Kumon for a 5yo?
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Anonymous
I agree that most kids would rather read books. Kumon workbooks are really more for handwriting practice/spelling/math at that age. |
Anonymous
i am the 01/21/2014 16:33 poster. about what level are we at... our DD just started A math and is in the middle of 2A reading now. as i motioned in my first post our DD started at 4A math and 5A reading so it took her 5 months to make this progress. note that we expect that at this point she is about to hit "kumon wall" in reading and probably not too far from kumon wall in math (wall is when kids reach the end of their comfort level) and at that point kids are expected to slow down and spend about 2-3 m on each level. 2A in reading has worksheets require/teach students to do initial comprehension work and spell difficult words like "neighborhood" and "vegetables". spelling at that level is clearly challenging for a typical 5 yold (I would say out DD is typical or may be slightly better then typical). In math she is just started A which is subtraction (20 or less minus something). So far she is ok with it. she is in Montessori KG this year whih has been gr8 at teaching concepts. she has learned how to add and subtract last spring (in school). so she is very comfortable with these concepts. she spent Nov and Dec of 2013 learning multiplication concepts and is currently learning fraction. Montessori uses a lot of tools/toys to teach such concepts (golden beads, bead chains, 45 lineup, you can look it up on youtube). so kumon math for us so far has been reinforcement of what DD already knows and understands. about how long we plan to continue. initially we thought about 1-2 y in math and reading till she reads well. now that we have a better understanding of the program... we will keep her in kumon math for next few years. In the summer we will try to add mathnazium as a camp and then will reassess. For reading we have reached our original goal but i can see that comprehension and spelling worksheets are effective and challenging so we will probably be in reading for at least another 1y. about choosing one... i would say u should pick reading, for the following reasons. one is that your instinct was reading and u have to follow that. your kids success will be related to your level of commitment. in the beginning(first 2-3 months) our DD periodically had days where she was not in the mood to do kumon work. if you meet this occasional resistance you as a parent need to be ready to react in some way and that reaction will be partially fueled by your instincts. the second reason is math is not actually taught in kumon. they guide students to a solution and make students figure it out themselves. kumon will not pull out a set of beads or an abacus to show that 3+2 is 5. the worksheets will show that 1 is fowled by 2 and then by 3 and 4 and 5. and will let student figure out that u take 3 and move 2 positions and u end up at 5. so if a kid has never seen addition he/she might struggle with this approach. our DD had a confusing moment when she had to do her first addition workset. she has done mental math b4, in her mind she visualized moving the golden beads (Montessori). kumon worksheets asked her to look at an array of numbers and progress down that array. that clashed with the beads. so she had to pick a method. subconsciously she has picked kumon array. within day or 2 she has switched to the array and has not looked back since. now if she gets stuck (which has not happen in a while), she visualizes the array and moves up or down that array (this array is drilled very heavily in 4A and 5A). now her addition skills are as fast if not faster then mine and her accuracy is 99.9%. this array process is not for every one which is why i would say if u have to pick only one subject, pick reading. third reason is you most likely can support reading at home more consistently than math. you could complement with bob books or some reading system. kumon is a good complement to nightly reading. if you can sink up something like bob books with corresponding worksheets you will see major meaningful progress. Hope all of this helps. again just sharing our experience. not saying this will work for all. |
Anonymous
| DS had trouble with the writing expected of him by Kumon (he is 5). He could do the simple math in his head but was ticked off with the amount of writing. Ixl.com worked a lot better for us. Same math concepts but no writing. Just fun on the iPad. |
Anonymous
| We also got some Harcourt workbooks from Barnes and Noble that were decent. (FYI) |
Anonymous
OP here. The $200 or so cost per month makes no difference to us. One thing I actually like about Kumon is that my son could go to the center and study. I should have mentioned I also have a 2yo at home and the 2yo often makes it difficult to sit down and concentrate with the older child. I have considered hiring a college student to come study with 5yo. If DH and I are both home at the same time, it is easy to distract the 2yo while the other parent studies with the 5yo. Usually this is not the case. |
Anonymous
We also have a 5 year old and a 2 year old! We do the Kumon workbooks (or other workbooks) at home. Either first thing when DD gets up, or after dinner/when the little one is getting a bath. If you get into a routine, it works well. Use that $200/month to save for college! Or for a tutor later. Even if it makes no difference, I still think as a parent, at this age, you're the best person to help your kid with this. It's almost been like bonding time with my kid. I love to watch her learn and it's been awesome to be directly involved in helping her progress. Just keep it ALL positive (like the workbooks recommend) and I think you'll be glad if you or your DH are the ones doing the work with your kid. |
Anonymous
Jr. Kumon assumes that you work with your kid at home on the worksheets. so by signing up for Kumon at the center you get 2 days of working at the center with a teacher around other kids that do the same. and u still have 5 days of working with your kid at home together (bonding). having 2 days of teacher working withthe kid is a good balance bc that is yet another experienced person bringing new thoughts to the table. about having hard time scheduling around 2 y old. we have 3 and 1/2 y old and he likes to sit with us at the table and do his thing (puzzles, coloring)... some days we give him a bowl of uncooked pasta and ask him to "get it ready for cooking" with a spoon he moves it from one bowl into another (we do same with rice). we ask him to sort pasta by color. basically my point is make the 2 y old busy first and then do kumon while he/she is on his/her task. |
Anonymous
| Most of the kids are our Kumon Center speak English as their 2nd language. Their parents tell me they are pleased with the Kumon reading program for that age because it expands their vocab. My kids speak English as their 1st language. They each did the reading program for 1 year around 2nd when they were just starting to read well. They improved very rapidly (much faster than Math) and became avid readers so we quit the reading program and stuck with Math. |
Anonymous
| so one of the PPs has mentioned that their kid is 2 grades ahead in math according to kumon charts. are there any Kumon parents out there that feel that kumon charts are accurate in that respect? i am just a bit skeptical that this might be a sales pitch from a pricey tutoring center. parents, if your kumon center tells you that your kid is 2 y ahead do u agree with that assessment? |
Anonymous
| I think there are a lot more interesting and fun ways to learn these concepts for a 5 year old. Sitting around doing worksheets could backfire and cause unhappiness with learning. In Montessori school, they use manipulatives and other ways to make learning interesting. |
Anonymous
Montessori is GREAT at teaching concepts. but it does not provide adequate amounts of repetition. So what we saw with just Montessori was that our kid had really good understanding of stuff but frequently could not accurately/correctly solved the problems. for us combination of Montessori and kumon really worked out. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses and we were able to complement these 2 methods in an effective way. our kid responded very well to this combo. but i would not argue that this is Montessori/Kumon mix is for every one. |
Anonymous
I agree! My kids are in Montessori and needed Kumon for the same reason. |
Anonymous
Kumon math is computation, so I'd you just look at that yes the grade levels are accurate. Kumon considers third grade level to be learning multiplication and division, fourth grade multidigit multiplication and long division, fifth grade adding/subtracting/multiplying fractions, etc. |
Anonymous
Most kids that go to Kumon and have stuck with it for about 2 years are that far ahead. My older one (7 yo) has been going to kumon for about 2 years. he is in 2nd grade in school and tested between 4.2 to 4.9 in STAR Math. We started reading later and tests at levels between 3.5 and 4.5 in STAR Reading. |
Anonymous
What level kumon are they doing in reading and math? |