Dear Everyone,
Anyone familiar with the Kumon method?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumon_method
- Ayesha
Hi Ayesha,
My seven year old boy has been with Kumon since 3. Basically, Kumon does a lot of repetition (in terms of worksheets) and also tries to cultivate good learning habits in the kids. After the diagnosis test is done, the instructor will start the kid according to his ability level and proceed from there. There are many levels for each subject and each level consists of 200 worksheets.
The kid is taught to write his name, date and starting time before he begins on his worksheet. Depending on the kid’s age, he has to finish the assigned number of worksheets within a time frame. There is goal setting done every quarterly so that the kid is aware of where his current level is and how much he needs to achieve in order to reach his target.
Kumon has a reward system - Bronze level: the minimum target they have to achieve based on their level, Silver: the kid is doing worksheets a year in advance to their level, Gold: the kid is 3 years in advance to their level. The Kumon HQ will organise a ceromeny to award those on Gold level annually and the kids will receive trophy or gold medal.
Ayesha, I have heard about Kumon and I am going to put my daughter in Kumon for the summer. She will enter 1st grade in August this year. Basically, I had started her on Doman Math, and she loves math, i can see that she understands concepts taught in class faster than kids her age. Even though I had not completed Doman Math, I know that DM helped her have a strong foundation. Kumon is a lot of repetition, the concepts are taught once and then the child is encouraged to be independent, thinking her/his way through problems. The teacher will intervene only if necessary. So you see how the child is encouraged to think on her own. The best part is they work at home, so we are involved in it wholly too and the child can keep advancing well above his/her level. The sky is the limit! P.S. YouTube has so many videos of children doing Kumon worksheets.
NOt me…Fist time I heard about it,sounds very instresting I am going to check it out for sure, thanks
Does anyone know how much they charge? We have a Kumon Center that just opened up right near us. I have been thinking about enrolling my children over the summer.
This is my first time hearing about this…thanks for sharing!! Now I must go do some research 
Hi sb1201,
here in the philippines, they charge Php1800/mo/subject. the lesson is conducted 2x/week. but they give daily assignments. so learning is still everyday. the subjects they offer are mathematics and reading.
Thank you for sharing. I’m slowly starting to get acquainted on many many methods such as Montessori and Steiner. I’ll do some research on Kumon.
Is this Kumon method available in USA???
Sapna
They do have it in the US. That is where I am located. I am actually surprised they have a center so close to me since I am in somewhat of a rural area. I guess it must be growing a lot here.
JemJem
Thanks for letting me know, but I have no idea what the conversion would be or even if there was one, to US dollars. 
I should of said I was in the US, I always forget how diverse the forum population is here.
Yes, you see lots of Kumon centers here is US too. But I am not sure understanding how is it different if we parents get the worksheets and have our child do that in front of us. What’s the value that they are adding?
Good Point :laugh:
However, I find, especially with my oldest children, that if it’s not just ME telling them to do something, they are way more motivated to do it. :rolleyes: I think Kumon centers also have some sort of reward system in place for meeting goals.
But, we could also come up with a system for rewards ourselves…
Do you know where we could get the worksheets? Or what kind they are?
No, I haven’t seen their worksheets. However there are lots of the books I see that give worksheets on different subjects. One of the good ones I liked where from the website GloriaD suggested here on Brillkids - criticalthinking.com. You should see lots of similar books in teacher supply stores
That’s so true about older children!!
One of my friends used to teach in one of such centers (I don’t want to specifically say which :)) she would say, kids come, they would finish their worksheets in front of her and she would help only if they asked !!
Kumon is quite popular in Malaysia too. They have quite a few centres here.
There’s another one, it’s called “Enopi” if I’m not mistaken. Quite well known here too…
my niece have attended KUMON classes in reading and math which i have found very helpful. i have seen how motivated and perseverins she was while doing the worksheets.and even up to this point, she is now on the 5th grade, the training implemented during the classes has been carried forward which i think is a good thing as she goes to another school much bigger ones.
i really hope that there are KUMON centers here in the middle east so that i can enroll my son as well.
Hi! We used to use Kumon. But DD’s teacher told me a website www.beestar.org. The worksheets in beestar focus on problem solving and word problems. It really help DD use her brains much more than kumon and the math worksheet is for free. DD loves it very much. Since the worksheets are online, DD just does it as play games and I also don’t have to drive her to kumon center. Many of my friends are also using it, too. lol
Lisa
Hi Yvonnemommy,
Thanks for sharing that wonderful website, Beestar. At what age did your child begin?
Autumn
You’re welcome. Hope your son likes beestar as DD dose.
Beestar is for elementary kids. DD started it at grade 3 and has been using it for about 1 year. We plan to use it until DD finish her elementary school work.
Lisa
Hi, My younger siblings were in Kumon and I have three whole levels of woksheets…They are very slowly leveled. for example each page has 5-10 operations all with + 1, then the next pages with +2 in all its combinations etc…they are little booklets, and part of the time is in turning the pages quickly and mentally starting to solve all the operations.
I think the greatest hit of Kumon is the reward system, which I have seen works in kids up to about 12 years old. Then if they love math… they will be just more self motivated.
Kids get somewhat self motivated because they find math easier than their peers…, since it is based on tons of repetition. they change of level once they can complete all the levels’ operations in a certain time frame perfectly correct. So it does stress perfection in math… which I think is good. They do give you worksheets to do at home and the kids are supposed to work 7 /7 10-30 min a day… depending on their speed. Their classrooms are often quiet.
This is a program that can be started once the kids know numerals and can write. since it starts in very basic levels and goes up to high school.
Some of the criticism it has received is that it only works for mental operation speed and correctness. It does not include word problems that require reasoning. SO it is only a Math… and only that, program. No creative thinking, logic, or problem solving skills. Depends on what you want it for… it works.