Kumon for a 5yo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We decided to hold off on Kumon until at least DS turns 5 in a few months or maybe even after kindergarten. He is like a sponge and absorbs information constantly. He does imaginative play and loves playing with his legos. I will let him just play for a while longer. We have been reading with him constantly since he was an infant.

Yah! Imaginative play and legos are great for him to do at this age. You will not believe the amount of worksheets the school sends home once he starts school especially in 1st grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We decided to hold off on Kumon until at least DS turns 5 in a few months or maybe even after kindergarten. He is like a sponge and absorbs information constantly. He does imaginative play and loves playing with his legos. I will let him just play for a while longer. We have been reading with him constantly since he was an infant.

Glad to hear your decision OP.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We decided to hold off on Kumon until at least DS turns 5 in a few months or maybe even after kindergarten. He is like a sponge and absorbs information constantly. He does imaginative play and loves playing with his legos. I will let him just play for a while longer. We have been reading with him constantly since he was an infant.

Glad to hear your decision OP.

Ditto. My kid does imaginative play, legos and Kumon. She'll have less competition in future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. We decided to hold off on Kumon until at least DS turns 5 in a few months or maybe even after kindergarten. He is like a sponge and absorbs information constantly. He does imaginative play and loves playing with his legos. I will let him just play for a while longer. We have been reading with him constantly since he was an infant.

Glad to hear your decision OP.

Ditto. My kid does imaginative play, legos and Kumon. She'll have less competition in future.

You go right on thinking that. My creative child will be ordering yours to do spreadsheets when she comes up with the next great idea, and yours is used to rote learning. Last laugh will be with me I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You go right on thinking that. My creative child will be ordering yours to do spreadsheets when she comes up with the next great idea, and yours is used to rote learning. Last laugh will be with me I think.

where do people get this idea that it either has be creativity or worksheets. My DD 5yo is HIGHLY creative (legoes, coloring, finished writing her third story today - all her initiatives BTW) and on the daily basis does 230 Kumon addition problems takes her 10min with 100% accuracy.

(on a silly note) if we are getting into hypothetical pissing contests , I think, my kid will be in a STEM program and will get BS, MS and PhD from MIT while your kid will drop out from a local community and end up working in starbucks creatively making a grande latte for my kid.

(on a more serious note) can anyone honestly explain to me why is it soo terribly bad for kids to focus for 20 min every night on reading or math. do you think that 20 min (during the 5 h of after school time) of structured concentration will stagnate creatively in a child. it is interesting to see how many people bet all of their "money" only on creativity. Is it really all that is needed to become successful? I don to subscribe to "everyone is stupid but me" philosophy so I am honestly looking for solid justification behind the "creatively is all that matters" approach. would not you want to "hedge" your bets and put your "money" on several approaches.

[Anonymous]

You go right on thinking that. My creative child will be ordering yours to do spreadsheets when she comes up with the next great idea, and yours is used to rote learning. Last laugh will be with me I think.

...or some druggie in stripped uniform. You're right about one thing. Time will tell.

[Anonymous]

Question here...our DS (7) isdelayed in all areas but is learning. He is an intensive reading program at school that we supplement at home. He is making progress. He is not progressing in math- our school has no special resources for slow math learners. The curriculum is EveryDay Math which uses a spiral approach rather than stick to one subject til mastery. The principal said part of the problem is the lack of repetition. Do you parents who have used Kumon for math believe that it would be beneficial for our son?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question here...our DS (7) isdelayed in all areas but is learning. He is an intensive reading program at school that we supplement at home. He is making progress. He is not progressing in math- our school has no special resources for slow math learners. The curriculum is EveryDay Math which uses a spiral approach rather than stick to one subject til mastery. The principal said part of the problem is the lack of repetition. Do you parents who have used Kumon for math believe that it would be beneficial for our son?

PP, I could have written this myself except my DS is 11 and in 5th grade at a very well regarded MoCo public. He has an IEP and we have been paying A LOT of money for a tutor for a full year - which has gotten us nowhere. $600 a month.

His weakness is in basic math facts - multiplication etc. cannot get anywhere in math without these basic math facts. He is also behind in reading, especially in the area of making inferences. We just let the tutor go, and I have purchased Raz Kids and digital flash cards. he reads two short books per night and takes a quiz on each (raz kids) and then does math drills for about 20 mins. We are seriously considering Kumon for him because of its emphasis on constant drilling of basic facts. I have done a ton of research on this and Kumon seems to be what he needs.

[Anonymous]

As far as reading, parents need to stop focusing so much on levels like it is some video game to be won, and instead worry about how their child's relationship with literacy at each level. Barring disability, our kids are all going to be reading the same things in the later grades. The exact same things, and reading level doesn't matter

100% agree with this. There is no need to send a 5 year old to Kumon for reading. Reading at this age is about developing a love of books - you should be reading to your child, and encouraging them to find meaning in what you are reading to them. The decoding will come, and the solo reading fluency will come. There's no need to rush it. Neither of my kids could read more than sight words at the end of K, and both are advanced readers in their current grades. You wouldn't send an five month old to walking school, worried that if your child didn't walk before they turned one, they would be behind all of their peers and shut out of life opportunities - why this need to have a 5 yo "reading" independently before K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As far as reading, parents need to stop focusing so much on levels like it is some video game to be won, and instead worry about how their child's relationship with literacy at each level. Barring disability, our kids are all going to be reading the same things in the later grades. The exact same things, and reading level doesn't matter

100% agree with this. There is no need to send a 5 year old to Kumon for reading. Reading at this age is about developing a love of books - you should be reading to your child, and encouraging them to find meaning in what you are reading to them. The decoding will come, and the solo reading fluency will come. There's no need to rush it. Neither of my kids could read more than sight words at the end of K, and both are advanced readers in their current grades. You wouldn't send an five month old to walking school, worried that if your child didn't walk before they turned one, they would be behind all of their peers and shut out of life opportunities - why this need to have a 5 yo "reading" independently before K?

This!

Seriously, the research that is coming out is saying that the most important thing as far as literacy is that the child be exposed to advanced texts--that is, texts that are above his reading level. Read to you kids, point out new vocabulary, talk about themes, break down the complex. This is what you are supposed to be focused on in grades PS-3rd. And, this is what is hard to accomplish in classrooms with 25 kids. Do it at home. Actual reading is developmental. It will happen when it happens with gentle exposure to the preliteracy stuff that happens at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question here...our DS (7) isdelayed in all areas but is learning. He is an intensive reading program at school that we supplement at home. He is making progress. He is not progressing in math- our school has no special resources for slow math learners. The curriculum is EveryDay Math which uses a spiral approach rather than stick to one subject til mastery. The principal said part of the problem is the lack of repetition. Do you parents who have used Kumon for math believe that it would be beneficial for our son?

PP, I could have written this myself except my DS is 11 and in 5th grade at a very well regarded MoCo public. He has an IEP and we have been paying A LOT of money for a tutor for a full year - which has gotten us nowhere. $600 a month.

His weakness is in basic math facts - multiplication etc. cannot get anywhere in math without these basic math facts. He is also behind in reading, especially in the area of making inferences. We just let the tutor go, and I have purchased Raz Kids and digital flash cards. he reads two short books per night and takes a quiz on each (raz kids) and then does math drills for about 20 mins. We are seriously considering Kumon for him because of its emphasis on constant drilling of basic facts. I have done a ton of research on this and Kumon seems to be what he needs.

I have two kids that do kumon. I think Kumon will meet your needs. Kumon is all about recalling your facts instantly and kids move at their pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. We decided to hold off on Kumon until at least DS turns 5 in a few months or maybe even after kindergarten. He is like a sponge and absorbs information constantly. He does imaginative play and loves playing with his legos. I will let him just play for a while longer. We have been reading with him constantly since he was an infant.

Glad to hear your decision OP.

Ditto. My kid does imaginative play, legos and Kumon. She'll have less competition in future.

wow you're an asshole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You go right on thinking that. My creative child will be ordering yours to do spreadsheets when she comes up with the next great idea, and yours is used to rote learning. Last laugh will be with me I think.

where do people get this idea that it either has be creativity or worksheets. My DD 5yo is HIGHLY creative (legoes, coloring, finished writing her third story today - all her initiatives BTW) and on the daily basis does 230 Kumon addition problems takes her 10min with 100% accuracy.

(on a silly note) if we are getting into hypothetical pissing contests , I think, my kid will be in a STEM program and will get BS, MS and PhD from MIT while your kid will drop out from a local community and end up working in starbucks creatively making a grande latte for my kid.

(on a more serious note) can anyone honestly explain to me why is it soo terribly bad for kids to focus for 20 min every night on reading or math. do you think that 20 min (during the 5 h of after school time) of structured concentration will stagnate creatively in a child. it is interesting to see how many people bet all of their "money" only on creativity. Is it really all that is needed to become successful? I don to subscribe to "everyone is stupid but me" philosophy so I am honestly looking for solid justification behind the "creatively is all that matters" approach. would not you want to "hedge" your bets and put your "money" on several approaches.

I totally agree. I am hedging my bet and my kids went to a play-based daycare until kindergarten. They never did a worksheet or were required to pick up a pencil at daycare. They played all day in a creative way, sang songs, did art projects when they wanted to, came home filthy from building rivers, dams, and rock structures in the mud, climbed trees, etc. In order to make sure they were ready for kindergarten both my kids did Kumon for 10 to 20 minutes a day the year before they entered K. It ended up being a fantastic balance. Play all day, work one-on-one with parent 5 evenings a week for an average of 15 minutes, Kumon center twice a week. Listen to lots of books at home and at school. My kids are still in the Kumon Math program. I don't have confidence that public schools will prepare them for a STEM major, if they choose to study on, without supplementing at home.

[Anonymous]

If a 5-year-old rug rat can watch crap on TV for 30 min or play video games for 30 min he or she sure as hell can do math for 30 min/day. Dammit, in my house they do and in my house they must. No math, no TV. It's as simple as that.

No math and reading for 30 min NO TV! even for the 3 and 1/2 year-old.

They have no problems with this approach. They know we are the parents and they are the children and they obey the rules we have set and established.

Those of you parents for whom childhood before 18 is a 24/7 playdate your children will also obey your rules. My kids obey my rules. Your kids obey your rules. I see no problem here.