Kumon - Discussion

[miss_clean]

Hi Jedamum, my kids attend the classes at Jurong West Ave 1. The teacher plays a very important part, she is a pretty good motivator.

[shiningstar]

Hi foreverj


Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience on the Kumon worksheets with your gal! Seems that its quite a challenge to do 10 sheets at one go. Your sharing gives me a good idea on how the program works - its more like a daily study kind of thing which involves quite a fair amount of parental support.

How much time does she take to work through the worksheets and does it involve a lot of writing? let me know more about the centre (environment and teachers involved) after the trial...who knows i can send my son to the same place too in the future if its not too far. Hope your gal is enjoying the work and not feeling frustrated at this stage. i will continue my work on the Kumon workbook for the time being :lol:

[csb]

Has anyone any experience with the Kembangan centre? Thanks.

[shaynamommy]

Just my expce : perseverance is the key for Kumon. I started my 5 yo one year ago for maths, then started with English too. Today, I signed her up for Chinese as well. Her maths has improved tremendously but it is always a struggle to get her to do the worksheets. She always kicks up a big fuss when it’s Kumon time at home. Strange thing is that she loves the lessons at Kumon Siglap Centre. Personally, I find the worksheets repetitive but I believe that that’s how kids should learn maths ie thru rote learning. Now she knows her sums and subtractions by heart. It definitely helps to boost her performance in school maths. It is a constant struggle for me n her but I’d tahan as long as I can since discipline is also another good virtue for our kids to have.

[foreverj]

shiningstar:

Hi foreverj


Thanks for sharing your firsthand experience on the Kumon worksheets with your gal! Seems that its quite a challenge to do 10 sheets at one go. Your sharing gives me a good idea on how the program works - its more like a daily study kind of thing which involves quite a fair amount of parental support.

How much time does she take to work through the worksheets and does it involve a lot of writing? let me know more about the centre (environment and teachers involved) after the trial...who knows i can send my son to the same place too in the future if its not too far. Hope your gal is enjoying the work and not feeling frustrated at this stage. i will continue my work on the Kumon workbook for the time being :lol:

hi shiningstar, brought my dd to the first lesson today. since she's quite young, the wksheets are quite easy. mainly to teach her to identify quantity of dots. eg. the picture shows 2 dots so she must write the number \"2\" in the box. today only got up to 5. she did two sets of worksheets (both quite similar) altogether n took 11min for each. she had like 3 mistakes in the first set but managed to get all correct for the second set. at her age, given her fine motor skills r not that mature yet, it's not really the speed that matters i think.

so yes, based on today, i realise how kumon helps the child to get more accurate with more practice. but of course, i understand as time goes by and things get more difficult, the going wil get tough and it won't be easy to sustain the child's interest. but it's so cute to see her sitting there with all the gor-gors and jie-jies in front of the instructors and doing her work seriously. :love:

actually the lady-in-charge did show me the simpler worksheets for even younger children. it seems they look a lot like the kumon workbooks you can buy outside. so really, u can start on the kumon programme now in the comfort of your own home

u can pm me for more info.

[foreverj]

hi shiningstar


check your pm.

[sleepy]

I feel that Kumon Maths is not quite in sync with MOE’s model drawing & heuristic type of questions


In my opinion, seem more suitable for preschoolers, to build a strong foundation in addition & subtraction

[shiningstar]

shaynamommy:

Just my expce : perseverance is the key for Kumon. I started my 5 yo one year ago for maths, then started with English too. Today, I signed her up for Chinese as well. Her maths has improved tremendously but it is always a struggle to get her to do the worksheets. She always kicks up a big fuss when it's Kumon time at home. Strange thing is that she loves the lessons at Kumon Siglap Centre. Personally, I find the worksheets repetitive but I believe that that's how kids should learn maths ie thru rote learning. Now she knows her sums and subtractions by heart. It definitely helps to boost her performance in school maths. It is a constant struggle for me n her but I'd tahan as long as I can since discipline is also another good virtue for our kids to have.

Hello shaynamommy,

wow...it seems that you must have lots of perseverance as a parent (not just the child) to continue the program. I salute your 'endurance level'! It must be tough to struggle with your gal to do her work based on what you described. So besides addition and subtraction, what does she learn in Kumon? I am curious about the long term benefits it brings to a child besides good discipline.

miss_clean mentioned about 'self-learners' in the forum but what exactly does that mean? any idea if that applies to your gal?

[shaynamommy]

shiningstar:

Hello shaynamommy,

wow...it seems that you must have lots of perseverance as a parent (not just the child) to continue the program. I salute your 'endurance level'! It must be tough to struggle with your gal to do her work based on what you described. So besides addition and subtraction, what does she learn in Kumon? I am curious about the long term benefits it brings to a child besides good discipline.

miss_clean mentioned about 'self-learners' in the forum but what exactly does that mean? any idea if that applies to your gal?

Okay, based on what I see so far, things she has gathered besides discipline:
1. Accuracy with sums within a prescribed time limit ie. 10 mins. If they are not good with their worksheets during the class work, they may be asked to repeat the whole set.
2. Intense concentration during that 10 mins ie. no chit chatting, no doodling around, no nonsense
3. Getting a sense of achievement as she is given a chance to work on levels beyond her academic level. For instance, my dd is in K1 but she is working on P1 maths and english. So she earns a bronze medal under the Kumon system and she feels really good about it.
4. More defined logic with the sums. She came back and taught me that there was some way of doing the sums as she was taught by the teachers. It didn't register in me cos I assumed that those methods are of no use to me. But at least I knew that she has learnt some technique instead of just the \"practice by heart\" kind of learning. During the PMT session, the teachers told me that they can even do additions of 2 3-digits numbers eg. 245+378 horizontally and not through the traditional vertical method. I dunno how they do it but she told me that they can do it. So, I think it is not all self-learning, the teachers do coach the students as well.

My nieces and nephews have been with the Kumon method for many years and now they do their worksheets without any complaints. When they first started, they were sama sama as my dd. Also, I see even ang-mohs and the India Indians attending the classes too. My Indonesian and Malaysian colleagues who relocated to Singapore also said that they were doing Kumon in their countries! Looks like this is a program with Asian appeal...

[foreverj]

sleepy:

I feel that Kumon Maths is not quite in sync with MOE's model drawing & heuristic type of questions


In my opinion, seem more suitable for preschoolers, to build a strong foundation in addition & subtraction

hi sleepy, understand your dd1 did kumon for a few years right? in your opinion, how has she benefitted from it? and if given a choice, would u have signed her up for kumon for other enrichment classes?

thanks in advance for your sharing