Kumon Maths - do you think it helped your child?

[pianist]

Mad mothers who have drilled their kids to do their kumon every day, has it been worth it?

Hi there,
definitely worth it.

Once you see it, you think you could probably make up your own exercises for your child, that's what I even tried (and I also used those practice books you can get at WH Smith, but they progress far too quickly for my children). But at the end of the day, I let it slip and did not do it every day, so it's not the same.

We started our children particularly as they are in a state school where they get hardly any homework. You can probably get away without doing it if your children are in a good (!) private school and get decent homework every day (and often at private school as I've heard from friends).

Having said that, at our Kumon centre there are still quite a lot of privately educated pupils so their parents probably have a reason why they send them there.

I remember my mum doing some extra work nearly every day with me when I was in primary school, on top of the regular homework (and we did get homework every day even though it was a state school, but it was in Germany) and it helped enormously.

My ds 1 has SEN and without Kumon he'd be even more behind in school. He's been doing both Kumon Maths for more than 1 1/2 years now and English for a year.

Ds 2 just started Kumon a couple of months ago and already says it helps him with his maths at school.

At school they focus more on the creative side of things, which is fine, but I think it ties in nicely with the more repetitive nature of Kumon.

However, it may not suit a very clever child. They say even those children benefit from Kumon, they just move through the levels a lot more quickly and get harder work, but I can imagine they might get bored after a while.

I don't know if my children will go to Kumon forever, I may switch them to a tutor later on. The downside of Kumon is that it is very pricey and also that you are expected to do the corrections yourself every single day (I admit I was quite shocked by this fact considering the price but have quickly become used to it.)

Have been thinking of this for a while for DS1 (8 and in Y4) as I don't think his state school really does 'drill and kill' on number facts etc, which he in particular would benefit from. Two of his friends have started since September - we are all thinking of secondary transfer, and grammar/independent school exams now.

oops sorry, meant to say, 'often they get homework every day at private schools'.

Forgot to say ds1 is 7, ds2 is 5 - nearly 6. Thought we start them off rather early because the foundations are laid then. Once there are gaps, it's very difficult to go back to square 1.

Ds did it for a year, after which he got very very fed up and we decided to use home workbooks instead because (a) I had better uses for £48 a month and (b) I thought it was a bit limited and that the Kumon skills didn't transfer very well into other maths tasks.

It is good for getting children into good work habits, and getting them up to speed on doing basic maths tasks. It gets them comfortable with handling numbers, though only touching on a very tiny subsection of the mainstream maths curriculum.

BUT there is little focus on understanding it is predominantly memory, certainly at the lower levels. It is undoubtedly very very boring, even though they are quite good at incentivising the kids with stickers and certificates. Also the individual instructors are not trained teachers, they are trained Kumon people ask them a slightly awkward question and they resort to quotes from the Kumon training manual. There's something ever so slightly culty about it.

It's also completely useless for dyspraxic children, according to two fellow Kumon mums whose children made no progress at all and were subsequently diagnosed with dylexic/dyspraxic type issues.

@frogs, that's very interesting, ds1 is dyspraxic (among other things such as ADD - inattentive type) but still Kumon helps him (so far). At least he moves up the levels, a bit slower than other children but he makes progress. Also his school teachers found that (and initially they were unaware that he did Kumon).

What did your fellow Kumon mums do with their dyspraxic/dyslexic children then?
Did they not move up the Kumon levels or did they/do you think the Kumon levels are not a real indicator of progress?

Have they since found an alternative? If so, would you mind letting me know about it as I'm always looking for ways to help our children in the best possible way and I'm not so sure about Kumon in the long run.

Would you think a tutor is a better idea? Also there seem to be other "systems" around but haven't looked into them properly yet. One is doing maths but solely on a computer (?), can't remember the name.

Also I try to do extra work with my children but as I said I found those WH SMith style workbooks not that helpful (at least not for ds1) and believe me, we have loads of different ones, about 3 pages filled in in each of them.
I guess I'm a bit desperate but being a trained teacher myself (not primary but German equivalent of grammar school though and never worked as a teacher in the UK and don't intend to do so ) and with two not-so-high-flying-kids in the state system I feel that I have to do something, if I only knew what would work best.

Thing is at our school most parents pretend to be completely anti-homework and officially nobody has a tutor (haha) so of not much help in that respect. Funnily one of the previously most outspoken anti-homework mums has recently enrolled her dc at the local Kumon centre...

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We started Kumon because DD seemed confused by the maths at school, I don't think she had seen enough of the same sort of sums to be sure what the patterns were - Kumon is repetitive and this was what she needed. She is in Y1 (summer birthday) and ready to start doing column addition and now enjoys doing sums and races against herself. So it gets my vote, even if it has required bribery at points.

Hi, I have considered Kumon for DD1 (aged 5 Year 1) too but have not taken the plunge yet. How often do they have to attend the class? How many kids are at each session - do they limit it?

Thanks.

My eldest does Kumon literacy and it is a slog but I can see it helping him

We've been doing it for a bit less than a year so far: ds (8 in April) does English, dd (nearly 6.5) does maths. We started it for ds's sake, to address his distractibility & reluctance to pick up a pencil & write anything. Dd (who doesn't have any concentration/learning etc. difficulties) didn't want to be left out, hence her maths.

Has it been worth it? Ds can parse a sentence - knows what a predicate is, which I certainly didn't at his age. He's now a fluent writer (in the mechanical sense, ie of producing script) and it has definitely helped his attention & stamina - he can truck his way steadily through 15-20 mins of worksheets, with a good understanding of "now I'm a quarter through, now I'm half-way through, now I'm nearly finished" etc. which is a fundamentally good lesson for children with attention difficulties.

I don't know if doing the maths has had any effect on dd at all, save that she does her ordinary school maths homework with huge gusto because it's NOT the drudging drill of Kumon. Maybe it has given her such solid skills that all that's left for ordinary number work is the fun? But maybe she'd have found it fun anyway.

I don't think we'll do it for much longer - I think it's straightened out some of ds's problems & what he needs now is something more sophisticated - practice in producing written meaning (eg stories), rather than just script.

boomie, they have to go to class once a week (for about 40 mins, anytime within a three-hour slot). Room full of children (about 30?), each separately doing their worksheet, getting it corrected, collecting their next week's allocation.

It's not a "class" as such. More along the lines of, say, going to the gym - ie lots of other people at the gym too, and a trainer-supervisor if you want them, but you work your way through your circuit on your own.

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evidence it works for DD- today's quote from school: "I was the only one who finished my maths in my group today"... its the confidence and fluency it has given her that is worth the slog.

Thanks everyone & sorry for hijacking the thread slightly

Boomie - it's not just a case of going to Kumon once a week, you also have to do (quite a lot of) work every single day!

Most people I speak to say that Kumon initially helped their child, but they generally stop after about a year. I don't know if there's a plateau in progress, or they just get fed up with the daily bind!

I've heard lots of good things about kumon.
I have friends whose kids are doing kumon english, maths or both at the moment, but it's early days.
The most important thing is being committed and helping with all the homework.

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