Kumon, Tutoring for children

boltonangel

thanks everyone - he's off to his swimming lessons tonight and already goes on cbbc website etc. it's just this one aspect of his learning to read that we are unable to get past - other than that he enjoys learning.
i do feel that his school is going at a rather fast pace though compared to my neice's school (they're same age) as there are only 12 in his class, which obviously we are lucky to get, but i just want to help him, so that he doesn't let it affect his confidence.

JoKay_2

My 9yo daughter has been at Kumon for Maths for the last 2 terms, and it has helped her enormously.
I'm not sure what the difference is between English and Maths, but there is certainly no actual tuition involved, it is completely homework based (around 10-15mins a day) with the weekly visit to do either do a test or that days homework.
Also, I really do think that 5 is far too young to think about additional tuition, and agree that fun computer based learning would be better, if anything.

Nicki

My son did Kumon at this age (maths) and asked to do english as well after a while. He did both for a year. As JoKay says its not an hour's tuition once a week, but rather 10 minutes work per night with a once a week session where they do their work with a tutor, get feedback on what they have done and new work set for the next week.

The work is set well within the child's comfort zone and shouldn't be too onerous to get through, though most children (mine included) get fed up at having to sit down and do it every night. The english Kumon at this kind of level focusses on writing not reading so may not be what you are looking for. (the amount of reading involved was really very basic) For my child it greatly improved his handwriting, which meant he was able to get his ideas down on paper at school in the time allowed, so improved his skills that way. His reading was always very good for his age.

Rather than testing him at home and getting him to do homework as such, could you spend a bit of extra time just reading to him (making sure he can also see the words as you read)? I'm sure you do some of this already but can't help thinking that some extra exposure to the things he finds difficult in a non-threatening, non-testing kind of way might give him the confidence he needs to acquire this skill for himself.

Oldernotwiser

boltonangel wrote: »

i do feel that his school is going at a rather fast pace though compared to my neice's school (they're same age) as there are only 12 in his class, which obviously we are lucky to get, but i just want to help him, so that he doesn't let it affect his confidence.

Better to have high expectations than too low, most schools fall on the wrong side of this and don't expect enough (in my opinion). Don't worry too much about his confidence - competence is much more important!

Gale_10

I have looked into Kumon recently. It costs forty five pounds per subject per child. I have looked at reviews online and I have only found, on both sides of the atlantic, very very positive comments. My son was going to be enrolled this term but unfortunately my husband has had to leave his job:eek:, so we are going to leave it until DH is more settled, and then he is going to have Kumon English and Maths.

All the best,

Gale

Kimitatsu

Both of my boys have done Kumon for the last 3 years now and I would endorse it whole heartedly! We tried a computer based learning programme before that but it wasnt for them.

Kumon is a few minutes a day every day, and is based on taking small steps forward all f the time. DS1 has gone from being a year behind in his maths to a year ahead of his peer group and his self confidence has increased massively. DS2 has shot ahead in his maths and his english has improved hugely, both are predicted to come out with 5's in their SATS at the end of KS2.

Interestingly as well both of mine had reports at 5 saying that they had few fine motor skills and that letter formation was poor - nothing wrong with it now!

My experience is that it gives them a lot of self confidence, confidence in their abilities and it builds on the skills they already have. In the maths especially it teaches the curriculum in a linear progression, always moving onto the next obvious step, so addition to subtraction to times tables to multiplication to division to fractions etc etc, rather than the spiral curriculum they get in schools, doing a subject for 2 weeks and then coming back to it several weeks later .

Sorry this was a bit longer than I anticipated!

boltonangel

hi

thanks for your comments everyone - the tutor is going to ring tomorrow, so i'll discuss with him whether it will be useful for ds or not, but i do feel from a confidence building point of view it will be.
he had his 1st swimming lesson today and he just has no confidence at all.

alm721

Just to offer my opinion. I have had quite a lot to do with kumon over the last few years so can maybe offer some advice. Briefly I came across Kumon as my mum took my younger brother as he has quite severe special needs. He attended special schools and at the age of 12/13 if you asked him what 2 +3 was, it would not always make 5. So he started Kumon maths and I can only say it benefitted him enormously. He got to a point where he knew all his tables and could do long multiplication, this was a massive achievment for him. My daughter also started going, really because she sometimes went with my mum and watched my brother doing it and as he got certificates etc she wanted to do it. My daughter loves maths and is naturally gifted with numbers so started for different reasons but is excelling at it. The beauty of it is that it is tailored to a child's indiviual level and so always starts at a point where they can achieve sucess thereby boosting their confidence.
My mum has now retired and has opened her own Kumon centre. I go to every class to help so if you want any more detailed advice please feel free to pm me.
I will post tomorrow with more details but need to go to bed now as my eyes are closing as I'm typing.
Regards

boltonangel

thanks for that.

meganx

I don't know whether Kumon is good, for we haven't tried it before. But I strongly recommend Beestar.org.
http://www.beestar.org/index.jsp
It is a website full of free math practice, English programs, social studies and Gifted & Talented programs. My little James started school last year, but he really hated the boring math. Then his teacher recommended Beestar to us. He began to like doing the weekly math practice, because there are interesting stories and vivid pictures for kids. He also likes checking the honor roll every week, and he is so happy when his name appears. Registering as parent, I can receive the Email from beestar every week to notice me how James was doing in beestar. I am considering registering other programs for him.