All About Primary School Math Enrichment

[lurline]

agree with chief kiasu.


Btw, can you recommend a good MPM learning center in the east, i can’t seem to find any.

Thks

[raysusan]

i had just enroll my girl to mpm

i find it more systematic in their maths teaching

[jedamum]

CMA or abacus training supposed to be left brain right brain training type of stuff.

MPM more on exposing kids to logic questions.
Depends on what you want.

[2bbtang]

Hi!


My son (K2) is currently enrolled in MPM since beginning of this year. School @ Pandan Valley. Initially I was deciding to put him in Kumon or MPM. But I find Kumon not so suitable for my boy… kinda of "dry" drilling… which he could find boring after a while. While MPM’s colourful illustration, logic concept, manuplative…etc helps him to understand and enjoys every lesson.

The teacher periodically will assessed his progress and will recommend me should he skipped or continue the syllabus.

So far, I’m very satisfied with his progress and the teacher’s coaching. He very self-discipline doing the work by himself. And definitely recommend to anyone.

[Luanee]

My daughter is starting P1 next year. Her math seems quite poor and I am thinking of enroling her in an enrichment class. However my husband thinks that she may get confused if the style and method taught in school differs from the enrichment class, be it Kumon or MPM.


Anyone can enlighten me on this? Thanks.

[sleepy]

workingmom:

I have a question for parents with children doing Kumon math. This is regarding the amount/number of pages/worksheets given to the child to complete daily. My elder daughter is doing 2A moving on to A - she is given 2 booklets (20 pages) per day. That seems a lot to me - she is in K2 this yr and started Kumon 3 mths ago.

Is this kind of amount the norm for kids that age ? When she goes on to Level A should it reduce to just 1 booklet (10 pages) ?

my K2 girl only does 5 pages daily. Sometimes she has difficulty keeping to 5 pages if we have other activities on that day.
If really no time, then skip one set because it's almost impossible to ask her to complete 2 days worksheets within a day
No complaints from center instructors so far even if she falls behind in submitting worksheets

[workingmom]

I think the amount seems to vary among each centers. My daughter has moved on to Level A and is doing 10 pages a day. She manages to complete most of the time but I think it can be a struggle when she is tired, busy with other activities or not in the mood.


I think Kumon is good for routine arithmetic, which I think at the end of the day, requires lots of practice/drills. I think the timing requirements are a bit unrealistic though, especially for younger kids. My daughter could hardly add or subtract simple sums earlier this year but now she is pretty confident in addition/subtraction up to 30. I guess this builds a good foundation for the basics. I plan to get her to do up to multiplication/division levels and then revisit whether we should continue.

[ellehcim]

May I know how Kumon is teaching the kids? Understand they are doing worksheets but will they be 'enlightened' if their sums are being done wrongly? or it is training them for speed? heard alot about Kumon but did not gain much information about it.


Currently sent my son to a tuition-type center to prepare him for his P1 maths instead. they are teaching accordingly to the current MOE syllabus, not sure if I'm doing the right thing. :?

[ChiefKiasu]

ellehcim:

May I know how Kumon is teaching the kids?...

I can only speak based on the Math syllabus.

Their syllabus is split into multiple levels: you must clear each lower level before proceeding to the next. Each level is roughly equivalent to half a year in Primary school.

The method is primarily to build up computation speed through drilling. Each worksheet is carefully structured to build up calculation speed in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It does not help much in solving problem sums, based on what I've seen so far.

Some observations:
1. I have a hard time getting my P3 son interested in doing the daily worksheets after the initial honeymoon period. Also, P3 and above focuses more on problem sums. Conclusion is that Kumon is most suitable for K2, P1 and P2 children.

2. It is very effective in building up computation speed. I know because my son was languishing in the 150 score for the math test in the Nintendo DS Big Brain Academy at the beginning of this year and within 1 month of Kumon he was already past the 250 score. He is currently averaging 330+ right now, even though he hardly plays the game anymore.

3. The question is whether computation speed and accuracy is critical. Certainly, it provides the foundation for doing any kind of math, and takes away the \"carelessly\" effect and time spent on calculations during exams, but with the use of calculators for PSLE, that may become a non-issue. If you are looking for something more challenging (and probably more fun) for your children, better to go for services that provide math olympiad training.

[ellehcim]

Oh PSLE allows calculators? That surprises me! The maths he's attending is in conjunction with Sakamoto maths which I believe they claim for problem sum solvings. I'm also not sure what to look at, tactics or speed...