^If you will ask me sis, better buy a good math worksheets or program and have your child answer one worksheet a day. Kaunti muna, tapos unti-unti, dagdagan mo ang workload nya. Tipid ka na, kontrolado mo pa ang ituturo mo sa anak mo. With Kumon, naku, kailangang maglaan ka pa rin ng extra time everyday para turuan ang anak mo at sagutan ang worksheets, tapos gastos ka pa ng 1,800 monthly
I'm not sure if Kumon still has the 2 weeks free trial. I tried it with my 4 year old daughter last September. Not that I'm very excited about it; I just wanted to see how Kumon does it, and to get hold of the worksheets as well (nang espiya ba
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What I learned was, all the hardwork will still come from us parents. Kumon students only go to the center either once a week @ 1 1/2 hours or twice a week @ 45mins each session. At the center, they will learn one concept and do worksheets there. They will take home one week's or half a week's worth of take home lessons (assignments in short) that they have to answer at home daily.
If your child is just 5, you still have to be with her answering the Kumon worksheets, EVERYDAY. You have to time her with a stopwatch and her answers should be correct. If not, she has to repeat that same worksheet for her to meet the minimum number of time required for each sheet and 100% accuracy. Checking of worksheets is done at the center.
The result of our free trial? We didn't even finish the free 2-week trial. My daughter attended one session only and wasn't able to complete the 1 week's worth of worksheet at home even though she was placed at a level down of what she can already do. The instructor said this is how they do initial leveling at Kumon; they place the student at a level that she has a mastery of (which is one notch down) for her to gain confidence in answering the worksheets.
Mind you, my daughter loves answering worksheets. She can read the instructions on her own and can work independently with the worksheets she is working on. When I'm resting, she'll get a book, browse on it and answer activities there on her own without bugging me. She'll get all her materials: pencil, crayons, glue, scissors and work on the task. But she was super bored with Kumon. She couldn't even keep her pencil up.
Siguro it's the repetition. Or the very loong worksheets to work on in a day, covering the same topic. Or maybe it's the lack of challenge, kasi nga a child is placed at a level lower of what she can do. In my daughter's case, I was initially told that since she hasn't attended any formal schooling yet, she will be placed at the lowest level because they usually place non-schooling preschool age child at the lowest level, which is working on number recognition and basic counting. But because in the assessment she can do addition with ease, she was placed not at the lowest level, but at a level where she has to count beginning from 1-50 and practice writing numerals. Yet, still, the task remained unappealing to her.
I know math is a combination of understanding of concepts and drill. If you don't drill, the child won't attain the "automaticity" needed in math, like answering 4 + 3 without counting. But there are many ways of drilling the child without her knowing that she is doing the drills, right? Like the strategies being employed by Singapore Math, Montessori Math and Math U See. Unfortunately, Kumon doesn't have these "creative" manipulatives that will keep a child's attention and do the math drills with gusto. It's just plain paper and pencil drilling.
So that's our experience with and my personal take of Kumon.
