This is the second of my series on "What We Do for Homeschool" and the next subject we tackle after Bible according to our schedule. Actually, I call it "Opening Time & Vocabulary". Bible is first and foremost in everything we do around here - so our opening time has to come after it...
Opening Time: This we don't do every day (we use to when the girls were younger), but we now occassionally still do the pledge to the American flag, the pledge to the Christian flag, and the pledge to the Bible. The pledge to the American flag is not repeated nearly enough now days and it is amazing how quickly our children can forget the words. I have fond memories as a child reciting all three pledges at VBS and at the Christian high school I attended.
Next the girls take turns writing the vocabulary word for the day on the white board and the date (one writes the word, while the other writes the date).
Vocabulary: IS done every day. Our vocabulary word of the day comes from Vocabulary Cartoons. We take one word a day, write it on the board, and then read all the corresponding page in the book has to say about the word -- which gives a pronounciation, a brief definition, a silly "sounds like" and a VERY silly cartoon using the word in a mnemonic way. It then gives three very good sentences using the word. I really like this book! Then both girls will give me a sentence using that word.
I know I have posted about this before, but for those of you who are just tuning in, as an added incentive to increase their vocabulary and retain what they learn, we PAY for using vocabulary words. We don't give allowances, but for every vocabulary word our girls use correctly (up to 5 words a day, minus Sundays), they are paid a nickle a word. When they give me a sentence correctly using the word, they can then put a hash mark on a vocabuary chart I have in our schedule notebook. Then from time to time, I will pay them 5 cents per hash mark.
We also learn about idioms from the book, Mad as a Wet Hen!, usually taking a page a day and just reading it and discussing/laughing about the silly phrases we sometimes hear. This I think is important to learn. It perhaps isn't used as much in our generation, but over the past 100 years or more, these expressions were used quite often and I remember hearing them VERY OFTEN when I was part of the business world. A good thing to know and understand.
We also started using English from the Roots Up . Taking a Greek or Latin root a week (see whiteboard photo) and learing it together to better our grasp of the English language.
Lastly, our oldest daughter has 2 additional vocabulary words to learn a week as part of her high school curriculum.
I found 2 pages from Inge Cannon's excellent course, Mentoring Your Teen, that gives over 250 words that are ""Must Know" Words from College Entrance Exams (in order of frequency)." Although we are not going the college route, I believe they are good words to know no matter what path one pursues. With learning two words a week from this list, she should complete the list by the time she graduates. With these words, she writes them on the board, then reads them audibly to me to make sure she is pronouncing them correctly. Then she will write them in a special vocabulary book she has made...
with rainbow-colored paper and colorful alphabet tabs. She then has all week to look up her two words in a dictionary, write her own simple definition that will help her remember the word, and give me a sentence using each word. Tthese words are also included in the money incentive for learning vocabulary words.
I also included in the photo The Words You Should Know by David Olsen. Another great vocabulary book that deserves honorable mention. I bought it with good intentions, but honestly not sure if I'll ever find time to fit it in to our curriculum.
I know this seems like a lot of vocabulary & perhaps a little complicated (I hope it made sense). Maybe it is just because of my own deficiencies in grammer/vocab. that I tend to over-compensating with my daughters'; or perhaps because I belive that a good deal of what is taught in language arts today is soooo unnecessary that in the areas that I do deem important, I get a bit carried away :); however, in today's world, a strong working knowledge of a broad vocabulary is of much benefit.
Next time - History!
Blessings, Jane | 
