She's pretty impatient, so I think recognising words without needing to decode them makes reading easier/faster/less work/more enjoyable for her. Now the question is should I push her to learn more words in the hope that it will increase her independence/enjoyment of reading, or back off. FWIW, my 'pushing' means spending about 5 min a day with the flash cards while DD4 huffs and makes a bored face, and there's usually some form of food bribery involved...
What does she like? Use that, and you can be creative.
Does she like games? You can make thousands of games out of words. My boys got a Bingo-type game with reading words given for a birthday. You can even play a game that she "keeps" every card she gets right and you can challenge her to get more cards than you.
Does she like treasure hunts? Make notes for her to read. We did this with our kids learning a second language. It was like "Bring back three balls." My oldest loved that game, and all we needed was post-it notes and a pen.
Do you visit the library and let her choose books? You may find that she really likes princess sparkle books or non-fiction weather books. You may find her passion.
I wouldn't push flash cards if she doesn't like them. There are way too many fun ways to teach a four-year-old.
