This will work at almost any age. My son has a problem w/short term memory. But do your kids know how to play FISH? DS' first grade teacher sent home sight words and had us play fish with them - basically, you make two copies of every word - I think there were about 10, maybe? And play Fish with them. At first, you can say the word and spell it out, as long as they know their letters. It really did help DS with both learning the word and spelling.