Kumon - any experience?

[Slippersmum]

Considering Kumon for my Ds. Has anyone used it? What are your thoughts?

Waste of money!

I think though it very much depends on the group leader, and how s/he runs the group.

Total waste of money. You can juts print off the worksheets on-line.

I think it depends on your child too. For some children the routine do having to do it every day works well.

It depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want him to work on a particular skill - say additions/subtractions - and he is responsive to daily practice, then Kumon might have some use.

However, from what I see in kids who do Kumon math (have not seen what they do in English) -- the exercises are very repetitive (=boring). I have yet to meet any child who enjoys doing them.

If you want to do some extra math with your son, I'd pick some workbooks - Bond, Schofield & Sims, or others and work through them.

Never done Kumon myself, but know lots who have. From what I have seen I gather the following:

Works well with dedicated kids (Asian kids seem to appreciate it)
Average British kid hates it. Can cause huge family arguments.
Have seen numerous British parents glad they started and gave it up, because they later used it as a threat. "If you don't do better at maths you will have to go back to Kumon!"

Always avoided it as I felt it wasn't teaching the reasoning only the method. However I have enrolled DD Y7 as she is not as accurate as she needs to be. She has the understanding but makes careless mistakes. I can honestly see the difference in the 3 months she has been doing Kumon and her latest school assessment showed she had improved 18%
The worksheets take a maximum of 20 minutes a day and the repetitive nature creates speed and accuracy. Marking takes less than 5 minutes so it really isnt a chore. Visit the centre once per week for 30 minutes to review progress.
The downside I have witnessed is Dds best friend who began aged 4 and reached GSCE ability level at 11 but was unable to apply the maths skills outside of straightforward set "sums" she could skillfully calculate based on what she had practiced but had no understanding of what she was doing and this has created issues at school.
I believe Kumon definitely has its place , wish we had started at Y2/3 to ensure solid foundations and quick recall at the early stage, equally starting in Y7 is working well for us.
Agree re the demographics, dd is one of 5 non Asians attending although the centre is in a very white middle class area.

Waste of money seeing as most of the staff don't have any teaching qualifications and are therefore glorified babysitters who hand out a few worksheets and supervise a few sessions at the centre.