Led by the child

It is difficult to explain the meaning of "the" to a Hindi-speaker. Thankfully, in Baanglaa, " টা " is much more frequently used than "ठो ".
The first set of sight words was the most difficult to teach. Vicky kept forgetting the look of each word, as well as the meaning, & I kept losing patience. After 3 weeks, I decided that it was time for the next set. Somehow, perhaps because "it" "is" & "in" are actually phonetic, or of only two letters,she picked them up quite fast, even though she still kept forgetting the words of the first set.
At school, after the small letters in running hand, the class started with 3-letter words. "at" words. I was quite astonished. Why not "a" sound words as a whole? "an", "ag", "at" all those words? But Vicky is quite proud of her school, & the activities at school, so I went with the flow. 
I had a few resources with me. One was a book from my own pre-school days, that I found in a used-book market in my college days.
It has this "lesson" about Mohan, & when I was in  pre-school, we had a steel tub just like that, & a red mug just like that, & my Mom too used to warm the water in the tub in the Sun in our company-quarter varandah ... I "related" with Mohan!!!Well, nostalgia was paying off. I also had a set of "Songs letters sing" from ANOTHER generation before. (Yes, we are children's book-preservers.) These provided a set of "reading material".
Luckily, I found a cluster of sentences, with primarily "at" words. About a cat & a rat, who have a nap on the mat & in a hat, respectively :D I had to interject with the words "on " & "in", as they were not yet on her "syllabus" ... but at the end of the session, she was able to tell herself " बिल्ली ठो बैठा ऊपर एक चटाई ...के " Vicky did 3 sentences that day, & the whole of the same lesson the next day. Thankfully, she found it very amusing that "The cat is fat". She was literally ROFL. Thus, Vicky is now reading for pleasure. For real.

About spoken

In ordinary, middle-class India, anyone with a good "spoken English" is treated with great regard, bordering on awe. lamentably, the country's school system is merely a "certification system", rather than an "education system". & it is exams which produce the certification. Therefore, it is the emphasis on "spoken English" which distinguishes a great school from an average school.
In Vicky's school, certain instructions are given in English, like "take out your Diary" etc, & then explained in Hindi, but this is not the case with all communication. Moreover, the teacher's aide is simply a poor woman in a menial job, she is plain non-conversant in English. On the other hand, the school expects the kids to mug up a set of  questions & answers on different topics every week, for example fruit, or water animals, etc, which is called elocution. I do not know how it is "delivered" in school, as I have not seen it. When we start practising these at home, I call it "playing quiz", & I try to explain the question, as well as the individual words that make up the question. I encourage Vicky (& Vibhu) to answer in a sentence, where they know the words of the sentence, & is repetitive.
In this context, I am thinking that I'll add the words "some" & "are" to the list of sight words, as most questions start "name some ...", & I might as well show Vicky the looks of these two words she is commonly using.
Vicky is excited about the colouring game. We modified it to make shapes around the words too ...
I have to remind Vicky every few minutes to "hold the pencil correct". She says it hurts, & I sometimes doubt if I am doing the correct thing.
On the contrary, when Nutan teaches sight words to her child, she completely emphasises on the recognition & recall only, & totally sidesteps meaning. It's okay for her, as her child is already quite conversant in English , & watches cartoons in English.

Dolch sight words

Okay, so I discovered  the "Dolch sight words". It was interesting to read it up, I am happy to know that the list was originally drawn up to facilitate kids to read kid-lit independently.
I have downloaded the flash cards from the website dolchword.net download page. I took the "Pre-primer" list, because that is the starting point, & I also guess that what is called "Nursery" in this school (3+ to 4+) would fit that description.
I spoke to my child's teacher & she told me that she will be doing "sound words" first. I somehow have a feeling that "sight words" will be needed more, will need more teaching, & also, I have trust on Vicky's teacher to be able to teach phonics. So, I have decided to teach sight words  to Vicky myself.
We started with the six words of the 1st page of the printables. The logic of the choice of words of the pre-primer list is confusing me, but right now, I am going to trust Dolche's & the website's wisdom.
It is proving difficult to teach Vicky sight words. Maybe I am expecting too much, because she learnt the alphabet from others, without any effort on my part. I think ... I think Vicky is being thick ... Ha ha! I am just repeating & revising with her, & Vibhu too. Vibhu is 2 classes senior, & knows some words, though he can learn a lot more. It is helping a bit to enthuse Vicky, but I also have to prevent it from becoming a "word-sreaming" match :D
Nutan is helping a lot. Nutan is in touch with this really good special teacher. She told me a sight word colouring game. (She has thought up this game herself, Nutan is innovative!) The game is simple, the sights words which are being practised, along with the child's own name, are written repeatedly on a page in a grid. Each word is assigned a colour, & the kid is given the crayons. You call out a word, & she colours all the repeats of that word in the page. It should work well with Vicky, as she enjoys colouring.
On a different note, since I was cribbing to Nutan about Vicky's bad grip, she suggested me mazes. Very basic level mazes, with a thick big pencil, are good exercise for a correct grasp!