TOS Review: VocabAhead

Photobucket

Are you looking for a fun way to increase your student’s vocabulary?  Perhaps you have a high school student preparing for the SAT and you need something for vocabulary review?  VocabAhead may be what you need!

Photobucket

As a member of the Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, I received a DVD-Rom from VocabAhead to review.  This DVD-ROM contains over 1,000 “videos” and MP3 files.  For the video files: the visual portion shows a definition of the word and then shows a cartoon depicting the word while  the sound includes the definition along with either a few sentences providing context for the word or a short narrative story using the word.  The MP3 files allow you to take your learning “on the go” and can be played on your computer or uploaded to your iPod.  These files contain the same sound as the video files.

VocabAhead DVD retails for $24.99. If you click on DVD Product on the VocabAhead website (click here), it will give you a link to Amazon to purchase the DVD.

DabblePIc

Here is one of my favorite words from the DVD-ROM. The narration for this verb tells a story.  The boy just dabbles at his work because he’d rather be off playing ball with his friends. The story is entertaining but the definition sticks. 

 All of us have enjoyed learning vocabulary with VocabAhead.  TailorBear, age 11, said “it’s fun.  I like the stories.”   We’ve used this DVD-ROM in two ways.

1) As a visual dictionary.   If one of the girls needs to look up a word, she puts in the DVD-ROM and searches the videos for the word.  We discovered that Toxin was not included but we learned a new word: Tocsin.  (Tocsin: a signal; a warning bell)

2) 3 to 4 times a week we gather around the computer and watch 5 videos.   We’ve been taking the first 5 words of each letter of the alphabet.  When we make it through letter Z, we’ll go back to the top with A and go through the alphabet again with the next 5 words.  We try to find ways to incorporate the new words into our conversation.

In addition to the DVD-ROM, VocabAhead also offers a book and an iPod application.   The website is a rich and valuable resource for vocabulary prep for the SAT.  I really appreciate the DVD-ROM though because with it, I get more words than what is available in the study room and more importantly with the DVD-ROM I am not dependent on the internet. 

Click on the banner below to read what my fellow Crewmates have to say about VocabAhead.

Photobucket

Disclaimer: As a TOS Crew member, I received this product free of charge to review. This review is my honest opinion with, hopefully, enough detail as to why I liked or did not like a product so that my readers can make an informed decision. I received no compensation.

Comments

  1. Thanks for reviewing our DVD, Tess. We are happy to know that your children are using it as a reference dictionary and finding the short stories entertaining and 'sticky' :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Celebration Giveaway!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! NEW START - NEW YEAR - NEW LOOK!

My Love Affair with the Homeschool Review Crew!