The Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook is a comb-bound book of 87 pages suitable for children from fourth to sixth grades. The front and back covers are laminated card stock. The book pages fold back on themselves to display a single page fairly flat (with only a mild gap caused by the comb binding), but the book lies completely flat when presenting two pages simultaneously. The book begins with a Note to Parents explaining that every six weeks there is a week of study on states to "help in zesting it up a bit." Three dictation pages are included at the back of the book for optional use. Spelling rules are also included. Two maps of the United States are also included within the workbook.

Throughout the workbook, cute characters ("Joy," "Mat," and "Mama teacher") provide little graphic accents to otherwise color-coded pages. Each page has a two-day space for various assignments including: a wordlist, date, daily drills, and a teacher's initial. Each "week" includes two pages for a spelling and vocabulary study of five days. Days are color-coded for days one through four. Day one of each week has space for a dictation passage, while day two provides the opportunity for defining each word (as well as noting part of speech and pronunciation) and using each word in a sentence. Day three asks the user to work synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms. On day four the user divides words into syllables; on day five they re-write the dictation. The fifth-day assignment is to be completed on a separate piece of lined notebook paper (not included).

Every sixth week, three of the four days are activities related to a study of the United States roughly divided by regions. Map study, crossword activities, and word searches are included. Week 30 includes state activities such as matching states with capitals and drawing various aspects of a state of the child's choice. Week 36 concludes the book with two pages for writing a story using the wordlists. As a workbook, this product is open-ended and allows a family to use it with any spelling curriculum, or even just to choose any words of difficulty each week. Unfortunately, some positioning of the text is inaccurate with the colored words for "capital" and "state" in the state activities. Several pages seem to be accidentally blank and are possibly meant for instructions--each page facing the two United States maps and the page facing the "This workbook belongs to" page at the start of the book are completely blank. Users could make their own notes here regarding whatever source they choose to use for dictation and a source for wordlists, but the intended use of the blank pages is not clarified. Although the printed version is pricey, the downloadable or CD version are priced right and allow the user to print and place several years of workbook pages into a three-ring-binder. The use of color is also very tasteful and print-friendly, accenting each day's activities just enough without being distracting.

Overall, the Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook is a wonderful tool families could use when designing their own language arts study, complete with vocabulary and word exercises. It is equally appropriate for use with a formal curriculum and could provide a uniform approach to monitoring activities with several children using different curriculum sources. The additional state and map activities provide an ideal break from the more tedious writing work and allow children to enjoy drawing and geography skills periodically. The inaccurate position of some of the text may be an issue for those who desire perfection, but it didn't actually take away from actually completing the activities. The Spelling And Vocabulary Workbook is easy to use, and it leaves the detailing of assignments up to the parents, which we loved! For anyone looking for a good-looking spelling workbook because they've grown tired of page after page of spelling tests (or because they desire a record rather than a wipe-off board), the Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook provides an answer.

Product review by Donna Campos, Senior Product Reviewer, The Old Schoolhouse^® Magazine, LLC, September 2010