Natural Homeschool Learning

I'm a fan of E D Hirsch and his concept that we should all master the words and info of our basic culture.  Without the basic information, we are culturally and effectively illiterate.

While teaching many concepts and ideas requires a great deal of time, a different question is giving the kids the practice that they need at each grade level to maintain their mastery of these concepts and vocabulary.

While som people don't respect word games and lists, I think they are a useful step for getting much of the info from short term into long term memory.

here's lists that work great for reinforcing key concepts and vocabulary including math, science, and social studies by grade level
 1st Grade Spelling Word Lists
2nd Grade Reading Word Lists
3rd Grade Spelling Word Lists
4th Grade Spelling Word Lists
5th Grade Spelling Word Lists 

I like the idea that there are multiple meaning words, sound alike words, and other confusing words at each grade level.  Examples are on these pages.

There areHomonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Heteronyms, and Capitonyms, confused yet?:

• Homonyms, or multiple-meaning words, are words that have different meanings (e.g. dog bark, tree bark).
• Homophones, or sound-alikes, are two or more words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings, and may or may not be spelled on the same way (e.g. write/right, their/there/they’re). There are hundreds of tehse for each grade level.
• Homographs are words that have the same spelling, but have different meanings and may be pronounced differently (like heteronyms) or the same (like homonyms).
• Heteronyms, or heterophones, are words that that have the same spelling but have different pronunciations (e.g. bow and arrow vs. take a bow). That is, they are homographs which are not homophones.