One of my favorite parts of being on The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew is being offered products that I may not have normally picked up, or may not be available in our area on the Central Oregon Coast. This past month we were offered the opportunity to review the Vocab Café books from College Prep Genius. I quickly answered with a Solid Yes!
Vocabulary has been one of my tingling thoughts in the back of my worry wart brain when it comes to testing after high school for placement into scholarship opportunities or entrance availability to colleges. I have seen a few really solid gifted teens loose opportunities based on their vocabulary testing, which has created a desire for me to focus a bit on vocabulary early on.
First – I must tell you – that I had to go all over the house to find all four books to photograph – by the bedside, the couch, the field guide bookshelf and one in the kitchen. That’s a good sign around here.
The second point in favor with this product is that a couple of weeks ago I reminded Nate (13) that we needed to do the review about the books, thinking we’d need to step it up– read a few pages/chapters together – talk about it to get a feel for the books. He brightened up and gave me a full summary narrative book report on I.M. for Murder, deep character assessments with plot turns and twists. How the characters thought about each other, and how their actions and decisions changed. I had a hard time staying in my seat – he’s really not that much of a reader outside of Garfield for his night time ritual. I calmly asked him if he knew they were vocabulary books, and he said ya, it’s real handy having the word definitions at the bottom if he gets stuck on a word.
So there ya have it – a product that entered our house, was quickly devoured, used, and appreciated – was completely self taught by the 13 year old dyslexic non reader – and mom just took photos. I trust what the site says below – the items that have been incorporated into the products. Many of the TOS Crew Parents pre-read each book – but Nate beat me to them. Again. Another plus.
From the Website –
“VocabCafé books help students easily learn SAT-level words while reading an original wholesome story.
These modern novellas contain no foul language, no illicit sexual themes, and no sorcery!
Based on a three-step approach to increasing vocabulary, each book highlights 300 advanced words by using DEFINITION, REPETITION, and REINFORCEMENT.
Readers find the definition of every highlighted word at the bottom of the page — a word review and appendix complement the learning process!”
Price: $51.80 But Right Now get all 4 Vocabcafe series books for the price of 3 – $38.85!
Check out what my fellow crewmates have to say about the
College Prep Genius products they were
able to use for free as part of our review crew!
http://homeschoolcrew.com/784187/
+Angie Wright
Pebblekeeper 
Great opportunity! Great review!