Personal tuition for 5 year old

shaggy

Hi All

My daughter recently started pre school, but is having problems learning all the basics of maths (addition/subtraction etc) and other subjects. We recently started her on Kumon and wondered if private tuition might help her get up to speed with the lessons at school?

Thanks in advance.

MissShoes

shaggy wrote: »

Hi All

My daughter recently started pre school, but is having problems learning all the basics of maths (addition/subtraction etc) and other subjects. We recently started her on Kumon and wondered if private tuition might help her get up to speed with the lessons at school?

Thanks in advance.

I am a teacher and had Kumon as a child. If I were you, I would wait for a few months (or at least until she has done her first level test in Kumon) to assess progress. As it works on repetition/little and often, it won't work over night but is really valuable. My mental arithmetic is still fantastic and better than all my friends- and I am not mathematically minded- 10 years later.

ALso, speak to her school teachers to let them know you concerns, see what ideas or thoughts they have and to keep them in the loop. Then, after a while arrange a meeting/discussion to see if the Kumon is having the right impact on her learning/enjoyment of maths. If not, then think about a tutor.

Lots of praise and lots of encouragement. Make Kumon time at the sam time everyday. When you mark it, maybe record it on a chart on the fridgee, give stars for good scores etc to ensure she associates maths with something positive rather than recognising it is a weakness/problem/difficulty.

Hope that helps

Shoes
xx

foreign_correspondent

I would make it a game rather than involve a tutor at five!!!

Use maths in real life situations - for example, put six apples in the fruit bowl, take two out and ask her how many are left, count toys, flowers, lamp posts anything, but make it daft and fun, and praise her when she has a go, even if its not the right answer!

eg. "ooh look, I have four clothes pegs here - how many do you have?" "so if we put my four and your two on the line, how many do we have altogether?"

or
"you have three chocolates, but I am gonna steal one and eat it! How many have you got now?"

"how many felt tips do you have? - so if I have two, and give them to you, how many have you got?"

Blackpool_Saver

My son did kumon and it really helped him

dizzie

Hi, I would agree that formal extra tuition is not the best way to go at the age of 5. I think that learning through play and everyday situations can be far more effective at this age.

When my boys were little we used to do "learning-at home-style" games (for vocab and maths, but also for other reasons like development of motor skills/co-ordination). I bought some material called I think "FUNdamentals". Its basic message was try to keep it fun and try to involve as many of the senses as possible - sight, touch, smell, hearing etc because the more senses you can use, the more interesting it can be and the more likely you are to remember it.

milliebear00001

shaggy wrote: »

Hi All

My daughter recently started pre school, but is having problems learning all the basics of maths (addition/subtraction etc) and other subjects. We recently started her on Kumon and wondered if private tuition might help her get up to speed with the lessons at school?

Thanks in advance.

Is your daughter at school, or pre school? What exactly is she struggling with and what makes you think she is struggling? Are you doing Kumon outside school or is it part of their curriculum?

pretzelnut

Please dont apply extra pressure on her at such a young age.

She should be having fun, not worrying that she cant do something.

I would speak to school and work together so that you are both working from the same page otherwise your just gonna confuse her and give her more to learn and i guarntee both you and the school will be teaching her in 2 completely different ways, which will just make it harder for her.

She will learn more just from everyday things like the previous poster said.

Go shopping and spend time counting things in the supermarket. Ask her to pass you 4 banana's, ask her simple questions like if we have 2 tins of beans in the trolley and we put 2 more in how many is that? She will soon get the hang of it mainly as it isnt boring learning.

She's only 5 and as she's just started she might just be finding everything else way to more intersting at the minute.

You really dont need to pay for extra tuition at this young an age, and if school did think there was a problem they would have flagged it up by now and told you.

Caroline73_2

Who has decided that she has a problem with maths? Is it you or her preschool?

Please don't worry too much or push her into formal learning, as everyone else says, make it fun. Take her on to Cbeebies or playhouse disney website.

bestpud

Good grief! :eek: 5 years old and you're fretting about her maths??? Please relax a little, for your daughter's sake!

I agree with all that has been said; make learning fun as that is the best possible start you can give her.

Nicki

When my son was around this age, he thought he was good at english but couldn't do maths. He's a bright kid who always loved his books and stories. I thought this was likely to be a confidence issue, as I remembered also being a bit scared of maths at school, though I am OK at it.

We went down the kumon route for a year. He liked the class and the other kids who went there. Didn't enjoy the nightly worksheets quite so much but the regular book tokens from Kumon for completing them kept him focussed. It was his decision to stop after a year, which we instantly respected.

Fast forward a few years - he's 10 now and maths is his favourite subject at school. He's top of the class constantly, and is always explaining how to work things out to less able kids (with his teacher's approval). He is very confident and happy with numbers (but, sigh, now says he can't do english!)

Provided you don't pile on the pressure, there is imo no harm in giving them a confidence boost at this age as it prevents problems later, and kumon worked for us.

emma12345

I was in a similar situation with my daughter, she is 6 now and a good reader but (I thought) just not into maths. I would ask her simple things such as 2 + 3 and she would spend several minutes working it out on her fingers whereas most other children would know this at a much earlier age.

What turned this around was no pressure on her ever, lots of praise and encouragement but mainly a simple cheap book I bought from WH Smith on mental maths for less than £10 (can't afford Kumon). Most days when I remembered she would do 20 or so of these sums - only if she wanted to, which mainly she did.

At first there was no change and I wondered if there was any point but a couple of months on and she has really got her confidence and improved a lot. She 'gets' maths now and can add and subtract single and some double figures usually quite quickly, although multiplication is a bit of a mystery to her atm but we'll get there.

The main thing though is to always make it fun and praise them and their confidence will grow and they'll be happy to learn.

Em