How to Enjoy Fun Vocabulary Games with Vocabulary Quest

Was vocabulary fun when you were a kid? Did you ever play any fun vocabulary games?

When I was a kid, I went to public school.  And every year, for my entire schooling career, I remember teachers would regularly give students those weekly vocabulary quizzes.

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Do you remember those?

The teacher would stand at the front of the whole class and parrot off a bunch of vocabulary questions and words and we had to spell them correctly and define them correctly, all in a short amount of time. Some teachers even made us use them in a sentence correctly.

Every. Single. Week.

Not to say that expanding one’s vocabulary is a bad thing. On the contrary! I definitely believe we should always work on expanding our vocabulary, no matter how old we are.

But if you were to give me any old list of words now, do you think I’d remember those definitions? Probably not. Because spitting out meaningless terms that have been methodically memorized does not an education make.

I knew there had to be a better way.

Man oh man, what I would have given to have access to a really fun vocabulary game.

Disclosure – This post was sponsored by Vocabulary Quest and I was compensated for my time. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions will forever remain my own.

This article may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy for more details.

Make Vocabulary Activities Fun with a Vocabulary Video Game

When I first heard there was such a thing as a fun vocabulary activities video game, I knew I had to give it a try.

You see, I knew my kids’ English vocabulary was lacking. Yes, they read books, but the levels of books they are interested in at this time are not doing much for their list of word variety and usage.

Not to mention, my kids’ spelling was atrocious! Seriously. These kids couldn’t spell worth anything.

Because of our homeschooling style, we don’t mesh well with regular quizzes and tests. I think I’ve given my kids a list of words for vocabulary practice, followed by a vocabulary test, a total of twice in their entire lives. (And that didn’t go well.)

So we downloaded Vocabulary Quest and tried it out. I wanted to see for myself if there was a way to get even my kids on board with regular vocabulary lessons.

And I must say, I was pleasantly surprised!

Learning Vocabulary Words with Vocabulary Quest might be for you if:

• Your child thrives with structure and organization
• You hate dealing with printables, worksheets, and papers
• You are looking for online vocabulary options
• You want to improve your child’s spelling but you hate printable vocabulary activities
• You hate mundane activities such as flash cards and index cards
• You don’t like making index cards for each list of words, again and again
• You want to automate your homeschool vocabulary lesson plans
• You are looking for a fun way to challenge your child
• You want to introduce your child to words even you aren’t familiar within a short amount of time
• You are looking for a method that helps your child internalize English vocabulary words, not just memorize them.
• Your child loves any excuse to spend more time playing video games
• Your child enjoys fun vocabulary games and vocabulary activities such as memory games, word games, and more
• You are looking for a way to make vocabulary FUN!

When we first started using Vocabulary Quest, my kids were not impressed. I told them this was a schooling game and they translated that into more work and less fun.

But as any good mother would, I insisted they push through, at least for a little while. Because I knew it would be good for them to give a new educational method a try. And because I know it’s good for them to try hard things.

It was fun to watch the kids get more and more excited about this educational video game.  Within a few minutes, the kids didn’t even think about this vocabulary game as schooling.  They were having so much fun fighting the monsters and earning their gems every time they get the correct word!  

And by the end of the first week, I had a couple of kids who were begging to play this fun game.  They were even trying to get me to use this vocabulary game as a reward for doing other ‘boring’ things (like chores) around the house.

Now that’s what I call a homeschooling win!

How to Use Vocabulary Quest

It’s really very easy to get started with Vocabulary Quest.

Once you have your game downloaded, you just double click on your file and you’re in!

You’ll start at the main page where you can choose to load an existing game or start a new game. I started a new game for each of my older kids.

Levels are completely customizable, which we loved. One child chose lists that are arranged in order of frequency (meaning more common words will be learned first) and another child chose words arranged from easy to hard.

Additionally, each child got to select their level of difficulty. The game recommends grades 5-7 choose easy, so that’s what we did.

Once you’re in, there are some startup tips to get you going. Read these! They are very helpful.

On the left-hand side of your screen, you will find the lists you’ll need to study. Click on each word to hear it pronounced and read its definition. Click the expandable (i) icon to see each word used in a sentence.

Click on the blue shield icon to play the fun study games. There are four study methods in this section, so multiple learning styles can be catered to.

Play one of them, all of them, or none of them! Your child is free to study and learn in whatever way he learns best!

My son and I both prefer the crossword puzzle option. This was a great way to challenge ourselves while still having fun.

My daughter, on the other hand, liked the matching game best. She had to match the vocabulary word to its definition.

Once your child feels comfortable with a list, he is ready to fight the monster! Each list comes with its own monster to be fought and captured.

As you can probably guess, this was definitely a favorite feature over here!

The faster you recall your list words and definitions (including proper spelling) the harder you hit the monster. Harder hits mean faster defeat.

Defeating a monster gets you a gem, which unlocks your next list (and therefore your next monster).

What My Kids had to Say about this Vocabulary Game

Now that we’ve been playing Vocabulary Quest for a few months, I asked my kids what they liked best about this fun, educational video game.

My daughter (9) enjoyed challenging herself and obtaining small, personal wins. Take a look at this grin she gets every time she scores 100% on a list!

She also loves that this game is helping her get better at spelling. (She loves writing people personal notes and she likes that as her spelling improves, so do her note writing abilities.)

My son? Yeah, he could care less about any ‘personal wins’ he might achieve by mastering another list. He’s much more excited about fighting the monsters.

This boy has a particular love for video games – especially adventure type video games. So getting to defeat monsters, again and again, was definitely up his alley. He gets a kick out of seeing how fast and how hard he can hit his monsters. He is so fun to watch!

“I want to fight him again!”

Spencer H. – 10

Top 11 Vocabulary Quest Benefits

1. Words are easy to learn and understand
2. Accommodating for many levels, including middle school and high school.  The vocabulary game makers officially say Vocabulary Quest is good for 5th-grade vocabulary practice all the way through adults.
3. My kids who hate structured school are begging to learn more
4. Challenging but not overwhelming
5. A sophisticated progress tracking system
6. Engaging and entertaining
7. Provides a sense of accomplishment
8. Instant wins
9. Customizable lists
10. Several learning activities to choose from for multiple learning styles
11. Unlimited number of users

If you think this fun language arts software might be for you, I encourage you to go check out the Vocabulary Quest website. Or you can learn more about the company by following their Facebook page.

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