English From the Roots Up

Do you know   how to increase your child’s vocabulary? One fun and easy way is to use English from the Roots Up. This program teaches the Latin and Greek roots that are the foundation of our English language vocabulary.  

English from the Roots Up can give your child an incredible advantage in Reading, Writing, Spelling and even S.A. T. scores.

The knowledge of just one Greek or Latin root will open up a whole world of English words to your child.   

For example, take the Greek root word, photos.  Photos means light. Imagine all the English words that have the Greek root photo.  Words as, photograph, a picture drawn by light; or photosynthesis, a process of putting things together by using light.

Just imagine the vocabulary skills you can give your child if he understands the Latin and Greek roots of the English words!

English from the Roots Up comes with a Teacher’s Guide and flash cards. 

Here is a page from the Teacher's Guide:

These are the flashcards:

I found that the most effective way to teach your child Greek and Latin roots is to make learning a game.  In curriculum development, I instructed my teachers to teach English from the Roots Up as a game that the children enjoyed. Children were not tested on these words, but teachers consciously incorporated their use all throughout the day and encouraged the children to do also.

The results were that our students could not get enough of these words and were enthusiastic to learn more. The teachers were very creative in putting these words in front of the students throughout the day. The students began to own these words and look for English words that had them in it. Our parents were pleasantly surprised to see their children find these words in the most unusual places, even places such as restaurant menus.  

 Besides, making a game out of teaching these words, not all the words were taught in each grade. We assigned a set number of words to be taught each year for each grade level. By the time a student left the eighth grade the entire 100 root words were mastered and at the fingertips of our students giving them a great advantage in the Language arts.

Tip: Making the learning of the Greek and Latin root words a game. Limiting words per grade level, will help ease the teaching load of busy parents and at the same time, lay a solid vocabulary foundation for your child.

Teaching all 100 Greek and Latin root words can be daunting. Not sure how many to cover in each grade? The English from the Roots Up Grade Guide is strategy to teach all the root words over an eight year period. The Grade Guide alleviates pressure from parents to teach all 100 words, on various grade levels, while at the same time teaching various curricula. If taught properly, children will retain these words which will become a rich vocabulary data base enhancing their education.

English from the Roots Up Teacher Guide and Flashcards: