When I took out this vocabulary card from our Lone Star Learning set and asked Anna to do a photo shoot for me she said, “Oh, we get to learn another word!” She likes these cards. We have been privileged to review the Greek and Latin Roots ($39.99) set of Get the Picture Vocabulary Cards.
The premise is pretty simple. Each card features a Greek or Latin root with a visual representation of the meaning. This visual representation is built into the actual word (or part of a word in this case). For right-brained learners this kind of visual connection with word formation is essential yet often lacking. My daughter is a struggling learner. I’ve mentioned that before. However, as a mama bear I am always on the lookout for products that will help her visually-oriented, right-brained, dyslexic, sweet, sweet self. The Greek and Latin Roots cards are helping her learn to read and even spell. Eventually, we will be collecting all of the vocabulary card sets.
Let’s take the card in this picture as an example. Phil. It’s Greek and it means love. Words derived from the root phil include Philemon (book of the Bible) and Phillip. I handed the card to Anna and let her look at it. I asked her to read the word and she did. I asked her what the word meant and she answered “Love”. I asked her to act out the meaning and she had her little brother help with hugs and kisses. In all of this time I never told her a single thing. After she figured all of that out by herself, we discussed some of the derivatives and some of the Scriptural references like phileo (brotherly love).
Some of the other cards we have enjoyed learning include vor (eat – voracious), therm (fire – thermal), chrom (color -chromatic). Each time we introduce a card we follow basically the same pattern. 1. Look at card. 2. Guess the meaning and confirm. 3. Act out the meaning. 4. Discuss derivative words and any Scriptural or cultural relevance. After a card has been introduced, we review it each day with the new cards. We add a card every few days. Our goal is to finish this set before the end of the year.
Our cards came with a master card that tells us the meaning and a few derivatives for each root. The Greek root cards have a purple border and the Latin root cards have a green border. I didn’t get any instructions in the set, but I thought it was pretty intuitive how to use them. The 5.5″ x8.5″ cards are printed in full color on high-quality laminate card stock. I still chose to laminate mine because I have six children and two of those children are four-years-old. I made this decision after the two of them carried our therm card around for days and it kinda got wrinkled. Lone Star Learning says these cards are appropriate for 3rd-8th grade and I think that’s true — except that they would also be handy for anyone studying for the ACT/SAT exams.
My Bottom Line: I already bought the abc-Pics™ Cards for my twins and have more purchases planned. Enough said.
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