The pages before the story do three jobs. They tell you whether the book matches your child, they give you words to practise, and they warn you which words your child will need help with. A minute with them saves a lot of struggle later.
Most people turn straight past. It is the most useful page in the book.
The sixty-second warm-up
1. Check the level. Have your child sound out three or four words from the reading list. Most working means the book is right. Struggling with more than half means going back a book.
2. Preview the helper words. They are named on the page before the list. Point them out and tell your child what they say, so neither of you gets stuck mid-story.
3. Finger sweep. Run your finger under each word, left to right, one pass, while your child blends.
4. Come back afterwards. Words they laboured over on the way in are often easy on the way out. It's worth drawing their attention to this.
Why a list works better than a story
A word on its own has no picture beside it, no sentence around it and nothing to predict from. Your child either decodes it or does not.
That makes the list a cleaner check of what they can actually do. In a story a child can reach the right word by several routes, not all of them reading. On a list there is only one route.
It is also where the repetitions come from. A word becomes automatic through being decoded correctly, several times, and the list is a legitimate way to bank a few before the story asks.
Two pages, two jobs
In Tip Top Phonics the information sits across two pages.
Using This Book names the new spellings, the spellings assumed from earlier books, one worked blending example, and the helper words. In Lug the Log, book five of Set 1, that reads: new spellings k, l, r, u; previous spellings s a t i m n o p b c g h d e f v; r-u-g makes "rug"; helper words a, is, the, to, I.
Reading List is what your child should work out alone. For Lug the Log: fun, kid, log, lug, must, run, tug, up.
The division is the point. Everything on the reading list is theirs, so do not help unless asked. Everything named on the page before is yours to supply, immediately, no struggle. Without that split you are making a judgement call at half past six about whether to prompt or wait.
Three things not to do
Do not make it a test. No scores, no reminders about yesterday. Hard word, sound it out together, move on.
Do not drill it. Ten words is enough. Twenty minutes of flashcards does less than one reread of the story and makes your child dread the book.
Do not teach the words as shapes. A child who recognises mat by its outline has learned one word. A child who works through m, a and t has learned something that also unlocks mad, map, man and several hundred more. How they got there matters.
Checking against school
The spellings named on that first page are what you check against your child's programme. Ask the school which one they use and roughly where your child has got to. Then the front of any book tells you at a glance whether it fits, which is far more use than an age range or a colour band.
Older readers
Same page, different handling. A twelve-year-old working on decoding does not want walking through a word list by a parent. Hand it over, let them read it themselves, and let them decide whether they want you there. The list still does its job.