<p>D1 started Kumon reading/English in 7th grade. We added the math as a reward for sticking with the reading program. She loved it and flew through the math curriculum (not the English so much). Franchise was run by a Laotian man and his sons.</p>
<p>D2 started both because D1 was in it, but the math was good for her also.</p>
<p>Kumon is more drill work than teaching but the HS kids employed there were more than willing to help anyone who was struggling. We were sorry to see it close when the economy fell 5 years ago, but they couldn’t keep it going.</p>
<p>Both my kids did Kumon; my daughter starting in 4th grade (through 5th) and my son in 7th (just algebra I). My son renamed it “drill and kill”. Daughter is solid in math and son is in eng program. Both used Alex math to refresh on concepts and that’s a good online program.</p>
<p>My daughter is now a HS senior. This summer my husband was cleaning out her closet and found some old incomplete Kumon packets. We still laugh over this - she would do just about anything to avoid math back then.</p>
<p>My son did Kumon. I think it really depends on the center - you can go there and talk to the owner and learn about it. I’m a big fan of the system. It is a lot of drill work but the kids get where they can do it in their sleep. My son enrolled because he loves math and wanted to work ahead. Other kids are there to catch up - you can be there for only that long or as long as you want.</p>
<p>D2 went to Kumon in fifth grade because she didn’t know math facts either. She was going to a top private school at that time, but they decided to adapt the “new math curriculum” when she was in third grade. She couldn’t do simple math in her head or do it by hand. By the time she was in fifth grade, instead of learning new math concepts, she was more worried about if she could do multiplication and division when she was called to the blackboard. She went to Kumon for a year. It didn’t take up a lot of her time. She went in for her lesson on Sat then had worksheets to do during the week (15 minutes each day). For D2 Kumon was great. She went from being afraid of math to one of the top students in her class.</p>
<p>* This summer my husband was cleaning out her closet and found some old incomplete Kumon packets. We still laugh over this - she would do just about anything to avoid math back then.*</p>
<p>Not only did we find packets behind the piano but the math game DVDs " mysteriously" became broken or otherwise unplayable.</p>
<p>At one time, DS’s school used some ‘new new math’ (some critics calls it ‘rainforest math’ as it is hard to tell if this textbook is a math book or a book about the rainforest). I remember I supplemented his learning with some Kumo work sheets as well as some Saxon math. I think he had some practices mostly at home. He was quite used to the concept and usefulness of daily practices, thanks to his exposure to his learning of music by a Suzuki method teacher.</p>
<p>I also found two additional materials for him to learn how to solve word puzzle problems. As he rarely wanted to learn them directly from his parents, we just hunt down some age appropriate materials and he mostly learned it by himself. We did try to teach him LOGO/Microworld back in his late elementary school years but this is not related to his school math directly.</p>
<p>The reason why he was reluctant to learn it directly from us: He complained that whenever he asked one question, we would try to bring up 10 related questions and answer them one by one. Later we compromized by writing down some improvised teaching materials (boy, it took me a lot of time) or refering him to some sections in a book, and asked him to learn it at whatever pace he preferred to have - sometimes it took a couple of weeks before he would finish this extra assignment from us. Magically, being a “good boy” always, he studied all of these. (I think one of these topics while he’s in high school was about the special relativity. We did not like the oversimplified treatment of this fun topic in his textbook. We introduced him how to derive the formula in his textbook axiomatically using the algebra only - I think the author of that small book is Reskind (?), the second author of the old “haliday” physics textbook, I think.)</p>
<p>These were our fun memories a long time ago, as he has grown up.</p>
<p>As a Kumon student for most of my life, I can say that it is a realky good program. I’ve studied at kumon centers in toronto, ON, St.Louis, Missouri and Dallas, Texas. Alk of them were phenomenal in math preparation. I started when I was about 7 and stopped around 14. I am currently studying above grad e level in math. I feel that Kumon is a slightly better choice since they specialize in math and reading alone.</p>
<p>Try MathBlaster. It is free and fun. My son loved it. There is a paid version (which I did buy and was well worth the money) so if your child likes the free version, you can then get an expanded version. It’s not expensive . It’s downright cheap if you compare it to Kumon or the like.</p>
<p>I agree with others that flashcards will do the trick as well (I did it with my older kids). MathBlaster is simply more fun. I also have to give a shout out for Saxon Math. It’s a terrific math program. </p>
<p>MathBlaster was a hit when DS was in early elementary. But I admit DS still liked Mario, Zelda, Mario Cart, Kirby, Super Meteroid and Tetris/Tetris Attack on Super Nintendo better around that time :(</p>
<p>A slightly more “serious” learning, but not school math oriented software is MicroWorlds from LCSI (in Canada, I think.) It is good for an activity in Summer break. But some practice on regular school math is still needed, especially when the teacher assigns very little homework or she is not good at math herself (e.g., DS once asked his elementary school math teacher how to convert a fraction to a decimal, or vice versa, his teacher’s answer is “I don’t know. So you do not need to learn it.” She even does not bother to learn it!)</p>
<p>BTW, I think I had a hard time to teach DS to really understand why the long division works at that time. At least he did not have to learn how to take a square root of a number manually until much later.</p>
This statement is truly from someone who is experienced in tutoring kids to learn basic math.</p>
<p>The teaching/learning philosophy in both Saxon Math or Kumon Math is as follows:</p>
<p>The student is expected to learn a very small fact/technique at a time. If each step for the student to learn is small enough, the student can almost learn it, by herself or with very little help from the tutor, by just trying to do it by herself because of the design of these small-step-at-a-time practice problems.</p>
<p>The emphasis is on the process itself, not on the result.</p>
<p>As long as a student dutifully puts in the effort, he is as good as any other student.
It is perfectly OK if the student makes mistakes initially. But the students are expected to truly master any topic (so they expect the 100% correct rate in the end) before moving onto the next topic, no matter how many practice sheets it would take before she gets there.</p>
<p>If a student runs out of the sheets to practice before he perfects a certain technique, he can even reuse the practice sheet. (I remember I had to erase the answers DS had put in so he could practice it again.)</p>
<p>Loop back continuously. Keep reviewing the techniques you have learned. On any practice sheet or problem set, a certain portion of it is for reviewing what you have learned.</p>
<p>We all liked math blaster and other Ed games. The kids played them at their leisure and then donated to classmates or school when they had tired of them. We had our D take summer school math from the private school she hoped to enroll in that had a great rep for math and science. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. She didn’t want a tutor, just a good math teacher–the ones she had been in class with kept her on the same math book for two years in a row and would have kept her on same book for third year if she hadn’t taken that summer math course!</p>
<p>A carefully chosenath tutor could be a good option to access her skills and weaknesses. Kumon seems to be a lot of worksheets and memorization, if that’s what you’re after. We did hire a math tutor who admitted D didn’t need her and didn’t feel she should continue since D knew her math fine.</p>