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Vocabulary??
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I’ve been lurking here for the past couple of months and want to thank all of you for helping me get started with CM. Most of my questions were answered by the many posts that you all put here so I was able to prepare for this coming school year (which starts on Monday!). I absolutely love this board and appreciate all you Godly women!
I’m new to CM but not to homeschooling. I’ve been homeschooling my kids for the past 6 years using a variety of curriculums and always feeling like there was something better out there. I’ve known about CM but never pursued it because it seemed like too much preparation for me…workbooks are easy to schedule! Earlier this year God was bringing CM back to my attention as a better way for my girls (going into 4th and 6th grade) to learn. I’m sure this is the direction that God is leading our family.
So there’s a little bit of background info; and now here’s my question… How do you incorporate vocabulary? I’ve looked through the forum and haven’t found any reference to this subject. We’ve been using Wordly Wise for the past 4 years but I just feel like it doesn’t quite fit into the CM way of learning. I bought it again for this coming year but now feel that it will be a burden. Any suggestions on how you approach vocabulary would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Julie
Julie, I don’t have a lot of information on the “CM ways” but I do know that some feel that with the reading, narration etc it’s not a necessary and it is almost you might say self-taught.
That said, I am a “TERRABLE” speller. I read a lot and enjoy it but spelling is difficult for me. So we do Phonetic Zoo by IEW. I love it and the boys don’t mind doing spelling. They listen to a CD which gives them a jingle to go with the 15 words they are working on, then dictates it in a sentence. After all 15 words then he corrects it with them. They do this how ever often you want (we do it daily) and they don’t move on until they do it w/ no mistakes for 2 days in a row. Which is great, NO TESTS! Which helps motivate them.
The other reason we use this method is while one is using the CD player and doing spelling I can work w/ someone who needs me for soemthing else. Also, it’s different kind of break from together time, independent time, guided time and sibling time. And most of all it’s simple. And they all use the same CD so it’s one cost till they go through all the lessons and we haven’t even done 1/2 and I’m good with that they just go along at there own speed and I don’t have to worry about anything.
That’s just how we do it and it works. Hope that helps.
Misty
We’ve never used a separate vocabulary program and my kids have always scored off the charts on that section of the standardized tests. With all the good literature they get through the living books, dictation, copywork, etc., they consistently hear and see words above their grade levels and pick up most of those words just by context. And learning the word in context really helps it stick because it’s couched in a living idea rather than just a list to memorize. If we come across a word in our reading that is unfamiliar and can’t be figured out by context, we grab a dictionary and look it up because we’re curious — not because we have to.
Anyway, that’s how we’ve approached vocabulary. 🙂
Thanks for the info. I love that I can come to this forum and gain so much wisdom from those who used CM with great success! I will rest in the fact that my children will aquire a broad vocabulary through their reading of living books, dictation, and copywork. It makes sense that our minds would grasp the information through the context of good literature rather than a list of unrelated words.
Julie
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