Curious about the appeal of Kumon

[formercalifornian]

My daughter attended Kumon for about eighteen months to help her master basic math facts after switching schools three times in three years, and she stopped after finishing level D in the fourth grade, when she was prepared to handle the school's math curriculum without the extra practice. FYI, our daughter's current and previous schools used EDM, which is a spiraling curriculum that does not require mastery. Quite a few of her classmates still struggle with multiplication and division, which I firmly believe they should have down pat by now.

I am a big fan, although I think it's important to recognize that Kumon is not a complete math program. For us, its strength lay in helping our child come up to speed after too much inconsistency in curriculum. Some children may continue beyond their natural grade level, but I think this requires extraordinary commitment on the part of parents to teach new concepts. If a parent is willing, Kumon provides the opportunity for a motivated student to move well beyond his classmates.

It is true, as some posters have noted, that Kumon centers are often staffed by high school students, but this is not problematic, because they are proctors, not classic tutors. It is absolutely possible that a parent could recreate a Kumon experience at home, but the centers provide structure and accountability that many parents find appealing and worth the price.

The work load is NOT overwhelming. It rarely went beyond 10-15 minutes a day, which left plenty of time for other activities. Our daughter didn't always enjoy doing her worksheets, but she smiled ear to ear when her teacher pulled her aside one day and told her that she would be bumping up to a more challenging math class! It was definitely worth it for our family, and I would do it again without any hesitation.

[pll]

My child is currently in the Kumon program for reading. So far she really enjoys it. She struggles in both math and reading comprehension but we had to choose between the two because of the expense. Both are important and I would love to be able to do both subjects but reading takes top priority at this time. Also, she is in the IEP program at school for math and we work with her a lot at home.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Bored2Day

I am not sold on the importance of a six year old knowing his/her multiplication table in record breaking time.

I rarely saw any elementary school age kids when my kids were in Kumon. Most parents sent their middle school aged children there who had NOT mastered their math facts--which is probably why they had trouble in higher level math. My son went in 5th grade, when we realized he had not mastered his multiplication tables in school....they didn't require it.

the kids who learn their facts at Kumon do not seem to understand why they are getting the answer. They cant explain it. Therefore, they will not know how to apply it.

But they can't possibly understand it under the age of about 9. They think concretely then anyway. Their ability to think abstractly comes later. If they don't master the facts to begin with, it makes it nearly impossible to apply those facts later....to word problems, algebraic equations, statistics, etc.