Which is better - learning new words in the morning and having all day to consolidate that knowledge, or learning words shortly before bedtime and having less time for forgetting?

In a small study conducted by researchers at Uinversity of York, "... for children with poorer vocabulary, there was greater evidence of lexical integration if training was completed closer to bedtime (when there was less time that elapsed between tests, and thus less opportunity for interference/forgetting)."

Bottom-line: This study suggests that children with poorer vocabularies may benefit from learning new material closer to bedtime.