Can Kumon overcome Everyday Math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My first grade child's homework sheet asked this question:

Write the numbers 7 - 10 on the lines below. Then circle the number you wrote best.

I started looking into Kumon the next day.

I've taught EDM and prefer other programs, but I don't understand this particular piece of critcism. Practicing number writing is a pretty universal piece of first grade curriculum, and trying something and then going back to evaluate your is a pretty stamdard technique for developing handwriting.

Universal - where? In the US? No need to practice number writing separately. The more problems you work on, the better your numbers are going to look. This is a ridiculous question and a waste of time.

As a teacher, I'd say that's not true. For both number writing and handwriting, kids need the opportunity to slow down and pay attention to number formation.

At the beginning of first grade, lots of kids are still making reversals, or starting their numbers from the bottom up. Both of these are habits you don't want to reinforce through practice. Writing the numbers once, while paying attention to formation and matching a model, before applying number writing to other problems on the same pages increases the likelihood that kids will form their numbers correctly, on the rest of the worksheet.

Kumon has worksheets where kids practice writing numbers over and over, not just 4 numbers (taking all of 20 seconds) at the beginning of a worksheet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My first grade child's homework sheet asked this question:

Write the numbers 7 - 10 on the lines below. Then circle the number you wrote best.

I started looking into Kumon the next day.

I've taught EDM and prefer other programs, but I don't understand this particular piece of critcism. Practicing number writing is a pretty universal piece of first grade curriculum, and trying something and then going back to evaluate your is a pretty stamdard technique for developing handwriting.

Universal - where? In the US? No need to practice number writing separately. The more problems you work on, the better your numbers are going to look. This is a ridiculous question and a waste of time.

As a teacher, I'd say that's not true. For both number writing and handwriting, kids need the opportunity to slow down and pay attention to number formation.

At the beginning of first grade, lots of kids are still making reversals, or starting their numbers from the bottom up. Both of these are habits you don't want to reinforce through practice. Writing the numbers once, while paying attention to formation and matching a model, before applying number writing to other problems on the same pages increases the likelihood that kids will form their numbers correctly, on the rest of the worksheet.

Kumon has worksheets where kids practice writing numbers over and over, not just 4 numbers (taking all of 20 seconds) at the beginning of a worksheet.

Hey, teacher, how many differential equations have you solved? I believe about zero. So, just shut up. You have no clue what knowing math is like or how to get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hey, teacher, how many differential equations have you solved? I believe about zero. So, just shut up. You have no clue what knowing math is like or how to get there.

This is an odd comment. If you can't solve differential equations, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to write numbers? Is that like saying, if you can't write an essay comparing the narrative voices in Ulysses and To the Lighthouse, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EDM will help your child develop true number sense and flexible thinking--what real mathematicians have. Feel free to supplement with more traditional methods and anything that helps your child develop automaticity with math facts--EDM never says not to do this. My child had EDM through elementary, then switched over to more 'traditional' approaches. Never had supplementation and is soaring in math. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Sometimes I miss some of the exploration my child had with EDM. Math should not just be a slog or memorizing algorithms with no sense of 'why' they work. Let your child enjoy this time and supplement as needed.

Speaking as a professional mathematician I can tell you that I got to be one by spending my childhood free time reading old line math books and doing the problems in the book, not with some EDM crap. This is also what my colleagues from Russia, China, and India did.

If you are the education student, I urge you to consider a new program where the people doing the research have ever talked with a real mathematician.

Thanks PPs for the recs for math programs -- I am hoping to offer them to my kids once they are ready since these days you can do more than read books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My first grade child's homework sheet asked this question:

Write the numbers 7 - 10 on the lines below. Then circle the number you wrote best.

I started looking into Kumon the next day.

I've taught EDM and prefer other programs, but I don't understand this particular piece of critcism. Practicing number writing is a pretty universal piece of first grade curriculum, and trying something and then going back to evaluate your is a pretty stamdard technique for developing handwriting.

But this isn't the time for developing handwriting. It is math. Figuring out which number you made prettier doesn't teach you anything about math concepts.

Our DCPS doesn't use EDM. We ran from the charter that did. We came from an out of state school which used it (in TX). I completely judge and administration and teachers who feel that EDM is the curriculum to be used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Hey, teacher, how many differential equations have you solved? I believe about zero. So, just shut up. You have no clue what knowing math is like or how to get there.

This is an odd comment. If you can't solve differential equations, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to write numbers? Is that like saying, if you can't write an essay comparing the narrative voices in Ulysses and To the Lighthouse, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to read?

It's odd, yes. Learning to write seems like it would come before diff eq. (Not a teacher, but did major in STEM and have done diff eq, multivar, etc.)

It's also pretty rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My first grade child's homework sheet asked this question:

Write the numbers 7 - 10 on the lines below. Then circle the number you wrote best.

I started looking into Kumon the next day.

I've taught EDM and prefer other programs, but I don't understand this particular piece of critcism. Practicing number writing is a pretty universal piece of first grade curriculum, and trying something and then going back to evaluate your is a pretty stamdard technique for developing handwriting.

But this isn't the time for developing handwriting. It is math. Figuring out which number you made prettier doesn't teach you anything about math concepts.

Our DCPS doesn't use EDM. We ran from the charter that did. We came from an out of state school which used it (in TX). I completely judge and administration and teachers who feel that EDM is the curriculum to be used.

It would have sufficed to ask them to just write the numbers. Maybe they are getting an exercise in reading and the superlatives too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Hey, teacher, how many differential equations have you solved? I believe about zero. So, just shut up. You have no clue what knowing math is like or how to get there.

This is an odd comment. If you can't solve differential equations, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to write numbers? Is that like saying, if you can't write an essay comparing the narrative voices in Ulysses and To the Lighthouse, you can't have a valid opinion on first-graders learning how to read?

Your opinion is not about writing numbers, it's about the need to practice writing numbers prior to learning math. This is absolutely unnecessary but very typical of American education. Waste time on useless busywork, then complain that children don't think enough and develop a new curriculum to deal with that problem through avoiding actual learning.