Kumon - Motivating my son - Please help...

brook2jack

True and both mine are actively involved as young leaders now in guides and cadets but it doesn't drill times tables and basic maths . We couldn't afford a tutor at the time and Kumon worked for us for a specific problem cheaper. I personally do not like their English programme and believe reading a book is a better use of time, but for me the money and 10 minutes a day at a crucial stage in their development was well spent.
We did it after tea when the rest of us were clearing the table etc so no one missed out on anything other than chores.

pulliptears

Removed now misunderstanding has been cleared up so as not to derail OP's thread

Mojisola

pulliptears wrote: »

Is it just me who shudders at the name 'Kumon' for an english program? I hear it quite a lot and it does genuinely bother me that a scheme designed to educate children cannot actually spell their name correctly.

The Kumon method was devised by Toru Kumon. He knows how to spell his name correctly.

Nicki

brook2jack wrote: »

True and both mine are actively involved as young leaders now in guides and cadets but it doesn't drill times tables and basic maths . We couldn't afford a tutor at the time and Kumon worked for us for a specific problem cheaper. I personally do not like their English programme and believe reading a book is a better use of time, but for me the money and 10 minutes a day at a crucial stage in their development was well spent.
We did it after tea when the rest of us were clearing the table etc so no one missed out on anything other than chores.

Agree wholeheartedly. My Ds does a lot of other activities now too, and 10 mins a day for a year did not traumatise him in the slightest.

He has a solid grounding in mental maths and a huge amount of confidence manipulating numbers. He never ever has that sinking feeling of sitting in a maths lesson and not understanding what to do and feeling stupid, which I recall so well from school (and I went on to get a good degree so am not stupid). He actually enjoys the mental challenge of maths now, and his teacher says that during lessons he often helped the other children understand what they needed to do.

We all bring our children up differently. If you feel it's important that they spend ALL their time at this age playing outside, and are happy for them to do less well than they could academically, then that's fine. That doesn't mean it's wrong however for another parent to choose to add 10 minutes maths practice to a day of play and other activities or that this will harm their child in any way.

pulliptears

Mojisola wrote: »

The Kumon method was devised by Toru Kumon. He knows how to spell his name correctly.

Removed now misunderstanding has been cleared up so as not to derail OP's thread

Oldernotwiser

Children do tend to fall back a great deal in the school holidays if they just play and don't do anything educationally related.

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=106803

pulliptears

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Mind you, I shudder when a British person spells programme as "program"!;)

Removed now misunderstanding has been cleared up so as not to derail OP's thread

Person_one

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Children do tend to fall back a great deal in the school holidays if they just play and don't do anything educationally related.

That's what trips to museums and historical sites, reading for pleasure, choosing a project you're interested in or making things are for. Not to mention the fact that plenty of play can be valuable educationally and developmentally.

Sitting down at a table to do maths problems isn't the only way to keep learning.

Person_one

Nicki wrote: »

It might help though if you knew how it's pronounced. It's Kew-monn (at least here in London it is), not kumm-on.

Thankfully, nobody I know in real life ever feels the need to discuss 'Kumon' so I've never heard it pronounced! Does it really matter?

pulliptears

Nicki wrote: »

It might help though if you knew how it's pronounced. It's Kew-monn (at least here in London it is), not kumm-on.

I've always pronounced it as I have read it, thats probably why. Added to that I know one of the tutors through Twitter and he tends to spell like that to advertise his services so I always assumed it was a play on 'Kumon/come on'. He tends to write 'kumon Kids lets learn!' type thing.