Kumon - Discussion

[phtthp]

greentea2005 and greenbean2011, are you actually … the same person ?

[sleepy]

deardear07:

sleepy:

[quote=\"soup\"]Hi sleepy. May I know when you started your kid on Kumon?


And where have you put your kid in now? I also believe that studying in depth is important.

When she was 3yo.

Just started with Sakamoto. Attended only 1 lesson, can't comment yet

Kumon got classes for 3yr old?[/quote]Some centers only take in kids who are at least 4. Some centers do accept younger kids.

Started from lowest level 7A. Basically tracing exercises. On hindsight, it would be much 'cheaper' to buy some books to practice tracing at home

[sleepy]

Rabbit02:

To me, Math and Science are creative subjects so worksheet based learning is inappropriate and boring. It leads children to develop phobia in Math/Science. I have frens whose childen hates math after all these worksheets drilling. Math and Science are very related to our practical life. In fact, we can teach children math and science anywhere...in the supermarkets/swimming pool/park - get your child to add/subtract/multiply/divide etc while you are doing your grocery shopping/eating/playing/ etc. Science is about discovery, exploratory and hands on.....while in the kitchen...etc.... This way, your child learns better as it is done in a fun and enjoyable way......

My younger child witnessed her sister doing piles of kumon worksheets for years. She is totally resistant to the kumon way of learning. So I sent her to abacus instead. What she doesn't realise is, abacus has tonnes of sums to do too :lol:

Regardless of methods, whichever suits the child, as long as there is early exposure, child should do reasonable well in Maths

[phtthp]

hi sleepy, so yr 2 girls - one Kumon mtd, the other CMA mental maths mtd. Which one you think better, in the long run ? Are yr two girls in Primary school now ?

[phtthp]

hi Rabbit02, did yr child do Montessori Maths, or any other Maths enrichment when they were young ?

[sleepy]

phtthp:

hi sleepy, so yr 2 girls - one Kumon mtd, the other CMA mental maths mtd. Which one you think better, in the long run ? Are yr two girls in Primary school now ?

Yes, both in primary school now. Abacus girl is better at 心算 than Kumon girl :lol:

However, dd1 was in Kumon programme for a much longer duration than dd2 in abacus programme. So she covered more topics while in Kumon, all the way to fraction, by the time I withdrawn her in K2. Whereas dd2 reaches multiplication in abacus.

Both methods have merits. Depends on your child's preference.

[greentea2005]

nope

phtthp:

greentea2005 and greenbean2011, are you actually ... the same person ?

[ilovemymm]

hi

pls share with me your experience of Kumon at upper serangoon road and highland centre. thinking of choosing highland centre branch.thank you.

[Jav]

Kumon method is about training for self discipline and must be diligent. Some children need to repeat each worksheet 2-3 times and some kid could only handle half a booklet each day. Supposedly, the kid only spends about 15 mins each time to complete a booklet. But of course, most kids have very short attention and cannot sit still, so from 15 mins could drag to 40 mins just like my son.


Just to give you some idea, my son took 8-9 months to complete 3 level of maths ie. Level 3A, 2A and A. I don’t consider him fast but just an average pace and he repeated each worksheet averagely 3 times and every day only do half a booklet. kids are trained that everyday they must do homework.

Sharing with other parents of what I have gone thru with my kids, monthly cost of Kumon is $120 per month so for 9 months is $1080 and only managed to complete 3 levels.

[phtthp]

Yes, agree!


my girl also took 9 months to reach 3 levels. It’s the average normal speed.

she started in March 2011, at level 7 lowest for English. Now end August she’s at level 5A, moving onto level 4A (next higher level).

level 7A (lowest starting point) and 6A - include introduction to nouns commonly encountered in our daily life. No handwriting yet at these 2 lower levels. Children just listen to CD(s), to hear the noun(s) being read aloud.

level 5A - start Phonics, nouns again, vocabulary, reading of short phrases / short sentences + introduction to handwriting.
tr let the child repeat working on the same set of worksheets 3x. objective: to familiarize the child with comon nouns, vocabulary.

level 4A - reading of full sentences, getting complicated now, gaining momentum. At this level, a child would have learnt and able to recognize all the basic sight words.

plus other higher level(s) …

overall, Kumon English curriculum design is very well structured! Because of its step by step bite sized portion introduced, can help a child to read.

if you can, it is good to get hold of these second hand worksheets. Then at home, you can do self check pace with your child. ie. find out - is your child able to recognize very basic sight words, can read aloud very simple sentences ?