I was wondering... what dictionary you would recommend for early elementary? (My ds will be in first grade this fall.) I had ordered BJU's Christian Student Dictionary, but was told today it is out of stock. Not sure if they are going to print a new edition, but in the meantime, I need to figure out what to order instead. This dictionary was recommended by my mil, who homeschools one of her grandsons and tutors several children. I'm disappointed it's not available, but I'm sure there are other great dictionaries out there. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance! Blessings, Anne
I use Scholastic Children's Dictionary. When DD was about your child's age, I was "all ready" to go, all excited, etc. and the day before "D-Day", I realized I DIDN'T HAVE A DICTIONARY!!!! I went crazy; HOW can one start school without a dictionary!!!!! Went to Sam's Club and found this one. I've used it for the past five years, and I also went out about two years ago and bought their Thesaurus. There have been times when we've had to look up some words in our Adult Dictionary, but only recently as we were taking our spelling list from "English from the Roots Up", which used words based on Latin and Greek roots.
I'll second the Scholastic Dictionary for kids. My son sits and reads it for pleasure. Nice illustrations, too. It has held up for two years with daily use and still looks brand new. We got ours through Scholastic book order for somewhere around $10.
Anne..... There are several good dictionaries and reference tools. I use Houghton Mifflin The American Heritage Children's Dictionary..It has a phonics section,maps and world maps in it. It usually is recommended for starting in 3rd grade. However, I have used it with the boys from the beginning(including first grade). Houghton Mifflin also makes two more dictionaries compatible for first grade. One is The American Heritage, First Dictionary and The American Heritage Picture Dictionary. The also publish a thesaurus by the same series The American Heritage. Its called Children's Thesaurus..The one for the older grades is called Student Thesaurus. The thesaurus we use is by Mcgraw Hill called Children's Thesaurus. I tell you whats so ironic is that I bought these reference books, The American Heritage by Houghton Mifflin before the kids could read (LOL), but its the same ones Calvert recommends. I didn't notice until last year that they also sell them. Any-o-hoo, like I said there are several, we do enjoy The American Heritage series as I have found out. I also do have Usborne First Picture Dictionary and Kingfisher's that I bought when they first started to read that I have also used with all 3 kids, and still use with my middle one and younger one. Looking back now, if I didn't have any other younger children, I would have just bought the children's dictionaries and not really got any of *my first* type of series for the fact that they grow out of them so fast, reading level wise. KWIM? :wink: Now you probably have more choices than you wanted to know about :lol: , but hope it helps. Blessings TinaTx
My kids love DK books of all kinds. We found a Dorling Kindersley, Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary for $18.95 at Barnes & Nobel. I was surprised my son wanted to buy this as his book that day. Anyway, with the educator discount is was even less and well worth the money. My ds, 7 sits already looks things up in it. We have two other dictionaries here, but my two both want to use this one. Tammy :wink:
We just bought a really great one called Children's Illustrated Dictionary from Parragon Publishing. It's really cool with tons of pics. Our bookstore had it on the clearance table for $5.99. Not sure what it regularly cost.
I was offline most of last week. I had laproscopic gallbladder surgery a week ago Monday and took a few days off to rest and recover. Feel great now! I helped dh mow the grass yesterday. Our dictionary arrived today! I decided to go with Dorling Kindersley, Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary. I've looked through it and am really happy with the colorful illustrations, reference section, etc. I think it's a keeper! Thank you ladies for your help! Blessings, Anne
LOL. As a child, I loved to curl up with a volume of the encylcopedia or a dictionary and just read! :lol: Blessings, Anne
