About this list
Unlike "the" or "of", almost every word here can be drawn, pointed at or held. That makes the noun list a good place to build confidence for a child who finds the service words dull: they can match a word to a picture, a toy or something out of the window.
The list reflects the books Dolch was looking at in the 1930s, so it leans toward farms and seasons: corn, cow, farmer, horse, sheep, robin, squirrel. It also includes two capitalized words, Christmas and Santa Claus, which is a natural moment to talk about why names of special days and people start with a capital letter. If those holidays are not part of your family’s year, skip them; nothing else on the list depends on them.
A few nouns are worth a closer look. "Feet", "men" and "children" are irregular plurals (foot, man, child), and the list has both "man" and "men" so you can compare them. "Birthday", "goodbye" and "kitty" are longer than they look to a beginner. "Watch" is both a thing and an action, and "back", "top" and "way" are nouns here but turn up far more often in phrases like "come back", "on top" and "no way".
Because these words are concrete, picture support is fine at first. The aim is still to fade the picture so your child reads the word on its own.
How to practice at home
- Label the house: put cards on the door, chair, table, bed, floor and window. Every so often take them down and ask your child to put them back.
- Picture backs: draw a quick sketch on the back of each flash card. Your child reads the word side first and flips to check.
- I spy with words: on a walk, hold up a card such as tree, bird, street or sun and see who spots it first.
- Farm sort: sort the animal cards into farm animals (cow, pig, sheep, horse, duck, chicken) and others (bear, rabbit, squirrel, robin).
- Family words: lay out mother, father, sister, brother and baby, and ask your child to read each one and tell you who it is in your family or a favorite book.
Words that trip kids up
- "Man" and "men" differ by one vowel; read them in "one man" and "two men".
- "Farm" and "farmer" show how -er can turn a thing into a person who does it.
- "Feet" is the plural of "foot", so it can look unfamiliar to a child who expects an s on the end.
- "Santa Claus" is two words on one card; read it as one name.