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Kumon Maths?

14 replies

sahs1969 · 29/01/2011 15:40

Hi,
Just wandering what your thoughts are on this.
Dd is in Yr 5 but really way behind in Maths-they are doing supportive stuff with her at school that the outreach base have come in and advised.
Just wandered how useful she would find Kumon?
Any good or bads about it???
Thanks

OP posts:
PipinJo · 29/01/2011 17:29

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moondog · 29/01/2011 17:32

Best thing ever

Numicon

PipinJo · 29/01/2011 17:43

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moondog · 29/01/2011 17:44

Really?
That's interesting.

IndigoBell · 29/01/2011 18:07

I guess it is precision teaching in that it has a huge focus on how many problems you can get write AND how quickly you can get them write.

So you do loads and loads of worksheets. And you have to get them right in a small time frame in order to move up to the next level.

So, totally depends on your DC whether or not he would like it.....

moondog · 29/01/2011 18:18

I'll have to check it out.
Isn't it all very expensive and middle class poncey?
(Unlike PT which costs approximately £0:00)

tryingtokeepintune · 29/01/2011 18:32

Does he understand the concepts?

Just over a month ago I asked on this board (have name changed) about teaching my ds maths because I could only get him to add 1 to a number. From the advice on this board, I bought Numicon and did the suggested work, also used a chld's abacus and my ds's fingers. Eg. show me 5 fingers, show me 3 fingers, how many altogether? Today he can add and take away up to 20 (only because that is the number I have tried so far)on the abacus and moves the counters with ease.

Was just thinking of coming back to the board to ask about social skills - after all you guys showed me how to teach him to read and add and subtract.

PipinJo · 29/01/2011 18:38

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IndigoBell · 29/01/2011 18:54

It costs £50 a month, and yes MoonDog you can do it yourself. There are some old threads on the primary section by caroline about how to do this.

Kumon doesn't cover the national curriculum, so it really depends if you want your DD to improve her arithmetic, or to improve her maths levels, which cover much, much more than that.

(I'm not for or against it. Just trying to describe it....)

moondog · 29/01/2011 19:20

Thanks.
Interesting
Trying, magnificent to hear of your successes!

I love Numicon but think their approach too vague. Lots of suggestions as opposed to a clearly laid out curriculum. But, by combining Numicon with aspect of ABA/Precision Teaching, I've seen many kids make magnificent progress including my own.

Language used in maths os hard to grasp-so abstarct and many people using different words to describe the smae tihng. Once you have something concrete to back up abstract concepts (ie a shape to go with the word 'four') and ensure everyone using the smae terms (which is a key factor in another educational approach I am a huge fan of, namely Direct Instruction-DI) then things can change dramtically.

feynman · 30/01/2011 00:09

Kumon is expensive and only cover's number topics (at the lower levels anyway), but the repetative aspect of it is hughly helpful in many ways.
My brother did this for a while, he started not knowing 2 plus 2 (at age 11) and finished knowing all his tables, and being able to add and subtract in columns consitently using hundreds, tens and units. He's autistic and had global developmental delay.

My daughter did it for a while and is way ahead of her peers in terms of mental arithmetic. My mum teachs maths and after retiring she ran a kumon centre for a while, which I helped with and be both saw some amazing progress but.......

It's not cheap, the worksheets can be boring, and it is very different to school maths. If you are trying to do it yourself, the prinicple is that you don't move on to the next level until you have mastered the current one.

This is fantastic for children who need overlearing, in terms of moving them on, but I guess can be boring and the biggest problem as a parent is finding the time to make sure its done each day.

The idea is you get a booklet to work through each day, the parent marks it asap and then corrections are done. You tend to go to the class once or twice a week but for me the key was the immediate feedback and corrections and the repetativness of it.

moondog · 30/01/2011 10:37

THAT SOUNDS AS i EXPECTED.
tHE ISSUE IS THAT NOTHING CHANGES WITHOUT CONCERTED sustained effort over a period of time.

Unfortunatly, very few paretns have the discipline or motivation to stick with something. It's also quite a skill to think about how to introduce additional reinforcement to spur kids on when it gets tedious.

auntevil · 30/01/2011 11:10

I agree with feynman about the struggle to get them to do it everyday.
My DS is dyspraxic and finds writing the numbers quickly very difficult, but i can see results already and he started in september. It has improved his number confidence and accuracy. His speed in writing numbers has improved - and the shape of some of the numbers too.
But i think it's like most things. If you pay £50 a month to do it, you go and you make sure it's done. If it was cheap/free, it would be far easier to forget a week/ not do all the work.
My DS chose to go to Kumon as he wants to be a Dr. I agreed as he had shown a good aptitude for maths and science in his SATs. Kumon starts from the basics and doesn't let you move on till every stage is mastered. My DS now spots patterns and sequences with numbers really easily because numbers make sense. Schools do not have the luxury of being able to keep on a topic until everyone has 'got it'.

moondog · 30/01/2011 12:22

'Schools do not have the luxury of being able to keep on a topic until everyone has 'got it'.

Very true.

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