Kumon Math Review

What is Kumon? Kumon Math is a math program for pre-school and school aged children. Unlike standard math tutoring, students learn by working through a series of workbooks at their own pace, learning new concepts as they move through the levels. Whilst each student does not spend all of their time one on one with a math tutor, they do visit a Kumon centre once or twice a week to meet with their Kumon supervisor, hand in work completed, and for the supervisor to set new work and monitor their progress.

On this page I will firstly give a full description of the Kumon math program. I will then tell you about what I think its main advantages and disadvantages are and most importantly whether or not I think that kumon works. This will be a kumon review from a real mum that uses it!

Don't have time to read my review? Have a look at these Kumon Workbooks To Buy Online

Kumon Math is a math program designed to help students from kindergarten to teens (and beyond!) improve their math skills. Rather than being a tutoring program, Kumon math is designed to be a self taught program, where the student works through a series of worksheets, each one getting progressively harder.

Each week a student will attend a Kumon math center where their Kumon instructor will check the work that they have done and issue new work for the following week.

The workbooks are designed so that they get more difficult very, very slowly. This means that new concepts are gradually introduced without the student really knowing that they are moving up a level.

One of the features of Kumon math is that the student cannot move up to the next set of worksheets until they have completely mastered the level that they are on. This means that not only can they complete the worksheets accurately, but they have to complete them in a certain "standard completion time" so that the instructor knows that they really, really understand what they are learning.

On joining Kumon each student is given a test and the results of this test show the teacher where the student should start from in the Kumon program.

One of the unique features of Kumon is that students do not study according to their age or grade level. Instead they progress at their own pace moving through the levels as they fully master them.

Scroll Down For : The advantages of the Kumon Program

My Book
of
Addition

My Book of Subtraction
Kumon Math

My Book of Multiplication:
Ages 6 7 8

Grade 3 Division
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

The way I see it there are several advantages to the Kumon Program, they are as follows:

• Every child works at their own pace. This means that your child never gets left behind or held back by their peers. They get as little or as much time as they need to master each topic.


• Kumon works by repetition. Unlike much schooling these days Kumon uses an old fashioned method of simply going over and over reinforcing things until your child really understands them


• Every days work is in a sense like a test. This is because not only is the work marked for accuracy each day, it is also timed. Each booklet had a standard completion time that the child needs to complete the work in to move on to the next stage. This helps to show whether your child is really proficient in a subject or still getting to grips with it.


• The workbooks are fairly short, but they are done on a daily basis. This helps your child to focus, without getting too bored. On average Kumon should take about 10-20 minutes a day.


• KUMON REALLY WORKS All of the children (including my own) that study Kumon at my daughters' school have improved their grades enormously. Maths becomes their favorite subject because they no longer fear it.


• As it is a self taught program the students learn independent study and to be self disciplined.


• It is much cheaper than hiring a daily math tutor, but work is completed daily.


• The Kumon math program has been developed over many years to be as effective as possible. It is constantly revamped and rewritten to make sure that it is as effective as possible.

Below: The Disadvantages of the Kumon program.

Grade 1
Addition
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 2 Subtraction
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 3 Multiplication
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 5 Decimals & Fractions
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

I think the following are the major disadvantages of the Kumon Math Program:

• It is repetitive. Whilst this means that the students REALLY learn their math, it also means that they can sometimes get sick of doing the same booklet over and over again. I find that at this point I have to offer rewards for completing the work.


• It can be expensive. Although Kumon costs less than getting a math tutor, it is still quite costly. There are cheaper options such as the Kumon Workbooks Available Online (see below)


• You do not get an actual one on one tutor every day. Although the workbooks are designed to be self explanatory, they are not always. Every now and then I do need to sit down and go over something with my daughters that they just cannot understand.


• You are required to mark the work each day. The Kumon centre provides you with an answer book, but the parent or guardian needs to check the answers in this book. This isn't really too time consuming, but sometimes when I am busy or I forget this aspect of the program is frustrating

Below: Kumon alternatives

Of course, for parents that can afford it a math tutor is one alternative to the Kumon program. However, to complete the same volume of work you would probably require a tutor 2-3 times a week for an hour, which for many parents would be simply too expensive.

At home alternatives to Kumon include printing off worksheets from online sources. The problem that I have found with this is that a Kumon workbook includes 10 double sided sheets of problems for a student to do each day. These are designed to get more difficult exactly at the right time so that the student is never over or under challenged and are designed to include just the right amount of repetition. I found finding sufficient worksheets that were at exactly the right level very difficult. It also became quite costly to print off such a volume of worksheets.

One alternative that I did find was workbooks published by Kumon themselves available through Amazon.com (see links below). Whilst they are not as comprehensive as the Kumon program itself they do incorporate most of the best features about Kumon. For parents that are prepared to set work from these for their children each day they could be a very cost effective alternative as they do offer the chance to use exactly the same methods as those employed in the Kumon math program, but without visiting a centre.
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Here is a sample of the books available by Kumon on Amazon. In reality there are actually masses more than these! Clicking on the buy now button below doesn't commit you to buy but will take you to Amazon where you can see full details for the book and other Kumon books available. Alternatively check out the section for Kumon workbooks On Amazon where you can see the full range of math and English workbooks available.

Grade 1
Addition
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 2 Subtraction
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 3 Multiplication
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

Grade 4 Decimals & Fractions
(Kumon Math Workbooks)

These are great in a child's bedroom or even on the back of the bathroom door!

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Buy This Allposters.com

Whether you enrol your child in the full Kumon program or decide to use the Kumon workbooks for use at home it's a good idea to supplement your child's math learning with some problem solving exercises. By this I mean questions where your child not only has to figure out the math, but also has to figure out exactly what the question is asking them to do.

With my own children I have really had to focus on this - I noticed as they progress through school and get to around grade five the amount of problem solving questions really increases. My children were fantastic at performing the mathematical element of these questions, but not so good at working out exactly what they were asking them to do in the first place. If you can seek out some verbal reasoning problems that make you work out exactly what they are asking you to calculate as well as those that simply need a calculation.