Kumon - yes or no

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely! I put my three kids in Kumon for two years each in early elementary school so they would become lightening fast at math facts. I kept them in it until they finish level E which is fractions. They were the fastest students when they had time tests. And now it pays off when trying to do algebra problems because they don’t have to exert any mental effort to reduce a fraction like 36/48 or 16/56 or add/subtract/multiply/divide when solving a complicated problem. They tell me they have kids in their classes that are still having to mentally manipulate or use fingers to do addition,subtraction, multiplication facts. Homework in upper grades in math gets completed faster so there is time to supplement with other math programs like Beast Academy/Aops.

Or the opposite. My kids have never done Kumon and both are top in their 10th and 7th grade math classes. And they don’t judge other kids for using their fingers.

[Anonymous]

Our kids initially completed BrainQuest math workbooks (I usually got one a grade up) and then did Beast Academy. They seemed to like it. They're both well above grade level in math (my son is doing Elements of Mathematical Foundations in 6th grade--and he's finding it pretty easy; but he is interested in math, so I think that makes a difference here).
If the child is sufficiently self-motivated, then these workbooks/online programs are helpful. (And I was grateful to not have to drive the kids to one more lesson!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely! I put my three kids in Kumon for two years each in early elementary school so they would become lightening fast at math facts. I kept them in it until they finish level E which is fractions. They were the fastest students when they had time tests. And now it pays off when trying to do algebra problems because they don’t have to exert any mental effort to reduce a fraction like 36/48 or 16/56 or add/subtract/multiply/divide when solving a complicated problem. They tell me they have kids in their classes that are still having to mentally manipulate or use fingers to do addition,subtraction, multiplication facts. Homework in upper grades in math gets completed faster so there is time to supplement with other math programs like Beast Academy/Aops.

Or the opposite. My kids have never done Kumon and both are top in their 10th and 7th grade math classes. And they don’t judge other kids for using their fingers.

That’s great for your kids. My kids don’t judge kids for using their fingers they feel badly for them because they realized their homework must take a long time. Only one of my kids would be a top math student without supplementing. The other two would not be advanced in math at all without all the extra work. It is a great life lesson that hard work pays off. And that over learning math procedures is really helpful when you are learning a new topic. Once it becomes automatic you can concentrate on why it works and word problems without getting bogged down on calculations. This is the exact opposite of how their schools teach math.

[Anonymous]

Call me naive, but unless your child is:

A) behind, and you're trying to help them catch up

or

B) loves to do math for fun and asks for it

Why Kumon? What's the goal?

[Anonymous]

Kumon is good at giving kids repetition and practice, which there isn't enough of in school. I think this can be very valuable for math that is mechanical (e.g., basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and thus can provide a reasonable starting foundation. That type of repetition can also help to build some amount of intuition and feel for numbers.

That being said, I don't think Kumon is great about developing a understanding of concepts or strong problem solving. It's more reinforcement and support for that which you may have already learned at a high level and then getting a better feel through practice.

Nowadays, there are more options than Kumon (e.g., AOPS, Russian School of Math, Mathnasium), so you should consider those as well. Those other options have their own strengths and weaknesses. For my kids, we opted for AOPS after considering all of these options and we sometimes supplement with workbooks and flash cards to get more repetition (which is valuable at younger ages). I am biased though because I did Kumon as a kid and hated it. In retrospect, it had some value -- I'm still quite quick at basic mechanical math. I am no math genius though and I struggled with higher level math in college partly because I didn't always understand the underlying concepts.

[Anonymous]

I’m 34 years old and I still feel traumatized by going to Kumon 23 years ago. All you do is packets. Hundreds and hundreds of packets. There is no teaching, no concepts, just endless packets. It was so mind numbingly repetitive it made me hate math, and that carried over all the way to college. It doesn’t help that Kumon makes you start at the beginning, literally addition and subtraction of single digits, no matter what age or math level you start.

Please don’t do this to your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m 34 years old and I still feel traumatized by going to Kumon 23 years ago. All you do is packets. Hundreds and hundreds of packets. There is no teaching, no concepts, just endless packets. It was so mind numbingly repetitive it made me hate math, and that carried over all the way to college. It doesn’t help that Kumon makes you start at the beginning, literally addition and subtraction of single digits, no matter what age or math level you start.

Please don’t do this to your children.

It is busy work for lazy parents that want to feel great about giving their kid some "enrichment"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 34 years old and I still feel traumatized by going to Kumon 23 years ago. All you do is packets. Hundreds and hundreds of packets. There is no teaching, no concepts, just endless packets. It was so mind numbingly repetitive it made me hate math, and that carried over all the way to college. It doesn’t help that Kumon makes you start at the beginning, literally addition and subtraction of single digits, no matter what age or math level you start.

Please don’t do this to your children.

It is busy work for lazy parents that want to feel great about giving their kid some "enrichment"

NP. That’s your weird opinion.