English from the Roots Up, Vol. 1: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and S.A.T. Scores Plastic Comb – January 1, 2006

While it hurts my soul to pay about $40 for a used book (I assume I bought a used copy based on condition it arrived in), this is a great resource for my middle school reading classroom students as one of our standards relates to the study of root words. It pairs well with the card set, but I like it for the teaching notes that are with each card. Great explanations and very useful overall. It saves me hours and hours of linguistic study and delving through the Oxford English Dictionary. Yay!

I am a huge fan of this program- it gives you some of the advantage of taking Latin classes without the huge time investment. I particularly love that it includes Greek roots as well.English from the Roots Up makes learning the basic root words so simple and it can also be fun and engaging for the kids if you throw in word games along with it. I think it is a wonderful system for building vocabulary at any age.I know some people have stated the book is a waste- to simply buy the flash cards. But for our family, creating the flash cards has been part of the learning experience. Writing the words and definitions helps the kids memorize it, and also allows them to practice their handwriting skills. They also seem to have a slightly greater interest/value when the children make them themselves. They seem less likely to misplace or mistreat something they put a great deal of time in creating. I would however suggest 4x6 cards rather than 3x5 as its a lot of information and hard to fit on a 3x5, particularly for younger students.This is a great value- highly recommend!!

I got this book to use for homeschool and was captivated by it as soon as I started flipping through it.The book is pretty simple and presents 50 common roots found in many English words. Each word (either Greek or Latin) is defined and then examples are given. There are a few ideas through the book for lessons, I did find myself having to get creative to make the words 'stick', as my children don't thrive with flashcard drills.I can see this book, and volume II being very useful for college bound or science minded students. I can see it working for homeschool or even as an after school activity. With some customization, I think it would work for a wide range of age ranges as well. I can see it even being useful for adults. I can't say enough about this book.

We use this book every week in our homeschool and it has proven to be an effective learning tool. We have a lot of fun with this and both my daughter and I have learned a great deal about our language. Not only do we use the recommended index cards, but I made another handwritten set of small cards with the root word on one card, and the definition on another. We mix them all up and play a matching game (suggested by a friend).Sometimes we see how many words we can make using two cards together. It's quiet an interesting study. I could have created flashcards to use instead of this book but then we would not have the informative Teaching Notes and Extra Words. I like having the book handy to refer back to, not just a stack of cards. (We are doing only Greek this year and will study the Latin roots next year.)Update: We completed the Latin section the following year and our study proved to be every bit as fun and effective. I highly recommend this study to middle school students.

I heard about this book through one of IEW's webinars. This is a great book that includes flashcard examples. You write the root in black or blue, then give it a green (Greek) or red (Latin) border. Minimal instructions. I would not use this alone as an only study/homeschool resource. I am pairing it with another root/affixes curriculum I have. It'll supplement something like that nicely.

I loved this book when I homeschooled as a child and now I’m enjoying using it with my children as we homeschool. It helps to expand their vocabulary and is helping them identify words and definitions. I highly recommend this book for all ages. We currently use it in kindergarten and third grade as part of our “morning time.”

This book is what I was looking for to learn roots. It is very basic and that's all I was looking for in word origin: that a word is Latin or Greek in origin and the meaning of the root word. The study is enabling my 9th grader to enlarge his vocabulary and figure out words he has not seen before by picking out roots he has studied. I did not purchase the flash cards and I kind of wish I had because they are a great tool for learning and making them is time consuming. Making them also helps learning however so it depends on your teaching preference and time.

I bought these to use with our grandchildren - we used a copy initially ourselves when our own children were school age. The book presents in a compact way an important key to English vocabulary - that so much of our language comes out of Latin and Greek. Get a grasp on all of those prefixes and suffixes, and you've deepened your grasp of English in a profound way. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys, or wants to enjoy, reading and learning.

Wonderful for tutoring.

Great been using this with the cards and been working well :-)