Researching vocabulary programs… while these two both are very popular and would serve us well – Wordly Wise and English from the Roots Up – I found another radically different idea.  Vocabulary Cartoons.

Pebbles and I are highly visual spatial thinkers and learners…. we both totally ‘got it’ and remembered complex vocabulary through the clever, and often humorous play on both the meaning and the ‘rhyming sound’ of the word itself = mnemonics. Totally makes sense – and is FUN. I think even BamBam can learn these words too with this method and he’s only 6!

Here are some popular visual vocabulary building products:

Vocabulary Cartoons – Bryan Burchers

Vocabbusters Cartoon Vocabulary by Deanne Howell

Marie’s Words – Visual Vocabulary for All Ages

Wouldn’t it be a greater challenge, with more meaning, if Pebbles looked up her own definition – figured out the correlation and drew her own cartoon to go with it?  Very ‘Diana Craft’ I must say!  This would definitely be challenging…. and possibly not possible…. (pertinacious? recalcitrant? obdurate?! seriously… do people use these words ever?)  Worth a try though!! Of course, as the book stated in a warning that trying to do this yourself would take countless amounts of time… I’m sure they are right.

Found many vocabulary lists online, and even some with a click offer the word’s meaning with it to save time. Some even has worksheet reviews built in!

edHelper.com > Vocabulary Lists by Grade Level

edHelper.com > Vocabulary for SAT

Flocabulary – The Word Up Project

Flocabulary – SAT list with meanings

Reading Key Free – grades 1-6

BigIQKids Grade 1 through SAT and SAT5000 – with meanings linked!

If this proves to not be fun… and too hard…. I’ll revisit simply buying the books! I love the idea of understanding the roots as that would naturally unlock the key meanings of words almost instantly. Still might do that in the future but for Grade 6, we still want to have a bit more fun while we can.