Kumon - Motivating my son - Please help...

csrivats999

My 6 year old son is doing both maths and english at kumon but not a single day goes by without him saying how much he hates kumon :-(
Its proving very hard to explain the benefits and I end up almost forcing him to do it:-(
I know he is capable of doing it but he does not like the daily chore of doing it.
Any ideas how to make it an enjoyable learning experience for both him and myself.

Many thanks

Jesswithwings

at the risk of getting tomatos thrown at me...:o why are you making him do it? Is he home schooled? If its something that he's doing on top of normal school, I'm not surprised he's hating it. I have a 6 year old and he'd hate it if I sat him down and made him do structured learning after school/ in the holidays. We do plenty of reading, writing and maths games etc but not in a formal educational way. If he were 16 and about to sit his exams then maybe I could understand why you would want him to do extra tuition but is it really necessary at the tender age of 6?

gingin_2

I agree with Jess, why make him do it? Of course he won't understand the benefits, he's six and should be out enjoying himself. Some of the Osborne games are fun "learning" games, you could sit down and play those with him.

My children's head teacher actively discourages parents from getting extra tuition for our children, right the way up to year 6.

Please don't force him to do it :-(

elantan

childhoods are there to be enjoyed ... he does need a basic understanding of the subjects you mention ... but please dont force any more onto him if he doesnt want it ... not all education needs to be academical

soupdragon10

I used to tutor a child in maths on a Saturday morning, but aware that this wasn't school, tried to make the sessions fun and plan with him what we would cover. It was mainly to help him become more condfident with number work.

It does seem young to be expecting your child to attend school and then go to further lessons. It could turn them off learning altogether, which I'm sure is not what you want.

Is there a particular reason they are attending, or specific difficulties that the school think need addressing?

mrsgreentoad

its the summer hoildays and he is 6 what more can i say

Sambucus_Nigra

mrsgreentoad wrote: »

its the summer hoildays and he is 6 what more can i say

Nothing. Even for a maths nerd like me I'd be severely down if made to do maths in the summer hols.

Plans_all_plans

I'm with the majority, why force him? As long as he's happy in himself and progressing at a normal rate, there's no point and you could do more harm than good by turning him off learning for life.

meer53

csrivats999 wrote: »

My 6 year old son is doing both maths and english at kumon but not a single day goes by without him saying how much he hates kumon :-(
Its proving very hard to explain the benefits and I end up almost forcing him to do it:-(
I know he is capable of doing it but he does not like the daily chore of doing it.
Any ideas how to make it an enjoyable learning experience for both him and myself.

Many thanks

You can't really expect a 6 year old to appreciate the benefits of extra lessons ! I'm not surprised he's fed up, give him a break ! To make things more enjoyable, let him play, it's the school holidays !

Jesswithwings

I wasnt going to give you my reasons for feeling so strongly about this, but I think it might help you...

Every good parent wants to give their child the best start in life, and when they're young their minds are like little sponges so learning is much easier at the age of 6 than it is at 26. DH is very musical and so is the whole family. We started DS1 (6)with piano lessons about 8 months ago and for the first few weeks it was great, he loved it and he was doing well. Then after about 3 months it started "I dont want to go to piano mummy" and because we'd spent all this money on lessons (£15 for half an hour every week) I didnt want to pull his lessons.

He is a very bright little boy and music comes naturally to him so I found that I was being quite strict - making him do his practice and then one day, 4 months after he started lessons, I heard him crying. It suddenly dawned on me that I was making him do all this piano for ME not for him, and then I felt awful and rang his teacher that night to tell him we wouldnt be back until DS wanted to. I felt like such a bad mother for making him do this.. like I wanted a little protege or something. I could cry about it now if I thought about it long enough. He now only plays the piano when HE wants to and I will never force him to do something extra curricular that he doesnt want to do ever again.

Let your son be 6, they're only little once and there's plenty of time for learning - if he's going to be the next Einstein he will, regardless of all the extra lessons.

Nicki

I did kumon with my Ds at around the same age for a year. We started off just doing maths and then he asked to do English too. The reason we started was because he said he couldn't do maths at school and I felt he was more than capable of doing so but just needed confidence. After a year, he was enjoying maths and was top of his class, and this continued throughout his whole primary school stage. In fact he has just got his KS2 results and got level 5 in every subject.

To answer OP's question, it is only 10 minutes a night (per subject) so just try and crack on with it, and maybe have a reward after its done like a favourite tv programme or a story with you. Don't let him get into arrears so he has to do more than one worksheet in a night as this is too daunting. Maybe split English from maths so he does 10 minutes in morning and 10 minutes in evening rather than 20 mins in one sitting. To be honest, it was when my ds started doing both though that it became too much for him and he gave up a few months afterwards.