How many new words should my child learn each week?

Two or three taught deliberately, alongside the many absorbed from being read to. Deliberate means you choose the word, give the meaning in the moment, use it yourself several times that week, and ask for it back. Past three you cannot keep up your side of that bargain, and a word nobody repeats is quietly dropped. The read-aloud does the heavy lifting; the chosen few are the part you can guarantee.

Should my child look words up in a dictionary?

Not as the main method, and not in the middle of a book. Dictionary definitions are written for people who already know most of the words inside them, so a child can copy one out neatly and still not understand the word. Teach the meaning in your own words first. Dictionary work earns its place as its own skill around Grade 3 or 4, for alphabetical order and for choosing between several listed meanings.

My child understands words when I read them but never uses them. Is that a problem?

No. Understanding a word when you hear it always comes before using it, often by months, and a large listening vocabulary is what makes future reading possible. To move words across, use them yourself in ordinary conversation and give your child a reason to reach for one by asking a question that is awkward to answer without it. Writing draws words out too, because writing gives time to search.

Does vocabulary have to be taught separately from reading?

Most of it should not be. The efficient path is one read-aloud a day from a book a little harder than your child could manage alone, with quick meanings given as you go, plus two or three words kept on cards. Separate lessons earn their place for word parts and roots, and for the particular terms of a subject you are studying. Everything else is learned more cheaply inside a book.

How to Teach Vocabulary — Readiness, Practice, Mastery

Vocabulary is the store of word meanings a child recognizes in reading and can reach for in speech. It grows fastest not from lists but from meeting a word inside a sentence that already makes sense, getting a short plain-language meaning on the spot, and then running into that same word several more times in the days that follow.

Which words are worth stopping for

Not every unknown word deserves a lesson. Three kinds turn up in a child's reading. Everyday words like table, run and cold, which children pick up without you. Words that travel across subjects, such as gather, sturdy, ancient, examine and reluctant, which appear in a science book and a storybook alike. And technical words tied to one topic, like photosynthesis, which the subject itself will teach. The middle group is where deliberate teaching pays.

Choose two or three of those a week out of whatever you are already reading. Two words genuinely learned outrank twenty defined and forgotten, because learning a word means meeting it repeatedly, and you can only engineer repetition for a few words at a time. Write them somewhere you will see them yourself, not somewhere your child will. A card taped to the kitchen table is the whole system.

The five-second meaning, and what to say

When you hit an unknown word during a read-aloud, do not stop and look it up. Momentum matters more than precision in that moment, and a dictionary definition is usually written in words your child does not know either. Hand over a child-sized meaning in about five seconds, reread the sentence with the meaning in place, and keep going. The teaching happens across the following week.

Say the word, then a plain synonym or short phrase: "Reluctant. It means he did not want to."
Reread the whole sentence with the meaning slotted in: "He was reluctant to go in. He did not want to go in."
Carry on reading. Do not ask a question about the word now; the interruption has already cost enough.
Later that day, use the word yourself in something ordinary: "You seem reluctant to put your shoes on."
The next day, ask for it back: "What is a word for when you don't want to do something?"
At the end of the week, ask your child to use it in a sentence about something real rather than an invented example.

Word parts multiply what one lesson buys

Around Grade 3, prefixes, suffixes and roots start earning more than individual words do, because one part opens dozens of words at once. Begin with un-, re-, pre-, dis-, -ful, -less, -er and -ly, one at a time. Introduce each with four or five words your child already knows before you apply it to a word they do not, so the part is learned from familiar ground rather than guessed at.

The script is short. "Un- means not. Unkind means not kind. Unhappy means not happy. What do you think unusual means?" That last question is the entire lesson. From then on, hand your child words they have not seen and let them predict: harmless, replay, careless, dislike. Guessing out loud and then checking the guess against the sentence it came from teaches more than any matching exercise.

What goes on the back of the card

A stack of index cards will carry a whole year. The word goes on the front. On the back goes the sentence you met it in, not a definition, because the sentence is what your child will actually remember and it carries the word's flavor as well as its meaning. Pull three cards out at dinner and ask for each one used in a sentence about something that really happened that day.

Sorting beats defining. Spread ten cards out and ask your child to make groups, then to say why those words belong together: words about how someone feels, words about moving, words you would only find in an old book. Grouping forces one word to be compared with another, and comparison is what fixes a meaning in place. A dictionary is a reference for later, not a teaching tool for a seven-year-old.

Telling whether a word actually stuck

It is working when a taught word turns up unprompted in conversation, when your child asks what a word means instead of reading past it, and when they describe one word as close to another without being able to say exactly why. That last one is a good sign rather than a vague answer. It means the word has been filed near its neighbors instead of stored on its own.

It is not working when your child recites a definition smoothly and then cannot find the word in a sentence, or when a word never appears again once its card goes back in the box. Both mean definitions were taught instead of words. Switch to examples and non-examples: "A vessel holds things. A cup is a vessel. A jug is a vessel. A blanket is not. Why not?"

When your child stalls, shrink the set to one word for the week and commit to using it yourself six times where they can hear it. There is no end point to vocabulary and no honest timeline for it, which is the real argument for keeping a daily read-aloud going for years after your child can read independently.

First, your child should already…

This skill builds directly on:

Reading Comprehension — master this first.

What your child is learning

Vocabulary grows when children meet words in meaningful sentences, connect them to known ideas, and use them in speech or writing.

Signs your child is ready

Asks what words mean
Can sort words into categories
Uses new words after hearing them

The common stumbling point

Memorizing a definition without being able to recognize or use the word in a sentence.

Practice this skill

Worksheets and decodable practice for Vocabulary are in the library.

All grades — Vocabulary, Morphology & Word Study 4,706 worksheets

Every set opens its first three worksheets to everyone; the rest are included with All Access.

Browse the whole practice library

How to know it’s mastered

The child explains a word, chooses it in context, and uses it correctly in a sentence.

Common questions

How many new words should my child learn each week?: Two or three taught deliberately, alongside the many absorbed from being read to. Deliberate means you choose the word, give the meaning in the moment, use it yourself several times that week, and ask for it back. Past three you cannot keep up your side of that bargain, and a word nobody repeats is quietly dropped. The read-aloud does the heavy lifting; the chosen few are the part you can guarantee.
Should my child look words up in a dictionary?: Not as the main method, and not in the middle of a book. Dictionary definitions are written for people who already know most of the words inside them, so a child can copy one out neatly and still not understand the word. Teach the meaning in your own words first. Dictionary work earns its place as its own skill around Grade 3 or 4, for alphabetical order and for choosing between several listed meanings.
My child understands words when I read them but never uses them. Is that a problem?: No. Understanding a word when you hear it always comes before using it, often by months, and a large listening vocabulary is what makes future reading possible. To move words across, use them yourself in ordinary conversation and give your child a reason to reach for one by asking a question that is awkward to answer without it. Writing draws words out too, because writing gives time to search.
Does vocabulary have to be taught separately from reading?: Most of it should not be. The efficient path is one read-aloud a day from a book a little harder than your child could manage alone, with quick meanings given as you go, plus two or three words kept on cards. Separate lessons earn their place for word parts and roots, and for the particular terms of a subject you are studying. Everything else is learned more cheaply inside a book.

What comes next

Once this is solid, move on to:

Grammar →