To Kumon or not to Kumon. That is the question.

[megabored]

DD is starting school in September. Below are the Pros and Cons I have been debating recently.

1. She is bright, so should be okay without extra help in school
2. It is too early to put her through this
3. Kumon is expensive and time consuming.

The Pros

1. It may give her that bit of extra confidence at school
2. Earlier is better as then she can grow with that system
3. Its not so expensive as to be prohibitive.

I really cant decide either way. Please someone help?

Being shot in the arse is a good cure for toothache.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.

Sorry .

Some are wise - some are otherwise.

Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft, and I'll show you a flat minor.

A wise man learns from others mistakes
A fool learns from his own.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

I have got all these half remembered quotes in my head but they are all a little bit wrong!
So..
When I was one I had just begun
When I was two I was nearly new
When I was three I was almost me
When I was four I was not much more
When I was five I was just alive
But now I am six I am clever as clever
I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
[Christopher Robin].

I intend to live forever -- so far, so good

Give me a boy til he's seven and I'll show you the man.
[or something like that!].

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up

If you judge people you have no time to love them

"when she arrived later in the day, she took the point at once - but she also took the spoons." (LOTR)

'I have secret plans and clever tricks' - The Enormous Crocodile..

glaurung - or is the starting 2 levels below what they are capable of anything to do with the fact that Kumon than state that in the first year a child will make xx amount of progress - not suprising really if they are starting at a much lower level than they are really capable of.

The children I saw being asked to count dots were around 7-9 years.

'It's a million to one chance, but it might just work' - Terry Pratchett

Blinkin' flip. I nip off out on an airport run for an hour and you all go intelligent on me!

Divide the fire and you will soon put it out.

Dd started beyond the dot stage at around age 8 hulla and I never noticed many children doing that at the centre (might have been me being unobservant, but I can only think of one child in about two years and they were very young). And the first level took a fortnight to complete with the second taking not that much longer, so she was up to the right level within a couple of months - I don't think it made much difference to the progress claimed over the first year as all the adults more or less discounted those first two stages anyway.

you don't need to preempt her P1 progress
stop being pushy mum, locating tutors and additional classes isn't necessary. a good teacher will explain progress,strategies etc and it won't include kumon

ime,kumon is pushy mum territory

Guess it depends on the centre itself then - definitely occurred where we went.

"Divide the fire and you will soon put it out."

Until scottishmummy comes along with a great big can of petrol and starts it all off again!

if as parent you have disposable income and insecurities
some unmet need will pop up
kumon
craniopathy
language classes
draaclasses

megaboard, if you're still reading..

I've not got time to read all the posts.. but it's not pleasant having read a couple of pages so don't really want to.

To answer your OP, I used to work in Kumon briefly and would not send my children there unless they are having issues in school and the school recommends it, which I doubt they will. Thankfully for me, for now my DS1 lets me go through numbers and phonics books with him. He loves them and asks me teach him all sorts so I bought some books for him. I'm not really pushy though so that might not suit you because if DS1 doesn't ask, then I don't bother going through the books. Actually, iIt's been a month since we last went through Jolly Phonics workbook 4.

Why not ascertain from your DD if she wants to do it? My DS1 spent 6 month begging me to send him for all sorts of different language lessons (my background and he was also exposed to it during his brief time at pre-prep) I resisted but I am so glad I finally gave in. He started a month ago and he really enjoys his tuition. He is so happy going for lessons, I sit in the same room watching them (and desperately wishing I had a fancy tablet to read mumsnet on) and I can see how much he enjoys it.

At this age, I'm trying my best to let him learn through play and enjoyment. Having said that, DS1 is so eager to learn things so it's so easy for me at the moment, my smugness will wash away prompto I bet when DS2 turns 4.