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Primary education

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Original poster

What do you think of Kumon?

45 replies

mimosa · 30/12/2012 00:14

I am looking into the merits of Kumon for my DS (7). He does not seem to be doing awfully well at school, yet I know he has so much potential. The school have told me his reading age is one year behind his chronological age. However, they do not have a plan of action to tackle this.
I wondered if Kumon might help? Has anybody had any experiences of this?
thanks

OP posts:
zumo · 30/12/2012 08:22

Why Kumon?
Why cant the school just do a proper job and help him? We had similar problms as most schools just teach a few of the kids in the class and the rest are just along for the ride.
I would do some structured learning and playing at home and possibly get a tutor to help out.
We found the set of books the school use on Amazon, bought the lot, taught the kids to read at home then actually sold them on Ebay for a profit! nd the added bonus of the kids being able to read, teacher took about 12 months to admit she was wrong and one of ours was actually a good reader whilst she said not!
Now you know your kids best but find out what floats his boat, do it witrh him but in a way that he will learn something, our son attends the local scouts, he loves it and has learnt loads of stuff you couldnt just show him.
My point is I often feel the one size suits all we have in education is not good as we are all different, I would have a go yourself, have a google for activity village some good stuff and all free

seeker · 30/12/2012 08:31

Boring. Doesn't match with what they are doing at school. Expensive. And cynically preying on parental insecurities.

The school have a plan of action? Make an appointment as early as possible in the new term and get something sorted.

seeker · 30/12/2012 08:32

Sorry- why doesn't the school have a plan of action, that should say!

learnandsay · 30/12/2012 08:33

There is a thread here on kumon which has almost a thousand relies.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/a1497023-To-Kumon-or-not-to-Kumon-That-is-the-question

Feenie · 30/12/2012 09:39

We had similar problms as most schools just teach a few of the kids in the class and the rest are just along for the ride.

Ridiculous generalisation. And a load of garbage.

Original poster
mimosa · 30/12/2012 10:34

Thanks - and thanks for the link to the other thread on Kumon. It seems the general opinion re this is that it is not necessarily the answer for me. I did have a meeting with the teacher last term - and I intended to ask the teacher to give us some extra work to do at home - so DS could catch up - however I allowed myself to get "thrown off" and the meeting resulted in him being referred to audiology and speech and language therapy. I need to broach the subject again in the new term. I think I will put the idea of Kumon on hold and be more assertive and try to get the teacher to give me work to do (or advise me what material I can get hold of)

Actually - I do have the feeling that DS has a very low profile in the class- he is well behaved and very quiet - I think the teacher barely knows hes there! However my DD is very bright and is being hot housed by her teacher - I think there is a general fault in attitude at their school, in that the very bright are given extra attention - but those less able are not helped to reach their potential - unless the parents are a little pushy (like me!)

thanks v much

OP posts:
scrablet · 30/12/2012 10:37

Being referred sounds like a plan of action to me. Worked wonders for my 'under achieving' DC.

learnandsay · 30/12/2012 11:16

I am no great believer in arguing with teachers about how much extra work to give children. My general belief is that teachers, like the rest of us, are human. As far as I can tell they're far more motivated to do things that they think are necessary and that they're able to do than they are to do things that parents want them to do, (especially if it is not a school policy.) I've often heard that such "pushing" from parents results in warm words from the school and not a lot happening in practice. The parent meanwhile gets more and more frustrated.

My own view is that such a parent should by all means bring up the issue with the teacher (in much the same way as a teacher may mention an underperforming child to his parents at parents evening.) But the teacher doesn't keep asking thereafter "so, mum and dad, what have you done about it? And I think the same should be true in reverse. The parents shouldn't keep asking the teacher, so what have you done about it? Because if the teacher wasn't responsive and the parents weren't responsive the real answers would, in both cases, be: nothing! And I'm not going to do anything about it either.

So my own answer is that if mum wants her son to do better at his school work she should go to WH Smiths educational department, buy some work materials and start educating him herself. When he has stepped up his game then mum can meet up with the teacher and say, OK, I know that he wasn't doing that well before. But we've covered all this extra work at home, could you please see if he now responds better in school? Of course the teacher might see no change because the boy might well work harder and better at home with one to one tuition than he does at school. So, in the end the idea of the boy's potential might really only be in mum's head (unless she wants to carry on supplementing his education at home until he leaves school.)

ohfunnyFRANKENface · 30/12/2012 11:20

The worst teacher I trained with left the profession to start her own Kumon school. Good riddance.

I did Kumon for one week as a university student, helping out as a 'tutor' there. They didn't want to pay me, the system was shocking and I hated it. I left.

clam · 30/12/2012 11:22

You say you allowed yourself to be "thrown off" and mention made of audiology/S&L referrals. That doesn't sound to me like being "thrown off." It sounds as though the school is aware there are issues with your son and are suggesting ways to move forward. If there are S&L problems, then I doubt Kumon is the answer at the moment.

mrz · 30/12/2012 11:34

I agree with clam. It seems the school are concerned that there may be a physical cause for your son's difficulties, either with his hearing or language processing which unfortunately no amount of Kumon or work books will solve.

Feenie · 30/12/2012 11:36

I know - the absolute gits, allowing getting to the root cause of a problem to divert your attention!

learnandsay · 30/12/2012 11:56

Feenie, there's no need for sarcasm. She's only trying to help her son to learn.

mrz · 30/12/2012 12:06

and so is the school

Original poster
mimosa · 30/12/2012 12:57

This has been a really useful discussion for me and helped me to understand a few things
I was grateful for the referral to other audiology and SaLT, however I dont think that alone will be sufficient. DS has had his audiology appt and has been discharged as there are no probs with his hearing. Will wait for the SaLT referral to come through and see what happens
I am very prepared to spend time with my son to help him. I have bought some workbooks already and we are going through them together (From WHS but dont know if its the same as suggested from Learnandsay) - i think they are great but even with this work at home, he isnt making progress at school. I was hoping the teacher could help us so that we could do work at home that would complement what they are doing in school. I respect DS teachers opinion, I need her help and expertise - this is not an area that is familiar to me.
I think i will shelve the idea of Kumon - but maybe still consider some form of tutoring.

thanks

OP posts:
TotallyBS · 30/12/2012 13:01

Kumon is about £60 per month per subject which is roughly equal to two hours 121 tutoring. This is something critics ignore.

Is Kumon the answer to your prayers? No but if you are time or money poor then it is a reasonable product.

clam · 30/12/2012 13:07

TotallyBS

learnandsay · 30/12/2012 13:08

TotallyBS, I think that kind of detail about kumon is adequately covered in the thread that I linked to. It might be more profitable in this thread to discuss with mimosa what issues she and her son are facing and what the options are rather than kumon in particular which is much debated elsewhere on mumsnet.

ohfunnyFRANKENface · 30/12/2012 13:11

£60 a month for 2 hours a month 1-2-1 tutoring would be a much better investment of the money.

I'm sure whatever workbooks you do with him, if you're covering the basics you'll be building his confidence and developing him.

TotallyBS · 30/12/2012 13:19

learnandsay, I think it might be more 'profitable in this thread' if you don't go round telling other people what they should be posting.

Feenie · 30/12/2012 13:23

Indeedy - you are overstepping the mark, learnandsay.

scrablet · 30/12/2012 16:18

As I said above, sounds like the school do have a plan of action with the referrals. These are not nothing, glad audiology signed off, with my DCs was their eyesight and tracking which was the issue.
Maybe let the school get this sorted first because otherwise, no amount of extra work will help (If that is the issue)
BTW, you are lucky school will do this for you, we were told this might be issue and had to do all research, appts ourselves. Not complaining, just saying...

zumo · 30/12/2012 17:12

Quote Feenie
We had similar problms as most schools just teach a few of the kids in the class and the rest are just along for the ride.

Ridiculous generalisation. And a load of garbage
Quote
I disagree, its based on our experiance.

learnandsay · 30/12/2012 17:20

zumo, then you probably mean most schools in your experience rather than most schools. I hazard a guess that most schools in Britain are out of your experience.

mrz · 30/12/2012 17:21

How many or the 250000 primary schools in England is your experience based upon zumo?

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