Roots and Fruits
Roots and Fruits is a comprehensive e-book written by a homeschool Mom who used to be a teacher. She developed Roots and Fruits because she saw a lack in vocabulary knowledge among the students she was working with, even if they read a lot.
You would think that if a student read a great deal, they would have a good handle on vocabulary, but that is not the case. If you know your vocabulary, then your comprehension is good too.
She found that the best way to teach vocabulary was through teaching Greek and Latin roots and prefixes. In Roots and Fruits you will find 673 roots and prefixes along with 1716 vocabulary words. This program can be used for just 15 minutes a day. She suggests introducing 1 root each week for younger students and 2 roots a week for grades 4-12.
Knowing Greek and Latin roots and prefixes helps students be better prepared for the SAT, be able to learn a foreign language with more ease, and generally helps students in every subject. If your child knows that “bio” means life, when they get to words like biosphere, biography, biology and biodegradable, they will have a much better understanding of what those words mean.
I know last year when I watched the finals of the National Spelling Bee I noticed that the finalists had a very good understanding and knowledge of the Greek and Latin roots and prefixes of words. The winner definitely had the best knowledge in this area, so it worked to her advantage. Most of our children will not be in the National Spelling Bee, but knowing Greek and Latin roots can certainly benefit them in school and later in life.
Children in Kindergarten can even begin this program. It is beneficial for all students all the way through high school. This guide contains 205 of the most used SAT words.
Roots and Fruits comes complete with a list of what you can do each day of the week as you introduce one or two new roots each week. There are teaching activity suggestions and 14 games that you can use to help your children be able to use and understand the roots they are learning that week. She suggests keeping previously learned words on display so that you can easily review them. You can learn the roots in any order you choose. This is not a workbook method of teaching, but using this method will probably help your children remember them better than with a workbook.
The only improvement I would suggest is that the book be clickable. If I click on the letter “B” in the table of contents, then I should be taken to the page that starts the roots for the letter “B”.
All in all, I think this e-book is a great idea and displays the material in a way that is easy to implement. I know I will be using this with my 8 and 14 year old children over the course of this year and beyond.
To get your copy of Roots and Fruits for 25% off for a limited time, you can go to http://edudps.com/rootsandfruits.html.
Originally posted 2009-09-30 23:20:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
