Kumon? yes or no?

[Malkaperlichka]

My Dd has been doing Kumon for a year and a half. It has helped her a lot in Maths and English, but I am beginning to have some doubts. The Maths programme is very restrictive and does not teach any problem soving. She is now getting behind at school because of that. We do not have time to do all after school. Has anyone had such an experience?

My DTS are in reception and there are about half a dozen parents who have already enrolled their children on Kumon Maths and English. I know because I hear them gushing about how their children have come on in leaps and bounds since they started.

Good God - extra tuition at reception! Dd is in reception and wants to come home and play with Polly Pocket - exactly as she should. She does not need to be good at maths at 4!

Hi - hav eonly reada the OP.

I did Kumon with my 6 yr old dd who was severley sturggling iwth maths. I now regard it as a total waste of time effort and money to the extent that it has set dd back . Why? Because she spend whole months just doing 3 + 3, 3+4, 3+5 etc until she could do it sufficiently quickly/fluently for kumon to move on whereas rest of class were doing long division etc and dd really needed heop thre. the point I am making is that kumon does not track the class or address teh child'#s specific weaknesses but more assumes that all children need myriad repetition until they can parrott kumon sums off by heart and all the problmes will be solved.

In my dd's case she failed to understand how maths works and how to address problems and work beyond basics.

We have now had to fund one to one hlep at school over and above what the SENCO could offer so that she now goes out of lessons about 5 times per week for half an hour at a time and has cost us £170 since November. Still , this has acehieved far far more than kumon ever did an ddd has moved from not being able to understand anythign at all ( and I mean literally anything and crying over every homework maths assignment ) to tackling homework independantly and confidently and getting at least 50% correct.

i would go for a tutor any time and a million times over kumon.

My dt's do kumon maths and they each benefit in different ways. They are at a state school, they do a lot of literacy work but the school seems to suffer from some kind of anxiety when it comes to teaching maths and arithmetic in particular. They are a good school and offer booster tuition in KS2 for those that need it. So my experience would be don't do kumon if your dc is struggling already before you have checked with the school.

But I have been really pleased with what it has done for my two. They are very confident about numbers, they understand the importance of regular practice, it helps ds in particular to focus on a task (and actually it seems to help that the task isn't v interesting, in a way) and it gives me some transparency on what they can do.

I asked DD the other day what they had done in numeracy and she said "positional vocabulary". So forgive me, but I would much prefer that my dc's spend time practicing addition and subtraction, than demonstrating that they understand the difference between "above" and "below" and that they can parrot DCSF jargon.

Practice makes perfect with reading and writing, so why not with numerical operations?

I am not doing it for teaching concepts, but for regular and structured practice. It might not take long to replicate, but I place a higher value on my time than what I pay kumon for the worksheets. Plus like most children, they would rather impress someone else than me.

We will stop when they are older, I expect, because I'm not sure you get the same benefit from repeated practice at more difficult maths and I imagine you would actively want to have to do it.

So, in short and in my opinion, kumon has its place - it depends what you want it for.

Interesting to read the thread.Agree Lizipads. My son started Kumon about ten days ago and already he has improved his accuracy and speed doing addition and subtraction. I don't expect Kumon to cover all bases, but if it irons out the chances of little careless calculation errors, that's a good thing. The 15 mins everyday is becoming a habit. He is concentrating and I think it is also boosting his confidence especially now that his scores are improving all the time. I know he would resent me writing out my own list of sums (which of course I could do) so following a 'formal' programme gets his mum off his back!

I am now getting very angry. Dd was assessed by Kip McGrath to be working one year ahed of her age group, she is in year 2. I was shocked, when I saw her first homework: it was at reception class level! Why are they trying to hold her back? Just to take more money out of us? Has anyone had a similar experience?

malka...its interesting you say this, I had not had direct experience with KipMcGrath, but my sons friend went there, and they raved about it at first, but then slowly the same thing started happening as you mentioned. They decided to take their DS out, and get him some private tutoring instead. This worked much better for him. In saying that though, I know of other children through the grapevine who have been in Kumon and had a lot of success, so perhaps it depends on the specific centre or the particular childs ability...?

Three kids at £25 per hour = £75

IME only clowns earn more

All my DCs do Kumon and we think it has helped them all in different ways.

Everyone seems to complain about the repetition of Kumon Maths but DD1 (yr8) now admits that Kumon has given her strong mental arithmetic and she has a really good grasp of her times tables which she wasn't taught at school. I know MNers are going to say that I could have taught her her times tables but that is not all she has gained from it, she has learnt new techniques and taken them to school and found herself teaching the other kids as they are far simpler than those her teacher is trying to teach. She is sticking with it and will soon be working at a GCSE level a long time before she is due to take the real thing and will be far more confident than if she hadn't done it at all.

DS1 is also doing the 2+1 sheets and is getting quicker all the time. In his case this is more an exercise in getting him to concentrate and it's working. Of course he can do the sums but now it is becoming second nature that 8+4=12 and that is such a confidence boost to him that he doesn't have to use his fingers etc.

DS2 has blossomed in terms of reading and spelling by doing the English course. He is a summer baby and really struggled at first in school but now he is one of the more confident readers.

Kumon does not profess to be a substitute for traditional education, it is complimentary and has given all my DCs the confidence to work alone, have a go at their work and not be afraid to make mistakes. Kumon makes children far more ready to have a go and I think that is a great strength.

Feel so sad when MNers say that they have given up after a very short time. We were warned that we would have to wait to see the results and we certainly are now we are into our 3rd year. Our teacher is also very dedicated and far more interested in my DCs efforts and attainments than school teachers. She can explain converting fractions into decimals much better than I can!!

My son is currently doing English at the Yate centre, he was way behind at reading and writing. He is 3 months in and i have to say that you have to be regimented but the results are staggering. He has done so well and it looks like the projections Kate gave us are starting to look realistic. His sister is so competitive and is realising the progress he has made, now she wants to do it by choice. So i have to say that i sing Kumon's praises everywhere i go these days. Brad

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