Vocabulary Lessons

The following is a review of Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co. with the TOS Homeschool Review Crew. 

Critical Thinking books have been a welcome addition to our homeschool curriculum for many years. Our whole family has enjoyed their mind-benders and puzzle type IQ building books. This vocabulary book fit in perfectly with my son’s high school routine. 

One purpose indicated from even the title of this book is test prep. While I do not emphasize testing in our homeschool as much as mastery of lessons, it has to be done for various things including scholarship applications. I want our children to succeed and at this point, scholarships are a huge benefit for financing college. Of course, learning vocabulary enriches conversations, too. In the book’s introduction, they shared that it was created to build vocabulary necessary for comprehension in critical reading. The majority of words are from current PSAT or SAT lists. 

From the beginning our homeschool has not always been at home. Life school is a better description as lessons can and are done wherever we are. Last month when we first received the Vocabulary Virtuoso book to review, my dad had another major surgery. My son and I joined my mom in the surgery waiting room, and as we waited, this workbook was one of the things my son worked on. Because we are traveling, even when it’s just next door to my parents’ house, it is convenient when lessons can be portable. This workbook has been easy for my son to carry in his backpack. In fact when I looked for it to complete for this review that’s exactly where it was. 

Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 is a 208 page paperback workbook (also available as a digital download) with a suggested range of 8th to 12th grades. My ninth grade son began it in the last quarter of ninth grade and will continue using it until completion in the tenth grade. There is also a second book in this series that I am already considering for him to use after this one. 

Each of the twenty lessons follow the same format. The lessons begin with a vocabulary word list which includes pronunciation, definition, and a sample sentence for each word. A part of speech is the connecting factor in each lesson, for example lesson 1 is amazing adjectives and lesson 15 is volatile verbs. Following the list, each lesson consists of six 1-4 page activities which require the students to think through and learn the words. Every four lessons are followed by a three page review. The lessons could be completed in a week, but since we were not in a rush, we stretched out the six components of each lesson to two weeks. I required him to review the words every day and complete three of the activities each week. We did push a little faster so he could cover one of reviews before we completed our product review. The first review added a gun factor with a cross word puzzle. There were also two other review activities. 

I recommend this for any high school student who wants to improve their vocabulary. We have used so many great books from The Critical Thinking Co through the years. Click below to read other TOS reviews of this and other products.

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