I heard something on the A Way With Words radio show the other day that made me think of Word of the Day. They were discussing the idea of what social scientists call "the frequency illusion", which is when you learn a new word, you seem to hear it everywhere. I can remember this happening to me specifically with a number of words: novice, cloying, and precocious. And I love it when I hear the kids saying that they've heard a word again and again after it's been one of our Words of the Day.
Word of the Day, by the way, is my way of improving my students' vocabularies. I hear back from parents and students from time to time that a child recognizes a word years later as having been a Word of the Day from my class. Between this and Caesar's English, I have to say that I do my best to make your kids recognize what words mean by putting them into the context of other words.
I strongly believe that having a more prolific vocabulary leads to more complex thoughts going on in one's mind. And when you have more complex thoughts, you have a richer outlook on life. It all ties in.
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