future and see "I hate manure!" By that time, she'll know what manure is and appreciate the scene.

 

That's how vocabularies are built. And sometimes, we guess what a word means and get it wrong--but often, we guess and get it right, which is why sometimes we don't know what words we don't know. It's not like reading with phonics; guessing a word's meaning and getting it slightly wrong (like hay, manure is soft, is often put in piles, and is found around animals, so she wasn't completely off, right?) does not mean that we are using a bad approach to reading. It may mean that we'll be embarrassed a few years down the road when we use a word we thought we knew and learn that we are wrong about its meaning, but that's just life.

 

More important, to me, is that a child is following a story as best they can, despite the minor details that may not be understood. I'm reading The Door in the Wall to my son, and you can bet that there are loads of words and phrases he doesn't understand (what's a breviary, anyhow?). But as long as he's following the central thrust of the story, I'm not going to stop every time we encounter new vocabulary.

:iagree: Great post.

 

My 2 cents:

In addition to the audiobooks, and read-alouds when you can, encourage lots of their own reading time. SO many words are picked up subconsciously in context, even if we don't look them up in a dictionary.

 

Read widely, and have her read widely in lots of subject areas. Even in fiction, make a point of choosing books that have settings in different countries and types of places.

 

Lots of vocabulary is picked up at special events and places, such as museums, festivals, farmer's markets, and so on. My dd and I have an ongoing game when we go to Farm Boy (a produce-based grocery store). Without looking at the signs, she tries to name as many different veggies and fruits as possible. She *loves* this fun challenge, and knows lots of vocabulary such as kohlrabi, fennel, and papaya.

 

One of my secret weapons: music. From the time she was a baby, we've listened to tons of high quality family and kid music. Many of our favourite performers are clever and witty, so by singing with the lyrics, she picks up so many new words and ideas. Eg. Justin Roberts, Ralph's World, Trout Fishing in America. Even learning words to Christmas carols can help with some of the more old fashioned words.

 

When we feel like it, we do a word of the day book. If she uses that particular word correctly sometime later in the day, I pay her a dime.

 

Talk, talk, talk. Include them in interesting discussions. If I come across an interesting short article or YouTube piece or forum post, I often share (if appropriate) with my daughter. By discussing new ideas, a context for any new words is strengthened.

 

I like our spelling program (Sylvan) because of the way vocabulary is introduced and used... lots of root/suffix/prefix study, along with homophones and so on.

 

Make a game of finding all the "vocabulary" in a room. Take turns pointing out items and writing down what it is on a little piece of paper and sticking it directly to the item. "Canister" "colander" "spatula" and so on. Leave the labels for a while.

[TengoFive]

We listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car. I have 6 kids total from 13 to 1 year old, so I get not having enough time to read aloud. She'll pick up on a lot of vocabulary just listening and figuring things out in context. Will she learn every word that way? No, probably not, but her understanding will increase.

[kubiac]

Larry Sanger speaks highly of the Oxford Picture Dictionary, which is like an Usborne First Thousand Words book, but First 25,000 Words. She might have fun browsing it independently, which frees you up and gives her a reference resource that's easily accessible.

[LindaOz]

And, it's not that the littles can't play quietly. It's that they all want me to read their books to them too.:lol:

 

I try to start with reading to my 18 month old while the other kids clean up from breakfast and do their morning jobs. Then dd1 has 'blanket time' in the same room as me while I start reading aloud with the next youngest two etc. This gives dd1 some 'mommy-time' so she is more content when I am reading with others.

 

Reading really is the key, I think. My child with the best vocab is the one who reads the most prolifically. This comes out in her writing as well. It's definitely worth the effort - tricky as it is.....!! :)

[LindaOz]

More important, to me, is that a child is following a story as best they can, despite the minor details that may not be understood. I'm reading The Door in the Wall to my son, and you can bet that there are loads of words and phrases he doesn't understand (what's a breviary, anyhow?). But as long as he's following the central thrust of the story, I'm not going to stop every time we encounter new vocabulary.

 

Yes. yes, and yes. I was wanting to say something like this but just didn't ;). I was reading recently about how it's OK for there to be some words that the kids don't understand. A bit of mystery can be intriguing. They will often figure it out in context and still follow the big picture of the story line. If they care enough to know, they will ask. Mine will sometimes interrupt me and ask what a word means - so I answer. But I've stopped interrupting myself to define every little thing that they might not get.

 

I've also started reading things with harder vocab than I was before. I'm surprised at the result. Ds7, who I thought was not comprehending the easier books, can suddenly narrate from works with harder vocab without me having to stop to define. I'm impressed. :)

 

So, to the OP, you are not failing your child. Just keep plodding along with the reading aloud as you can. It will pay off and the whole vocab thing will grow and develop.

[Caribbean Queen]

I have to disagree with all those who say that you should stop and make sure she understands every word.

 

:iagree: It isn't necessary.

 

It also makes things dry and dull.

 

Some of my school teachers felt the need to make sure we knew all the words in our books. Too much stopping and defining words distracted me from paying attention to the story.

 

I can not remember any parts of some of the books I read in school because there was so many discussions and worksheets and quizes and things. It sucked the fun out of reading.

[MeganW]

I couldn't make huge quantities of reading aloud time when I was picturing me and the children snuggled up on the sofa for several hours a day. Children gazing up at me adoringly, etc. etc.

 

That just wasn't realistic for my kids. They are BUSY, and WIGGLY.

 

It's all about choosing the time when you have a captive audience.

 

Now, I do non-history readalouds while they eat meals. If I don't get it done then, I do it while they are in the tub. I know it sounds nuts, but it works for us.

 

History reading is short & sweet, after "recess", and they have playdough while I am reading. That's a good hand warmup before handwriting! But seriously, the history is like 5 minutes, not much more!

[Beth in SW WA]

Read Aloud! 30-60 minutes a day, 60 being better. They will be exposed to many new words including pronounciation, grammar and context.

 

:iagree:

I would like to add that I require dd7 to read with a pencil in hand. She underlines any words she doesn't know and we go over them later (since I'm usually working with dd8 while dd7 is doing SSR -- super silent reading). :)

 

Dd8 reads with our iPad nearby. She uses a dictionary app herself.

[FriedClams]

Read Aloud! 30-60 minutes a day, 60 being better. They will be exposed to many new words including pronounciation, grammar and context.

 

And loads of audio books (and little to no tv ;))

[Beth in SW WA]

And loads of audio books (and little to no tv ;))

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[WeeBeaks]

I have to disagree with all those who say that you should stop and make sure she understands every word. If she isn't interested enough to ask what it means, just let it go by. (If she's so lost that literally every word is new, find something slightly different to read.) Just make sure that your inflections indicate as much as they can about what you're reading.

 

I would have agreed with this when my oldest was little. He picked words up easily from context.

 

Now I'm dealing with a whole different kid and have a whole different perspective. He NEVER speaks up to ask and has to be encouraged to do so. It began to dawn on us that he truly is missing a huge amount of routine vocabulary and never ever asked. When you are missing a large amount of vocabulary, the story is basically meaningless to you, complete gibberish, and totally uninteresting of course. You need enough base of vocabulary to then be able to do context clues. Some kids, even those read to from birth, apparently can be missing that. DS needs explicit definitions of lots of words I would have thought he knew.

 

Hopefully when he gets to some critical mass of vocabulary, he will begin picking up context like his brother did naturally. That is my hope at least, sort of like reading when seem to break through a wall and hit fluency.

 

I don't want to discourage parents who may, like me, need to break up the story more than seems sensible and explain, explicitly, what lots and lots of the words mean. DS still struggles with asking. He doesn't want to interrupt or bother despite being encouraged to do so. I don't think it is typical, but it can happen apparently to have a kid like that! :)

[In the Rain]

I consider my 7yo to have a good vocabulary. When I asked her just now, she didn't know what manure meant either.

 

We listen to a lot of books on CD. I'm more concerned about her following the storyline than understanding every word. Because we often listen in the car, I occasionally pause the CD to discuss vocabulary. I definitely don't worry about every word, but sometimes I am struck by an interesting thought. Ex: maybe the story has used these words in a short period of time: Malificent, malicious, malign. I'd point it out and talk about the meaning of "mal" words. Yesterday's CD had a string of "gr" words describing the unpleasant grandma. We talked about the words used and also how "gr" is a gruff, grouchy, grumpy sound (from MCT).

 

Sometimes I stick 5 post-it arrow flags on the cover of a book when the girls are reading silently. I tell them to mark any interesting or unknown words and phrases. At some point, I'll look through the book and discuss them with the kids. They like doing it, so it isn't really a chore.

 

I also think oldest children generally have the best vocabularies because they had the most conversations with adults. Younger kids get less one on one conversation with parents. I think that's just how it is.