When we went on holiday I took Pickle's 'wordbox' from school. The name is a little misleading as it is not a box at all but a plastic, zip up folder containing 10 laminated printed words for Pickle to read. There are 36 of these to get through and I am proud to say Pickle only has about 3 more to go. This means she will be able to read all the 'high usage' words, which can be read phonetically.
How it works is, I show her the word and she reads it back to me, usually giving a meaning to the word, so I know she understands it.
One of the words on holiday was
BRAND
Pickle : B R AN D......Brand......Is that like RUSSELL BRAND Mummy???
ME: YES YES YES!!
I am so proud of my 5 year old!