Most parents know this scene: on Monday evening your child nails all ten new words, word-perfect. By Friday, only three are left. The first instinct is to worry: weren't they paying attention? In fact, nothing is wrong. Every child's brain (and every adult's) forgets along the same pattern, one scientists have documented for over a century. The good news is that there's a simple fix, and the games on Flyers English now do it for your child automatically, through a round kids know as the Boss Round.
The Forgetting Curve, in Plain Words
Scientists call the pattern the "forgetting curve": memory for something newly learned fades fastest in the first days, then more slowly. In other words, most of what your child forgets is lost in the first day or two, not from carelessness but because that is how human memory works. Each time a child is reminded of a word just as it starts to slip, the memory comes back stronger and fades more slowly the next time. A few well-timed reminders (after a day, three days, a week) and the word is close to permanent. That is spaced repetition.
Why Re-Testing Beats Re-Reading
Many parents are surprised that re-reading a word list five times does less than being quizzed on it once. When a child has to pull a word out of memory, even if it takes a few seconds, that effort of retrieving is what strengthens the memory, the way a muscle grows from lifting a weight, not from looking at one. So the best review for a young learner is being asked again, at the right moment, exactly the words they are about to forget, not copying words out or reading them aloud again and again.
When Your Child Misses a Word, the Game Doesn't Rush Past It
Learning games (ours included, once) used to handle a wrong answer like this: flash "Wrong!", blink the screen red, and jump straight to the next question. The correct answer vanished before the child ever really saw it, so next time they missed the very same word. Now, when a child picks the wrong answer in games like Sentence Builder and Listen & Choose, the game stops: the correct answer stays on screen, with no timer and no hurry, and the game only moves on when the child taps to confirm they've seen it. Those few calm seconds looking at the right answer are where the learning actually happens, instead of a brief sting of losing.
Then the Boss Round Brings the Word Back
Seeing the right answer once still isn't enough to remember it. So at the end of each session, the questions your child missed come back in a special round called the Boss Round, staged like the final boss battle of a video game, with bonus points for winning the rematch:
- Spaced repetition, on scheduleYour child meets the difficult word again just minutes after missing it. That second retrieval is the first beat of the review rhythm that makes words stick.
- Failure becomes a challengeTo a child, this is a boss fight for extra points, not "redoing the ones you got wrong". The review is the same; the feeling is completely different.
- The main score is safeThe session's score is already banked before the Boss Round begins, so the boss battle is pure upside: points to gain, nothing to lose.
After the session, the Flashcard system keeps tracking every word: which ones are solid, which ones need another meeting. The shaky words resurface in games and review sessions over the following days, on the one-day, three-day, one-week rhythm of spaced repetition, without your child ever needing to know the theory. Curious what's in the full word bank? Browse the Cambridge YLE vocabulary list across 14 topics.
What You'll See in the Weekly Email
The whole process above is summarised for you in a weekly progress email, with real numbers from your child's actual play, not decoration:
- Minutes practised and accuracy for the week
- The words your child mastered this week, the payoff of those review rounds
- The "almost there" words: answered correctly a few times but not yet secure; this is the forgetting curve made visible, and the most useful part of the email
- Your child's practice streak, plus one small suggestion for practising together
How to Help at Home (Without Flashcards at Dinner)
No printed flashcards or extra study hours needed; a few small habits are enough:
- Keep sessions short but daily: 15 minutes a day lets the spaced reviews do their work; weekend cramming doesn't
- Ask one question after each session: "Which words did you beat in the Boss Round today?" Your child gets to brag, and you learn exactly which words were hard
- Take the "almost there" words from the email into real life: pass a cat on the street and ask, "What's this in English?"
- Don't drill the words that are already solid; the valuable minutes belong to the shaky ones
Summary
Children don't forget new words because they're lazy or behind. Every brain forgets along the same curve. What makes the difference is the difficult word coming back at the right moment: first in the Boss Round at the end of the session, then spaced out over the following days by the review system. Your child just sees a game with a boss battle to win; you see the list of mastered words grow a little every week. Not sure which level your child should start at? Try the free 15-minute readiness test, or create a free account and let your child play a round of the vocabulary games tonight.