Vocabulary?

[TXMary2]

We have only ever used Wordly Wise for Vocabulary. I like it because it seems to be good preparation for the SAT. That said, when I was still educating my oldest son I skipped vocabulary relating to literature he was reading because it would have been too much to do both. I am working on the plan for 9th grade for my middle son and I am entertaining the idea of stopping WW and focusing on vocabulary words provided in literature guides etc. Do you think this would be just as valuable as Wordly Wise or would we be coming up short? I don't want to do both because it might be overkill.

[Julie in MN]

We have only ever used Wordly Wise for Vocabulary. I like it because it seems to be good preparation for the SAT. That said, when I was still educating my oldest son I skipped vocabulary relating to literature he was reading because it would have been too much to do both. I am working on the plan for 9th grade for my middle son and I am entertaining the idea of stopping WW and focusing on vocabulary words provided in literature guides etc. Do you think this would be just as valuable as Wordly Wise or would we be coming up short? I don't want to do both because it might be overkill.

I've been fiddling with this idea all year.

What has worked just recently is reading the vocab with ds before he reads the book, or during the first week he reads the book. When I am able to read the word aloud to him, he hears how to pronounce it & we discuss the meaning back & forth. If this happens fairly close to when he encounters the word in literature, he seems more willing to "use" the word rather than skip over it. It doesn't all stick, but I do think his ears perk back up when he reads a word we've discussed.

Then the rest of his weeks when he's reading or analyzing his literature, we go back to his regular vocab program. Staying on those same words for too long makes him dislike the literature, as if it's just a vocab lesson.

Ds is only in 8th, so I don't know if he'll have as much time when he actually gets to high school, but I'm experimenting now! This child is a very different learner than my dd was.

(We're using LL & MCT, if that matters.)
Julie

[merylvdm]

I think it depends on your child. We use Sonlight so all my kids have to read a LOT!! My oldest is a girl and she just naturally picks up words and what they mean. She used Vocab from Classical Roots and Wordly Wise. Then in her senior year she used Word Power Made Easy which is part of the SL Brit Lit course - and she says it was the best.

She did extremely well on all the critical reading sections of the SAT, PSAT and ACT.

2 boys are next in age. Sigh. Doing all the same stuff ... not getting same results. I want my 11th grader to do Word Power Made Easy this year and see if it helps, but to be honest, I am getting him to do quite a few different things - basically as much vocab as possible becuase without it he cannot do well on the standardized tests. He play on http://freerice.org (http://freerice.org/) as that is a fun way to practice and I have found a few new sites I will try out too.

Meryl