As a parent who likes to follow the news of successful home schooling students, you’ve probably heard about the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and how homeschoolers like 2007 champion, Evan O’Dorney, continue to surprise the public by winning! But you probably haven’t heard about a new scholarship opportunity for homeschoolers: the Princeton Review National Vocabulary Championship.

The Game Show Network and the Princeton Review teamed up last year to host the 1st annual National Vocabulary Championship which is “an initiative that aims to inspire students to expand their vocabularies” by offering free educational resources and awarding over $100,000 annually in college tuition scholarships. The contest is open to public and home school students. Eligible home school students are in grades 9-12 and between the ages of 13 and 19. Each day during the month of November 2007, the timed National Qualifying Exam which consists of 45 multiple choice questions is available for home school students to take online. The top scorers will be invited to take the regional in-person exam on January 12, 2008 which is like the qualifying exam except it also includes an essay. Fifty finalists will then advance to Los Angeles, California in the spring 2008 to compete for the top scholarship of $40,000.

Now before you dismiss this idea, you’ve got to go see the best part of this offer which, in my opinion, is the extensive list of study modules! There are 10 modules which help build vocabulary:

1. Mnemonic Madness

2. Compliment or Criticism?

3. What’s the Link?

4. Using Context

5. Using Context, part 2

6. Dictionaries, Etymologies, and Thessauri…Oh My!

7. Vocabulary Journaling

8. Secondary Meanings

9. The Perfect Roommate

10. Analogies

Each ~20 page module begins with a lesson, then a couple of independent activities to reinforce the teaching, a quiz, and flashcards to help them retain the vocabulary words that they studied! The modules are all in adobe pdf format which means you can save them to your computer for later use (think siblings!) or print them out now for your high school student. Additionally, there are 5 documents which list the 250 most frequently tested SAT vocabulary words. Here’s a screenshot:

Princeton Review Hit Parade 1

Princeton Review Hit Parade 2

Princeton Review Hit Parade 3

Princeton Review Hit Parade 4

Princeton Review Hit Parade 5

Now, I don’t know about you, but even if you do not want to have your teen take the National Vocabulary Qualifying Exam before the end of November, you will agree with me that the free study aids are invaluable and could really supplement your home school English curriculum! As I mentioned, the exam is ONLY given in November which means you only have about 2 weeks left to take it (sorry, i just learned about it this week). One of the things that I love about homeschooling is the flexibility…in fact, I’ve decided to put the 10 vocabulary modules and the SAT Vocabulary Hit Parade lists on the schedule next week for both Meredith and Connor, then they can take the online National Vocabulary Qualifying Exam the week of November 26, 2007. I look forward to hearing the announcement on the national news next spring that your home school teen has won a big college scholarship!

Tags: college scholarships, college tuition, free educational resources, home school, home school students, homeschooler, homeschooling, national spelling bee, princeton review, PSAT vocabulary, SAT vocabulary, scholarship opportunity, scripps howard national spelling bee, Vocabulary