Kid does, not kiddies

Anonymous wrote:Whatever happened to Sesame Street! Forget Kumon...get your kid swim lessons instead.

My kiddies both. We join the community pool every summer. DD isn't a great swimmer yet, I'll admit. But, she's learning. Regardless, she spends a ton of time outdoors in the summer with her two older siblings.

There still happens to be 10 mins a day to practice writing letters/numbers. It's really not a big deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't even like dittos in the classroom. Dittos and workbooks were used to train the masses for factory work. It keeps the children quiet and busy. I want a real 21st century education for DC with a lot of hands on activities, discussion, cooperative learning and higher level thinking.

I am so sorry that you bought into this kind of hype. Please do not complain when your child does not learn.

cooperative learning = 1 kid does all the work while the others goof off.

So true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't even like dittos in the classroom. Dittos and workbooks were used to train the masses for factory work. It keeps the children quiet and busy. I want a real 21st century education for DC with a lot of hands on activities, discussion, cooperative learning and higher level thinking.

I am so sorry that you bought into this kind of hype. Please do not complain when your child does not learn.

cooperative learning = 1 kid does all the work while the others goof off.

Anonymous wrote:I don't even like dittos in the classroom. Dittos and workbooks were used to train the masses for factory work. It keeps the children quiet and busy. I want a real 21st century education for DC with a lot of hands on activities, discussion, cooperative learning and higher level thinking.

I am so sorry that you bought into this kind of hype. Please do not complain when your child does not learn.

I don't even like dittos in the classroom. Dittos and workbooks were used to train the masses for factory work. It keeps the children quiet and busy. I want a real 21st century education for DC with a lot of hands on activities, discussion, cooperative learning and higher level thinking.

Whatever happened to Sesame Street! Forget Kumon...get your kid swim lessons instead.

To be, not robe!

PP - What makes you think that parents who spend 10 mins a day on Kumon worksheets don't do all those things? Why would it have robe one or the other?

I'm a PP who mentioned that my DS goes to a play based preschool 5 days/week. He has gotten great experience there learning how to work with others / play with others. The boys are always building a marble run together (gravity) or racing cars or riding tricycles. I completely understand the importance of play. And din't want to take any joy away from his childhood.

But, to be honest, he really enjoys the worksheets. Really. He loves writing notes now that he has had some practice writing letters. He's proud thathecan write something that someone else can understand. Why is that a bad thing? Plus, it is doing wonders for his self confidence. And it is something we do TOGETHER, which is an added bonus.

There is a real divide among parents on this kind of educational approach and no amount of pedagogical research will convince anyone to switch. FWIW, some of us would never consider Kumon or other Asian cram classes because we feel it would suck the joy out of learning for our kids. Growing up, there was nothing I hated more than rote memorization and flashcards. I wanted to understand the how and why of things, not just the what. And I wouldn't want to deprive my DD of the things I loved as a kid or subject her to the things I hated.

My DD started reading at 3 because we read to her a lot and she saw us reading a lot. She learned her addition facts in kindergarten because we showed her how to use her fingers and toes, not because we gave her worksheets. And, she "discovered" the multiplication tables in first grade when she wanted to figure out how much her weekly allowance totaled over time. For me all of this was pretty organic and natural and wholly unpressured. You don't have to drill a kid on gravity facts because they learned that things fall to the ground before they crawled. Making them memorize that gravitation acceleration is 9.8 m/sec^2 in elementary school isn't going to make them a better physicist 20 years later but teaching them how to experiment will. It's been relatively easy to know when she's developmentally ready because she starts asking to know and understand more. And when she was ready, it never took long or much effort. Besides math and language facts, there are an awful lot of things kids need to learn - how to work with others, becoming empathetic, influencing others, losing well, overcoming mistakes etc. - that are more important to becoming succesful. Give some time to think about how to help with that.

Teacher here....I'm just going to throw out that some 4s (well, most actually) aren't really developmentally ready for worksheets. Worksheets are actually pretty abstract - using symbols for sounds and numbers. Kids first need to work with letters (and numbers) in a concrete, hands-on way, like with rhyming games (verbal, so they hear the sounds) or concrete counting games. Plus, most children don't have the fine motor control to do "worksheets" well. So for some, they can be more challenge than they are worth. Some kids are ready though - I would just watch for frustration from your child and stop if there is some....it would be an indication that the exercise is just not appropriate for him right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We tried it at just 4, but I wasn't that enthusiastic. Our daughter quickly got to a challenging level (for her) and then just stayed there for a month. It was a totally appropriate level of work. But I began to feel foolish paying each month for the exact same worksheets every week. We stopped and I moved on to Singapore math which we enjoy much more.

I think Kumon would be great for an older kid who needs drilling and reinforcement for automaticity. I'm not as much of a fan of it for either the younger set or for enrichment.

OP here. I think my son enjoys doing the worksheets with us. He loves it when he masters something new and DH and I praise him. He loves puzzles and building toys as well.

I'm the poster you were responding to. It wasn't the worksheets I had a problem with. It was paying so much each week for literally the same worksheets for weeks on end. You can buy a book and photocopy the pages for so much less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do 10 min/day with my 4 yo DS and I see no down side! We do it at home, so it's pretty low cost and DS enjoys them.

Not sure why they would be considered 'developmentally inappropriate'. Kumon makes 'age appropriate' workbooks. DS loves the cutting/pasting/craft ones. He also has gotten a sense of pride from how much he has improved in writing his letters and numbers.

He is at a play based preschool, do PLENtY of time to explore by playing. 10 mins/day really isn't that much.

I'd say try the workbooks at home first before you start paying for a center. The time you would take driving your kid there and back would be enough to do the work at home. Plus, this way, it's something you can do WITH your kid, and you'll both feel a sense of pride in his/her work! You can always do the center later if you find it necessary.

And, if you want to implement your own incentives, just do stickers for each page completed or a small toy/book at the end of every workbook.

Good luck!! Good for you for taking an interest in your kid's education and for wanting to help your DC learn!

OP here. You have a good point regarding transportation time. I believe we have all the age appropriate kumon books. The books are somewhat limited. We actually have probably 2 or even 3 of the same book. I know I have bought that maze one and uppercase letters book at least 2 times. I also have most or all the other brands that they sell at Barnes and Nobles and Toys R Us.

Are there any good websites that offer downloads of these types of worksheets?

I will be sure to ask DS's preschool teacher as well. I know she gets a lot of tracing letters, sort, match, etc. worksheets. I just don't think 1 worksheet per day is enough. When we do this at home, we usually do about 5 pages per day and I think it takes only 5 minutes.

I'm the PP.

I buy mine from Amazon. I go by the list on the back of the Kumon Book. We usually do one page of letters/one page of numbers/one other (drawing/cutting/coloring.... Whatever book we have). So, 3 pages, both sides of the page. But we also do a few other things durIng the day - Monkey Math on the iPad, Reading Bear website, Sight Words.

There are some other good workbooks if you think Kumon doesn't have enough. A friend of mine uses Evan Moor workbooks. (they are a bit too advanced for my 4 yo still)

Amazon is great for this type of thing because they'll recommend ones for you!

Anonymous wrote:We tried it at just 4, but I wasn't that enthusiastic. Our daughter quickly got to a challenging level (for her) and then just stayed there for a month. It was a totally appropriate level of work. But I began to feel foolish paying each month for the exact same worksheets every week. We stopped and I moved on to Singapore math which we enjoy much more.

I think Kumon would be great for an older kid who needs drilling and reinforcement for automaticity. I'm not as much of a fan of it for either the younger set or for enrichment.

OP here. I think my son enjoys doing the worksheets with us. He loves it when he masters something new and DH and I praise him. He loves puzzles and building toys as well.

Anonymous wrote:We do 10 min/day with my 4 yo DS and I see no down side! We do it at home, so it's pretty low cost and DS enjoys them.

Not sure why they would be considered 'developmentally inappropriate'. Kumon makes 'age appropriate' workbooks. DS loves the cutting/pasting/craft ones. He also has gotten a sense of pride from how much he has improved in writing his letters and numbers.

He is at a play based preschool, do PLENtY of time to explore by playing. 10 mins/day really isn't that much.

I'd say try the workbooks at home first before you start paying for a center. The time you would take driving your kid there and back would be enough to do the work at home. Plus, this way, it's something you can do WITH your kid, and you'll both feel a sense of pride in his/her work! You can always do the center later if you find it necessary.

And, if you want to implement your own incentives, just do stickers for each page completed or a small toy/book at the end of every workbook.

Good luck!! Good for you for taking an interest in your kid's education and for wanting to help your DC learn!

OP here. You have a good point regarding transportation time. I believe we have all the age appropriate kumon books. The books are somewhat limited. We actually have probably 2 or even 3 of the same book. I know I have bought that maze one and uppercase letters book at least 2 times. I also have most or all the other brands that they sell at Barnes and Nobles and Toys R Us.

Are there any good websites that offer downloads of these types of worksheets?

I will be sure to ask DS's preschool teacher as well. I know she gets a lot of tracing letters, sort, match, etc. worksheets. I just don't think 1 worksheet per day is enough. When we do this at home, we usually do about 5 pages per day and I think it takes only 5 minutes.