Marie’s Words ~ Timberdoodle Review by The Johns Family

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Marie’s Words ~ Timberdoodle Review

I will never forget taking the standardized tests in high school and getting to the language arts section and trying to figure out those huge vocabulary words that seemed like a foreign language to me. As a parent, I find myself constantly encouraging our children to use proper words in their speech and to broaden their vocabulary too. I want our children to have a broad knowledge of vocabulary words and definitions but at the same time, I want learning these words and meanings to be fun. Thanks to Marie’s Words from Timberdoodle, we can do just that.

Marie’s Words contains 550 cards packaged in one box that feature words selected from the SAT test and literature. Each card features a full-color illustration of the word on one side and on the back of the card is the “facts” about the card including spelling of the word, pronunciation, part of speech, the word’s definition, synonyms/antonyms and the word used in a sentence. Each card also contains a pre-punched hole in the corner so you can easily put them together on a ring if you would like to. The cards are also numbered making it easy to keep them in ABC order too….or you could not tell your child what the number means and mix them all up and let your kids work on their alphabetizing skills! Just as we remember faces more easily than names, it makes sense that learning vocabulary with colorful illustrations to help with recall is more effective than merely studying a list of words and definitions.

At our house, we started a “Word of the Day” chart and each day I would randomly pull one card from the Marie’s Words box. At breakfast, we would go over the card and discuss it as a family then we challenge ourselves to see how many times a day we could use the word in a correct sentence. David & I also misuse the word occasionally just to see if the kids could catch it and we are surprised how often they do. I have to admit, it was neat to watch them learn words just from using it all day and how quickly they could recall the word and its definition even days later. We are also going to use these words for spelling lists for our daughter going into 6th grade so she can learn the words, correct spelling and definition which hopefully will help her in a few years on standardized tests. She struggles with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and ADD but we believe the way Marie’s Words are designed to be a visual vocabulary will be a huge learning asset for her.

Marie’s Words is a wonderful resource that is available through Timberdoodle for just $23.99! Timberdoodle also offers lots of other great Language Arts materials and homeschool curriculum for families. You can also follow them on Facebook to stay updated on the latest products and sales and request a free catalog to see all their products.

Disclaimer: As a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of Marie’s Words in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.