I have a seven year old who is reluctant to do anything resembling homework if he doesn’t need to. It took me a few days of coaxing him before he would sit down and check out the Mrs.Wordsmith package that we got. Once he decided to join me, he was more than pleasantly surprised. In fact, as soon as we opened up the first word of the day, he declared, “This is the funniest picture I’ve ever seen!”. My other son will be three in about a month, and is a huge fan of having stories read to him.
He was much more interested and excited to look at the pictures and have the words and story read to him.
Mrs. Wordsmith has two levels. The social Journey is designed for ages two through five. It
introduces basic vocabulary and concepts in an engaging way. The idea is to help children build
a vocabulary early that helps them to express themselves clearly. At the same time, they
continue to build a good foundation of words so that their vocabulary continues to grow as they
do. The Narrative Journey is designed for ages six through thirteen. It is designed to expand a
child’s vocabulary in a way that helps them to develop communication, storytelling and
description skills.
Both levels include a word of the day activity book. There is also a convenient stand to set up
the activity book so that it is visible and ready to use every day. The activity book presents a
new word each day, along with a couple of simple exercises that reinforce letter and word
recognition in The Social Journey, or definitions and word pairs in The Narrative Journey. The
activities are straight forward, and are designed to help cement the new word and what it means
into a growing brain. The definitions of the words are presented in easy to understand language,
and the art that goes with the word helps to reinforce the definition with a funny image that
clearly illustrates the word. The illustrations also had my reluctant seven year old asking to
check out another word of the day without me prompting him. I call that a win!
A box of word cards in included with both The Social Journey and The Narrative Journey. These
flash cards are a more portable version of the word of the day. They include suggestions on how
to use the cards in fun ways to help kids continue to practice using the new word. They have the
same fun and engaging image as the word of the day activity book for each word. We even took
ours with us on a weekend getaway, and actually pulled them out and used them.
The Social Journey materials also include a story book that uses the new vocabulary words in
context. The art is colorful and engaging. The stories have a sense of humor that kids of all
ages can appreciate. The stories and art kept my kids engaged in learning the new words.
Overall, I was very happy with what we got from Mrs. Wordsmith. We will definitely be using the
activity pages on a regular basis.
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*Disclaimer: I was provided this product for the purpose of a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
