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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP thank you for the really helpful post. What level reading is your child in now? Do you plan on continuing? If you only could choose one would you choose math or reading for a five year old.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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