KUMON - do you believe in it?

[mushi]

hi, i have a 4-year old and am facing mental-pressure form my friends who have enrolled their kids into Kumon maths and english....i have read abut it on the web but am not too convinced on their teaching method which i believe is thru rote. anyone with kids in kumon, pls. share yr experiences. what exactly do they teach?.....

 

[carang]

i've seen their english stuff... not great grammar, vocabulary etc.

their maths is by rote.

why give into pressure? if you are happy with your child's progress, that's ALL that matters!

if someone asks, say, " good for you, my son doesn't need extra work. he's doing just fine already.'

 

[MilkMonster]

My babies are too young for Kumon BUT, I took Kumon as a child. Just the math parts because I was having trouble with my maths. Can't say it really helped as I still struggled with math all the way through high school and university. I think it's not that helpful unless you can somehow make it fun. Otherwise its a chore to do and I was always rushing to finish my homework before kumon class and I remember really hating it. If your child is having problems with math, i would suggest playing games that involve math concepts.

 

[mushi]

thanks carang and milk monster, i am happy with what my son is doing currently however we r moving back to india in january and the system out theer is fairly advanced....e.g. a child my son's age would know how to write A-Z, a-z and 1 to 20, my son only knows capitals A-Z and that too just a few.....so when he goes there he will not only face entry probs in school but also would find it hard to cope up.....does KUMON help regarding this? i mean do they teach one to write or do they expect u to write?

 

[Klam]

I wanted to send my daughter when she was 5yrs to do Maths at Kumon but after speaking to many parents who had pulled their children out of lessons, I decided against it.
It's very much memorising and not much explaining, the children know for example that 2+1=3 but don't know why, they just know the answer.
Also for a 30mins lesson, only 10mins is actually spent teaching, the rest of the time, the child is left to complete work by themselves and as MilkMonster mentions, it's not fun.
I'm sure your son would learn a lot more if you find a tutor that can make lessons interesting and fun.

 

[peainpod]

My sister has been sending her daughter (now almost 7 yrs old) to do Maths and Mandarin at Kumon for the past few years. I think she does it to help my niece develop some concentration and discipline (apparently she doesn't get any homework from GSIS). But from what I've seen, it is very rote and I know my niece finds it quite tedious.

 

[wanfamily]

Hi,
I'm a primary school teacher and taught in Japan for 5 years where Kumon is very popular. I also went on some great teacher courses realted to young children's development in maths.
My advice to parents on Kumon was always, if you want to see your child produce rows and rows of neat calculations, fine, but rote learning does not develop a deep understanding or number sense. At a young age (ie before about 7), it is more essential that children gain understanding of maths in a practical setting. There is actually some convincing reearch that suggests that teaching children standard algorithms before they are ready, undermines their understanding of place value. In my 8 years of teaching, I have seen many cases of this and have called parents in to ask them not to teach them the algorithms as it stops the child having to think for themselves. I've got some articles and stuff on this somewhere (on childcare leave at the moment with my own babies), let me know if you're interested.
Good luck,
Cath

 

[MilkMonster]

Hi Wanfamily, i would really be interested to read your articles, can you share them with me?

thanks again!

 

[Nashua852]

I too, took Kumon as a kid and hated it. It was tedious work and I would find my concentration slipping. I did Kumon maths and did not do anything to improve my UNDERSTANDING of the subject -- just gave me the impression that I had to get to the end of the page before I could leave. As an adult I'm still pretty much an inebriate when it comes to maths - so I'd personally look for a more effective program possibly one that encourages learning through fun and offers better positive reinforcement/encouragement than congrats, you're now onto the next level of kumon!

 

[tflynn]

My son started Kumon at an early age. I forget how young but it was early Primary school. His maths grades where excellent.

We gave it up Kumon in P5 for other things like Olympic Maths. Using his school grades as a gauge, nothing worked for him. His maths started plummeting and pulled down his overall score because of the way it was marked.

At my sons request I started him back at Kumon at the end of Form 2. It took him the entire summer vacation and all the first term to catch up. The final result is he completed Form 3 this year in the top 3% of his school and is in the Select Class for next year in preparation for the HKCEE.

Also starting in Form 3 he selected a tutoring center for himself. Where in primary school he was willing to accept what he was told, he is now questioning things and that's where the Kumon method needs supplementing.

Yes Kumon is rote learning but for a young kid is that a bad thing? It did build up his ability and confidence to do well. I agree its painful filling out the workbooks every day, but it has worked for him and he recognizes it.