All About Primary School Math Enrichment

[Pen88n]

Agreed with ChiefKS. Kumon concentrates on Maths basic / foundation - computation. It is more applicable for K1-P2 kids. If you are looking beyond that, should go for Maths enrichment courses. I’ve heard of Andrew Er’s lessons and Learning Lab too.


I noticed the maths problems posted by a number of mummies and daddies here. Anyone know of any challenging maths materials (assessment books, etc.) that we can easily obtained (eg. from popular) so that we can use to teach our kids? What Maths assessment books do you normally use / get for your kids? Please share so that we FTWM can benefit as we really do not have time to scout popular to choose the right assessment books.

Thanks in advance for sharing.

[sleepy]

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...

If I remember correctly, P5 can start using calculator
new MOE syllabus no longer encourage churning of numbers (Kumon style)
the focus shifts to challenging mind questions
we intend to withdraw her when she reaches algebra level

[ksmama]

I use Andrew Er's assessment books, Challenging Maths by Maths456.com. Fan Maths book i-excel: model as a tool is good too. I use other schools' past year papers as asessment too. Some schools have very challenging problems here and there. I bought these from a vendor but I have seen them selling at mama shop nowadays :shock: Must be supply- demand thingy. 'Challenging exam papers' by EPH are pretty good too.

[MMM]

Read somewhere that Andrew Er has a tuition centre in kovan? Is that true? Anyone knows where and the name of the centre?

[Pen88n]

I remember it is Andrew Er tuition centre - near Kovan MRT Heartland Mall. If I’m not wrong, they have opened another branch somewhere at Balmoral area.

[MMM]

Is his tuition centre good?

[MMM]

I just called and wow, there is a waitlist even for weekdays evening.

[belinda]

ck123:

Hi all expert out there,


I am trying to figure out which is better CMA or MPM for my 4year old boy.

Appreciate your views.

Thanks

Hi,

If yur boy is only 4 yr old, I am not sure whether he can start MPM cos I just enrolled my 4 yr old in the Jelic cos the school recommend MPM to start at 5 and suggested Jelic.

My girl which is 6yr old now has attend CMA when she is 5 yrs old and it is rather useful as it help to build her numbers sense. Currently I have enrolled her in MPM to train her in logic concept, manuplative...etc. Looking at the MPM wkbook, I am glad that she has her CMA earlier as she can grasp the concept of addition/substraction faster.

[BlissMom]

My son has been on Kumon for many years. When he was in Pr 6, I stopped him for about 1/2 yr because it was taking time and not helping much in the problem sums. He continued after the PSLE and is now at Level I (secondary 3 level supposedly) and he is currently in Sec 1. My girl was onto the course but I stopped her by Level D about 1 year ago. Bascially, the drill method in Kumon does not address the conceptual/heuristic math which is really the basis for primary math. Also, my girl being more right-brain, does not go well with too much structure and drilling. She, in my view is not a suitable candidate for Kumon. Despite the decision to stop her at level D, she did better in her examination as she no longer needs to struggle in reconciling between the requirements of Kumon and that of the school’s. Also now with calculator approved for primary school, why bother with mental sums. Might as well use the time to improve on problem sums solving technique since it takes up about 50 to 60% of the PSLE paper!


As for my son, he continued merely out of interest i suppose. Plus when you are at Secondary level, the approaches to Math have not changed much and Kumon is rather helpful here for A and E math. Still, we are reviewing the course as he felt that the syllabus is not as updated.

However, if your child is relatively weak and slow in the Mathematical Operators, Kumon is a great start! This is usually most appropriate for children aged 9 and below.

[MMM]

Blissmum,


We are just contemplating whether we should let our son continue with kumon. He is gg to P1 next year. Though I’ve heard that kumon is a long term program and it’s benefits are long term wise. Hubby felt that kumon is quite ltd in term so of scope for pri purpose. Eg. kids are not taught problem sums, time,etc… So besides good in mental sums, doing rationale check we are wondering how will kumon help him.

Also, it’s not feasible for us to send him to 2 maths program as we don’t have that kind of time to do so.