Kumon, Tutoring for children

Lillibet_2

I've never heard of this & have spent soem time looking at the website with interest. I am a great fan of structured extra tuition for children (can you tell I had it as a child?). Whilst their programme may be very good there is very very little info on the site about it, no examples of work, no age ranges, no specifics of their "levels" etc. The web site seems to be very user-friendly and is constructed in such a way as to be very self-promoting & have you thinking "this looks like a great idea" without actually telling you very much about the courses. It does mention visitng your tutor twice a week & 15 mins per day of work but doesn't give any info at all of what the work is; i.e project based each week, revision, test style etc. Because of this I would want to look into it "in the flesh" & meet the instructor & see examples & a class in action before going any further, perhaps even have a trial session

However, if it did all turn out to be suitable then I think it is very good value for money, as long as you can afford it.

Good luck;)

anonymousie

Hmmmm.

Not sure here really. How old are you kids and do you think they are "failing" in some way? I can see the relevence for secondary kids who are maybe suffering because classes are not good/well controlled etc- but otherwise I'm not sure. You still get a class format- at that price you are not buying 1 to 1 specific tuition are you?

Certainly unless a child has a problem area I would think they really do enough time at school, at primary age, and you'd be better extending hteir talents generally- music, drama, sport, scouts etc.

I'm not against tutoring and have used 1 to 1 for my kids for a short time to do exam technique prior to 11+, but they also did art in those sessions sometimes- that was money well spent- honestly it was- they produced really good "works of art" and DS in particular boosted his confidence in that area like nothing else could (he has fine motor control problems).

I do feel sorry for kids who do "school after school" type things. THink what you are hoping to achieve first- it your child is a nice rounded "average" in everything they are probably doing fine- if they are A* at everything and D at maths then yes, that is worth looking into.

Some 1 to 1 time with a good tutor is likely to be better I think- they can boost a child both in ability and confidence like nothing else.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

My youngest DD behaved exactly how your son is described. I tried to go along with the school but after a while of getting her more and more upset and her thinking she was stupid, I upset the staff. I refused to put her through the stress of homework and instead got her to draw shopping lists, then add the initial letter, build letter shapes out of bean cans, chalk giant shapes on the pavement, pick the channel on TV to watch by looking at the listings and throwing cotton wool balls soaked in paint at targets of words. It was very messy and very, very noisy. Her big sister would create dance routines involving counting and shouting and singing and we would drum out the rhythm of particularly difficult words.

Gradually, despite the teachers making nasty noises about her being behind compared to everyone else (she was also the youngest in class), it made sense to her.

After being behind according to their government targets at 6, at 6 and a half she took her KS1 SATS and she came out with a reading age of 10, a maths age of 11 and a writing age of 9. It was interesting seeing the staff try and work out how she had managed it.

Thinking about it, I grew up with 3 older brothers, one of whom is dyslexic, as is my mum, but I found reading easy, so perhaps I learned this way too and just didn't notice it - I was a fluent reader within a few weeks of starting infant school.

The point of my droning on is that it may not suit your son to sit with a book - something more physical and fun would help it take shape in his mind and might be a more enjoyable way for you both to approach this?

cars111

i know this is an old topic, but i would just like to say that my 4 year old daughter goes to phoenix academy and i have seen a vast improvement in only a few weeks in english and maths , she loves going to the centres and she is on the home study plan aswell , just my 2 pence :beer: https://www.phoenixacademyltd.com

cars111

try them https://www.phoenixacademyltd.com really happy with the progress my child is making , and would recommend them to anyone:rotfl:

wendyer

I recommend Beestar. It is much cheaper than Kumon, and parents don't need to pick up kids after work. It has free math, science, social studies, reading and GTM programs, everything related to the school work. It really saves money and saves time.

tattoed_bum

hi ,try www.sparklebox.co.uk as this site gives gives free maths,english,reading and writing tasks the ones that are used in the schools at the moment if you wish to give your child a little extra boost , they are all printable for your child to work on

sorry if this has already been posted

mr-mr_2

boltonangel wrote: »

Hi

I am considering enrolling my son into a local Kumon centre for english lessons, he is aged 5, in reception class and his teacher has expressed concern at his learning in a particular part of english (blending words) I have tried to do homework etc with him at home and he simply refuses to do it and makes stupid answers up! his teacher says he's really good at school, so i was thinking that another type of classroom setting after school to boost his confidence may help.

i would appreciate any feedback on Kumon.

thanks

How did you get on?

dizziblonde

tattoed_bum wrote: »

hi ,try www.sparklebox.co.uk as this site gives gives free maths,english,reading and writing tasks the ones that are used in the schools at the moment if you wish to give your child a little extra boost , they are all printable for your child to work on

sorry if this has already been posted

Site is run by a convicted p.do.phile (hopefully that gets through the filtering) - link from BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8462650.stm to that effect.

Up to you if you want to use the site or not, but there's plenty if you google the site owner for you to make an informed choice on the subject.