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Michigan Doc And His Daughter Launch New Program to Bolster Vocabulary

BLOOMFIELD HILLS -- On the heels of the recent U.S. Education Department's report showing a continued erosion in vocabulary skills, a father-daughter team from Michigan is launching a video app for smart phones called Vocab Tunes, a 143-page manual in hardcover and e-book and a DVD called Vocab Tunes Root Words.

More than 400 years after mathematician John Napier (1550-1617) invented logarithms that eventually led to multiplication tables to make it easier for people to understand and remember numbers, Michigan doctor Sita R. Kaura, and his daughter, Manisha Shelly Kaura, a pre-med student at Xavier University in Cincinnati, have developed what they call the equivalent of multiplication tables to make it easier for children and adults to read, understand and remember thousands of new words.

"The average high-school graduate has a vocabulary of about 40,000 words. Our approach can teach someone 100,000 new words in 21 days when using phonics and memorization in combination with understanding root words and prefixes," said Dr. Kaura, of Bloomfield Hills. "Vocab Tunes would make a great holiday gift for the student or adult -- since nothing is more valuable than the gift of learning from which the recipient would benefit for a lifetime. As the U.S. Education Department's report showed, following the old beaten path just isn't working. We need fresh approaches. The way young children are taught to read by parents and teachers in our schools learning only phonics and memorization of sounds and letters doesn't equip a child beyond 1st grade."

The Kauras first introduced the concept in 2010 with their book Rockin Root Words 1 & 2. Now, they have created the program made fun for children with 21 short musical videos. The songs are available at the iTunes' App Store for 99 cents each or $9.99 for all 21 songs; the e-book manual for $9.99; the hardcover book for $19.99 and the DVD for $29.95. The hardcover book and DVD can be purchased together at a special price of $39.95 and are available at www.Amazon.com.

A video on Vocab Tunes can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSr1LcuEI40.

More at www.vocabtunes.com.

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