Kumon - Discussion

[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 So she covered more topics while in Kumon, all the way to fraction, by the time I withdrawn her in K2.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 ?

[phtthp]

sorry, correction … average speed is take 6 months (half a yr) to reach 3 levels, for kumon English. Not 9 months.

[phtthp]

- deleted

[Jav]

Hi, your gal progress is v fast. Can you share how u discipline ur gal to complete e worksheet? Till to date I am still struggling with my son. But I must admit my gal is easier. Maybe this is e difference bet girl & boy! Sigh

[phtthp]

she only do English, not Maths.

maybe English is easier compared to Maths (more complex subject).

i train her discipline this way …

a) once reach home, 1st thing is she learnt how to remove all the staple(s) by herself. because if dun remove staple, it gets in the way as she turns each page to write.

for her age N2 (4 yrs old) - homework workload assigned by Kumon tr is much simpler - only 5 pages of A5 size (half A4 size pge) per day. Not 10 pages.

10 pages per day are for those bigger, older students like Primary school kids.

b) write her big name down on the front page of per stack of every 5 pages.

c) show her the daily timetable.

she attends N2 PM class, school bus come and fetch her 10.40 am daily.

so after breakfast - when the clock says 9.30 am, she’ll go to her desk
sit down, start her Kumon homework.

first, she’ll activate the stop watch. Write down the start time on the front page of that stack. I bought the stop watch from Kumon for $5.

a) next, she’ll press the button on the mini compo (on her desk) to listen to the CD first, for 5 pages. This CD will teach her how to read, and how to pronounce, word by word. As she listen(s) to the CD, if not sure how to pronounce that noun or word she comes across, i taught her to circle that particular word, using a pencil.

b) after finish listening, she’ll press the stop button on the mini compo.
Then go back to page 1 - try to read out aloud this time, without the help of CD. This time if she dont know how to read any word, I taught her to underline that particular word.

c) after she finish, she’ll write down the End time on the front page, and staple back the stack of 5 pages A5 size.

overall from beginning till end, ususally takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete 5 pages.

d) when i come home, i say ‘Now is reading time. Would you like to read to mommy, please ?’.

i’ll check her progress. For any word that she doesn’t know how to pronounce or can’t read, i’ll transfer that word into a small notebook. I’ll also zoom into those words she had highlighted in circle plus those she had underline. Along the way, if she can’t pronounce, i’ll apply Phonics to help her how to decode the word, to pronounce.

I’ll also test out the list of common sight words given by Kumon - that every child must know. Every level, they’ll give you a list of commonly encountered high frequency sight words. The child must master this list, for each level.

I like Kumon, because it enforces self discipline in a child daily.