Something I've observed about kids that do Kumon (maths).

[Cortina]

A few of my friends have children who do Kumon. What
I am finding is that without exception these children are in the top sets for maths eventually. Obviously I don't know hundreds but I do know about 20 separate children and ALL have improved and grown in confidence.

The mothers are committed to the programme and get their children to do the obligatory 10 minute work sheet every single day come what may, no exception for high days or holidays.

The kids do the sheets with a clock on a desk or table - 10 mins and an alarm rings. The emphasis appears to be on speed.

One friend of mine enrolled her daughter in a maths class at 3 and half. One of the youngest they've ever taken. All of her children are now exceptional at maths, confident, interested and committed.

It's made me wonder about discipline, these children don't have a problem knuckling down to study later. That enforced, no quibble, initial 10 mins a day stood them in good stead. I wonder if they are on to something?

It's not tuition though is it? Also isn't tutoring.

It's children forced to sit and complete pages and pages of sums for around 10 hours a week without help or input. They specifically tell you not to give answers or help. It's cruel.

Sorry I think my first line said the same thing twice tired Sunday!

This is why personal observations don't work. All of the parents you mention are clearly invested in their children's education and that attitude is likely to be passed on to their children. They also apparently have children that don't mind (or at least can be compelled) to sit down and do extra work at home. These children are more likely to be in the top sets. There are probably lots of kids who hated it so much that their parents very quickly gave up and never mentioned it again.

My dd started kumon at 4. Biggest mistake of my life. By age 5 and half she was crying everyday. Taking 2 hours at the sessions. She hated it and hated maths for a long long time. She's now 9 and slowly getting back into enjoying maths. She's wavering between below average and average.

It's a stupid programme and teaches children nothing. A few months after she'd left kumon, she'd forgotten all her basic adding and subtracting sums 🙄🙄🙄

I am a Kumon instructor of nearly 25 years experience,and must say I am quite saddened with some of the posts on here. I have long suspected that some instructors are better than others,and some of the practice detailed here borders on the appalling. Our aim is self learning through detailed observation of each child’s needs and abilities,coupled with an excellent and finely-graded system of worksheets in both maths and English.I would NEVER have a child crying in frustration,spending two hours on work or giving up through boredom! A huge amount of early learning involves memorisation( such as phonics or number bonds) which I think is where Kumon really excels,if handled properly. True advanced learning and development is closely linked to confidence and the ability to use what you know and apply it differently; I believe that’s what we do well in our centre.
Obviously,Mumsnet is hugely influential: but Kumon has improved and developed enormously in the last 5 years. Don’t just believe the negatives-ask around,go for a centre with a personal recommendation from someone you know ( maybe in your child’s class) If you are ready to support your child to work a little every day, amazing progress is possible.

Mine are are not of school age just yet. Buy I will be doing something similar

I have known a few kumoners who have been exceptionally talented mathematicians, a lot who were average and, a few who were so bad that they didn't take it in their last year of school.

I have a lot of students that are forced to do Kumon by their parents. Not one of them has any actual ability to comprehend what they are reading, or apply maths in varied situations. It is all rote learning. Awful, and doesn't actually help the students at all.

I don't think Kumon suit British culture. It seems like parents who sends their children to Kumon are very pushy parents in England.
In my country, many sends their children to Kumon during kindergarten to make children ready for school. It's relaxed and cheap. It's one of the thing accessible to many.
And it's very basic, so parents of able children wouldn't send their children just to do repetition work at Kumon, especially after starting school.
What we think of Kumon in my country and in England is 180 degrees opposite.

My experience of parents who use Kumon is very different Irvine. They tend to be parents whose kids are struggling and don’t feel able to support. They see Kumon as a cheap alternative to a tutor. Unfortunately what they get for their money is rarely (never) what their child actually needs.

The fact that a child isn’t able to engage with the Kumon Process does not imply it’s rubbish. There is no one cap fits all approach to education. At best most school curriculums attempt to provide an average experience for all children. Kumon isn’t for every child and a child may well flourish on another programme or indeed on the school curriculum. However IMO the standard of maths education in our U.K. falls way behind global counterparts. You can look at the stats yourself. No surprise there, with parents complaining about kids getting too much work etc. Children at a young age have immense capacity to learn and should be supported early in accordance to their learning style. Shocked to see ds’s and dd’s Work during the lockdown having caveats such as ‘you don’t have to do it all’ and ‘do what you are comfortable with‘ etc.

DS does Kumon...he started at 4yrs ,DD doesn’t - she didn’t take to it and it’s fine. I support both of them based on their individual learning styles and they are both excellent at maths. Kumon has its flaws but that’s where a parent should step in. You will be misguided in expecting a holistic maths education from Kumon nor can you expect a high standard from the U.K. curriculum. I teach DS the real world maths applications of what he studies at Kumon. Problem solving can be taught - it’s just not the emphasis with Kumon. Most of the negative comments on here I suspect are from parents who do not adopt a hands on approach??...Forgive me for being presumptuous.

True- it’s not cheap so those who think Kumon is akin to just printing worksheets should carry on with those available on the internet and build a bespoke curriculum out of that for their own children.

Kumon might be good at helping a child learn the basics of arithmetic through repetition; but it certainly doesn’t make a mathematical genius. If a child has good Innate non-verbal and spatial reasoning ability, then that is the biggest determiner of their higher level maths skills later on. Not the ability to rote learn sums and times tables...there’s a huge difference!

My kids did Kumon for a while, and it was completely soul destroying, and (in my opinion) and real rip off! You basically pay a huge sum of money to get a pack of boring, repetitive worksheets. After a 20 minute battle every night to get them to do it, you (the parent) then have to sit and mark it all. Once a week they went to 'classes', which involved them sitting at a desk doing the same worksheets, being supervised by 14 year olds from the local secondary school. We gave up after about a year, as I didn't see any remarkable progress that they wouldn't have made anyway. They both did well in maths at GCSE, and perhaps Kumon helped with that, but it was so expensive for what it was, that I jacked it in, and we did BBC Bitesize instead. They are adults now, and every now and again they'll say "Remember Kumon? Gaaaaghhhh!".