This year I signed my child up for a new class — and it completely changed the way I think about vocabulary.
Vocabulary was almost an effortless pursuit in our house. As I wrote in You’re Teaching Vocabulary Wrong, we use sophisticated language and have read classics to my children since they were toddlers. This approach aligns with cognitive development on how children learn words. My children understand and use rich language.
However, there’s a limit to this approach, particularly as you reach the higher echelons of education. Much of our legal, literary, and scientific words are not present in everyday language or classic works of fiction — though there was a surprising amount of high quality science in Jurassic Park.
I want my children to be able to read anything: research papers, political speeches, dense literary criticism — not just novels.
That may seem unrealistic, but remember how learning to read works.
Children learn 44 sounds (some letters have more than one sound) and unlock the entirety of the English language.
Phonics is the cheat code to reading.
What if I told you there’s a cheat code for vocabulary too?
Up to 90% of academic words from the disciplines of literature, science, and law come from Greek and Latin pre-fixes and root families. If your child learns ~100, it will unlock thousands of words.
I’ve personally experienced this magic. I took an etymology course in high school with the most vibrant 70-something teacher. We learned countless Latin and Greek roots. All of a sudden, science class opened up to me. Instead of definitions, I spent my time learning the details. This boost stayed with me throughout my career as a scientist.
I wanted this for my daughter and got it, but the course has done something perhaps even more special.
It’s changed how my daughter feels about words.
Today, she excitedly told me Mama! Constellation means “with stars” or “stars together!”
I wish you could have seen her smile.
The conversations around the dinner table have changed too. Looking up the origin of words has become commonplace. It seems impossible that such a small amount of work does so very, very much for her language skills. Not to mention her interest in learning Latin next year (fingers crossed!)
I signed my daughter up for this class because I wanted her to be able to read more difficult books. I didn’t expect it teach her see words tiny puzzles to solve. Things to investigate and find joy in. And that feels like so much more than vocabulary.
Etymology is a strange but delightful way to teach children to look at the world with curiosity, and know that even words have something to uncover.
Below, I share the exact class my daughter is taking, along with a DIY version if you’d rather teach Greek and Latin roots yourself.