Guide · for parents
How to Learn Sight Words at Home
Spend five minutes a day on three to five words. Read the words together, play with them for a few minutes, and point them out in bedtime stories. Little and often works much better than one long session, and it's far easier to keep up.
Keep it short and regular
Tie practice to something you already do: breakfast, the car, before the bedtime story. Five minutes is enough. If your child is tired or upset, skip it and try again tomorrow. Practice should feel like playing together, because a child who dreads it won't learn much.
A simple week
Monday: choose three to five words, and read them together. Tuesday to Thursday: play with them: cards, a game, a word hunt. Friday: quick check. Words read instantly move to a know it pile, the rest stay. Add new words to fill the gap, and check the know it pile now and then.
Read real books too
Sight words exist to help children read, so finish where they're used. In a bedtime story, ask your child to read every the or and while you read the rest. It takes no extra time, and they see that the words they've practiced really work.
How to do it with Wordburrow
- Find a starting point with the checklist, or start at the pre-primer list.
- Paste your words into the list maker and bookmark the link.
- Play one round on busy days. Every word is read aloud, so your child can play alone.
- Print flash cards for the fridge or the car.
Try it now: free, no signup
Free to play · no signup · works on phones, tablets and computers
Questions people ask
How long does it take to learn a sight word?
It varies a lot from child to child and word to word. Some words stick in a day, and others take weeks of short practice.
My child knows a word one day and forgets it the next. Is that normal?
Yes, very. Keep coming back to it in short bursts, and it will settle.
An app is on the way
We're building a Wordburrow app for iPhone. The plan is everything you can play here, plus offline play and a parent view of the words that have stuck. It isn't out yet. The whole game is free here in the meantime.
Coming soon on theApp Store