Sight words play a major role in developing children’s reading skills. You will find that early learning centers, Pre-K, and kindergarten classes have some sort of expectations on learning sight words. We are happy to find that all elementary schools under El Paso Independent School District stress a lot on sight words in kindergarten.

The expectation of how many sight words a child should be familiar with in his/her age varies between school to school. We felt that it is a very small set of sight words for Pre-K and Kindergarteners. We think, children can learn more sight words than the expected numbers, as long as they are enjoying it. We like playful learning because it is stressless for our child. Additionally, it removes a ton of weight from our shoulder.

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What are sight words?

Sight words are mostly very frequently used words in the English language. I guess, every language has its own sigh word list. The use of sight words as a tool to teach reading is quite an old and established technique. Somewhere I read that modern sight word lists are just different versions of the ones used in 1930s or 40s.

Along with most frequent words, some words that are non-phonic in nature — such as chalk, talk, walk, eight, and buy — are commonly included in sight word lists.

If your child recognizes and writes the alphabets then she or he is ready to learn a few sight words. Sometimes, it is effective to teach phonics along with a few easy and relevant sight words. I would say the sequence is learning alphabet → learning phonics → learning sight words. That said, I am no expert. This is something I observed when Dear Son started reading. Phonics helped him attempt to read everything or spell (correctly or incorrectly) any word we mention. Sight words improved his reading skill in weeks. The more sight words Dear Son is becoming familiar with the smoother his reading is becoming.

Reading (almost) everyday

Reading frequently is important to develop reading skills of children. From Dear Son’s kindergarten school, parents are encouraged to read with their children for fifteen minutes at least twenty days of each month. This can be you reading to your child, or the child reading to you, or a combination of both. A family can start such a reading culture as early as two years of children’s age or even earlier.

Sight Words Flashcards

Sight Words Flashcards can be introduced from three years of age although you will find that most sight words flashcards are marked with ages starting from four or five. At three, a child will just become familiar with the concept of those flashcards and will memorize patterns of the words. If playing with these sight words flashcards is enjoyable for your kid, why wait till s/he become four or years old — earlier is better. In practice, children will learn the sight words directly or indirectly from Pre K to Third Grade or even in fourth grade.

This is a very good question. As parents we always want our children to be stress-free. If your child is familiar with some sight words when s/he is starting kindergarten, you will see how enjoyable school becomes for her/him. Regardless of your child being familiar or not familiar with sight words, make sure to grow or continue the culture of practicing sight words and reading at home when s/he starts kindergarten. This is a way to tell our children that we are with them in this tough kinder world.

Hard to answer this question. I do not think there is any standard. I have seen different expectations in different websites.

Pre-K

I think, by the end of Pre-K a few (like five, ten, or fifteen) sight words should be sufficient.

Kindergarten

An expectation of fifty sight words by the end of kindergarten might be ambitious. That said, some kindergarteners even master more than one hundred sight words. From Dear Son’s school, we came to know that the average is around twenty five sight words by the end of kindergarten. I think twenty five by the end of kindergarten is the minimum expectation.

First grade

By the end of the first grade, a more general expectation seems to be around one hundred sight words. Some children in the first grade start reading storybooks all by themselves. For them, it is hard to say whether they recognize the sight words or they just read it when they are tested. Their sight word list becomes quite large — a few hundred.

It is said that mastery on a shorter subset of sight words is more effective than just becoming familiar with a long list of sight words. Repeated practice on the same set of sight words would make a child master the set. It is ok to master a list and become familiar with another one. Plans on the list and a routine are essential to ensure mastery on sight words.

Given that all learning experiences of children as they grows up depend on the reading skills, learning to read early gives them a few extra milage. Development of reading skills early reduces a lot of childhood stress. Make reading a fun — make learning easy.

Settle in El Paso team

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