When my kids were younger, we used Wordly Wise to study vocabulary. One of my greatest frustrations was that even after spending an entire week studying a word, I wouldn’t hear the words come out of my child’s mouth! One year I heard a speaker discuss the problem. She said there was a time delay with vocabulary. She said that it took a long time for vocabulary words to sink in, and that it wasn’t uncommon for their to be a year or two between the time you TEACH a new word until the vocabulary word is used in a sentence. Teaching vocabulary is helping the student understand what the word means when they hear it. After years of hearing it, then they start using it themselves.
When my kids went to college, and lived alone for the first time, I wondered about all the wonderful values lessons that I had given them. Would those lessons stick? Would they keep their faith, their values, and their ideals in college? For two years they were virtually silent. Now suddenly they are starting to talk about those values lessons, and owning them as part of their own vocabulary. My son will say, “I need to budget” or “I think I’ll take the bus instead of drive” or “I wonder if that’s a healthy food choice?” The words they choose seems to have come from my own mouth, just two years ago. Now, after a two year time delay, I can hear the vocabulary and values lessons coming to the surface!
Homeschooling through high school is still the best way to ensure your vocabulary and your values are communicated to your kids in a way they will remember and respect. Keep up the good work!
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