The following is a guest review from Jackie. Please welcome her!
Site: Vocabulary Fun
The Fun Way to Build Vocabulary Skills!
Good for: Phonics–including Dolch words, literature, ESL, vocabulary, spelling, foreign languages (Spanish, French, German, English, Latin), typing skills and more.
This site is especially great for visual-spatial learners of all ages. The flash animation games help the student make connections between words and ideas and between words and pictures. My daughter uses the middle school activities and loves them. Her retention is wonderful. I attribute that to the flash animation and the fact that she has fun.
Games are divided into the following groups:
- Primary (K-2)
- Intermediate (3-5)
- Middle School (6-8)
- High School (9-12)
Not only can learners play challenging games, but they can also watch video lessons of many of the skills. The literature section includes quite a few popular titles as well. Some examples are To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Wild Things Are, Gulliver’s Travels, The Black Stallion, Romeo and Juliet, Matilida and so forth. Most of the learning concepts have several games associated with them, so you can play lots of times without repeating a game.
The site also offers super resource articles for various topics such as:
- speed reading
- spelling and vocabulary articles
- SAT
- GRE Verbal Tips
- GMAT Test Prep
- How to Increase Your Vocabulary
- vocabulary lessons plans
- how to use crosswords and puzzles to teach
- They even have their own blog with archives dating back to 2007.
Types of Learning Games Available:
Analogy Games
Antonym Games
Compound Word Games
Context Games
Contraction Games
English Language Games
Foreign Language Games
Hig Pig Games
Homophone Games
Idioms Games
Latin Learning Games
Literature Games
Oxymoron Games
Parts of Speech Games
Phonics Games
Prefix Games
Root Word Games
SAT Games
Spelling Games
Suffix Games
Syllable Games
Synonym Games
Typing Games
Word Play Games
Click over to the Vocabulary Fun site to see for yourself!
Jackie, a former public and private school teacher, enjoys the challenge of customizing a curriculum for her right-brained visual learner. Her daughter has been using the Time4Learning curriculum for three years because she enjoys learning on the computer. You can read more about homeschooing topics at both of Jackie’s blogs: Quaint Scribbles and 3-D Learners.
Homeschooling since 2000, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She has seen the fruits of home education with two grads so far! With their You ARE an artist art curriculum she, "Nana" and her family are passionate about growing a love of art. She also shares helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge and is author of the book, Help! I’m Homeschooling! She and her husband, Steve, are owners of The Curriculum Choice.
We have used Vocabulary Fun for a number of years. My daughter is very much a visual learner and learns best when playing games. This site allows my daughter to review and learn without it seeming like mind numbing repetition. She hates to repeat things but at the same time she will play the same games over and over. I say it is good practice! We especially like the typing games. Thanks for the review.