Review: Greek and Latin Roots Vocabulary Cards

It’s all Greek to me! 

Sorry. I just had to do that.  But have you ever felt as if what you are teaching your children might as well be a foreign language? 

Welcome to my world. And to the world of teaching a dyslexic child.

So why would the homeschool parent of a dyslexic child ask to review vocabulary cards for Greek and Latin Roots? 

These are no ordinary vocabulary cards, my friends. The folks at Lone Star Learning have put together a lovely set of Greek and Latin Roots Vocabulary Cards that go beyond the idea of rote memorization.

What I received

The Greek and Latin Roots cards are brightly illustrated in such a way that helps the student remember visually. They are 60 sturdy cards in all. 30 Greek cards and 30 Latin cards. The Greek root cards are lined with green and the Latin cards are lined with purple, making it easy to distinguish them both.

 When we first received them, the family and I enjoyed just going through them to see if we could guess what each root word meant.

You want to play with us? Try and see if you can figure out the root word and what it might mean. These are some of the Greek roots. 

Accompanying the cards was a list of things recommended to do with them.
 Some of the ideas were:

• to create an illustrated dictionary 
• use the roots to make acrostic poetry
• focus on a "Root of the Day"
• And more!

 I will say that they are pretty great for kids in general to assist with word studies.

How We Used Them

So back to the question I first posed. Why  introduce these cards to my dyslexic son? 

Josiah loves words. We make it a point to look up a new vocabulary word every day. He has always had an exceptional vocabulary. But that only extends to his oral vocabulary. The written words have obviously proved more of a challenge. One of the ways he learned phonics blends was to look at the words embedded into a picture form.  This helped him tremendously.  

As his reading has improved and he has moved beyond the simple books of early reading, more challenging words have appeared.  My thought was that by knowing Greek and Latin Roots words he would be able to decode more effectively.  

I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed them.  

We went through the cards often, but each week we chose two cards to focus on. I made up our vocabulary lists from words with those particular words. 

Josiah drew pictures, looked up words in his dictionary and made up sentences using the words. It was very effective. 

And better yet, you don't have to know Greek or Latin (or learning either) to use them. My Dad is a Ancient Languages Scholar (sounds ominous, I know). We took a class he offered last summer on Koine Greek. My brain is still swirling. And while these particular cards probably wouldn't help me with that course, Josiah loved the idea of learning something Papa knows. 

They would have been a tad bit easier to use if a suggested list of vocabulary words would have been included to use with the cards. But a quick search on Google took take of that. And I understand that everyone uses them for different purposes.

We had such a positive experience with these cards I'm anxious to order more of the other Vocabulary cards Lone Star Learning has available. 

 The Greek Latin Vocabulary Cards are 39.99 and available at Lone Star Learning and are suggested for kids 3rd-8th grade.

You can see what other reviewers had to say about these cards and other Lone Star Learning products at the Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog!

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.