Mrs Wordsmith is a unique educational subscription box all about building up language and vocabulary. I was really intrigued by the concept, and couldn’t wait to try it out with the kids.
There are two options you can go for, according to your child’s age. The Social Journey for age 2+ and the Narrative Journey for children aged 6-13.
Mrs Wordsmith The Narrative Journey
The Narrative Journey is ideal for all three of my boys to share (ages 7, 8 and 10) and they’ve enjoyed working with the words together. Our box set contained:
- Word of the Day Workbook
- Word Pair Cards
- Word of the Day Stand (This in your first subscription box only as you only need one!)
- Folder
The theme with all of the words in our set was “Character” and it includes a wide selection of descriptive words that can be used in many ways in children’s story writing. My boys all enjoy writing stories so trying to learn new words to make their writing more exciting appealed to them straight away. The presentation of the set is colourful and humorous to get kids attention, and even though this is quite an academic activity I didn’t have to persuade the boys to get started with it – they were naturally drawn in.
The workbook has a full page illustration on one side with the definition at the bottom (Shown on the stand above), then the opposite side of the paper has a written activity to fill in.
Each written activity focuses on pairing up the words to make some really effective phrases. The boys spent quite a bit of time engaged in making different combinations. We worked on this together, taking it in turns to make our own word pair and then make full sentences with them, but the work can also be done independently as it’s set out very clearly, and is easy to follow.
The same words are also shown on the word pairs card deck, again with the suggested combination words on the back so that you can take them on the go as it’s more portable than the binder.
The front of the cards feature the illustrations, each with set characters who you will find re-appearing throughout the Mrs Wordsmith boxes, and then they have the words written out on the back.
The words included are a great level for the age suggested, with a mixture of words that the boys already knew and new words that it introduced them to. For the words they already knew, it still helped them really think about the best ways to use them, by considering the word pairs. I have found at times that they will learn a new word that they think is really good, and then just put it into all their written work whether it’s the best fit or not (colossal is a favourite of theirs, so we get that in everything!) so I was really happy to see them exploring the Mrs Wordsmith materials which I can already see have given them a nudge to try and use more variety in their writing, and helped them get even more enthusiastic about using a wider range of descriptive and interesting words.
Mrs Wordsmith The Social Journey
For younger children, Mrs Wordsmith have a similar set that focuses on words at their level which help them to understand their own feelings and emotions, and give them the tools to describe them.
The younger Social Journey set includes a story book, workbook and the word cards, all with a similar humorous illustration style to the Narrative Journey.
My youngest N, will be two at Christmas, so I will start to slowly introduce her to the materials as she reaches that age.
Both sets are really well thought out, and clearly designed with the appropriate ages and stages in mind. The concept of Mrs Wordsmith is very different to any other educational products I’ve come across, and I can definitely see that using these monthly boxes would have a positive impact on children’s vocabularies, which is an amazing benefit. Being able to express themselves more clearly, to understand and to be able to use a wider range of words is a huge help at any age – both academically and for their social and emotional development.
Visit the www.mrswordsmith.com website for more details on both packages, and to find out more about the subscription options. You can choose to buy the whole set up front for a lower overall price, or pay on a month by month basis with no tie-in.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.