I went to Kumon before secondary school. Thinking about it as a child's point of view, I hated it. Thinking about it as an older person, I think it is a good concept for learning basics.

Still have my second place Kumon medal hanging in my room.

I work at Kumon part time like for half a year. I do not think that the teachers are more experience in Kumon because they are usually part time teachers that are either studying in college to earn extra income or working during semester break. But this varies between centres.. Another thing is the location of the centre, some centre have more students that other centre so students will get less attention in the busier centre than the quieter centre. Plus some centre also offer Mandrin or Japanes depending on the instrutor. The Centre that i work have math, english and mandrin.

Kumon does not work for every child because the main objective of kumon is able to solve the problem on your with minimal quidelines from the teachers. Some may excel and some will struggle. Furthermore, if the child have an early start and they understand the concept, then they can go far but i Have seen that students in secondary school just enter Kumon and they find it boring because they are doing lower level of maths than what they are learning at schools. So they will be bored with the lower level and not motivated to do the homeworks.

I used to work as an assistant in a KUMON center near my hosing area for 6 months after my SPM. Well, my job is to mark the students worksheet given to them each week for each day of the week.And i still wonder how it can improve ones mathemathics by sheer repeating the same question over and over again until the student get a 100% for the level. starting from A3,A2,A1,B,C and so on until Q(i tink so). each week they come to the center, given wrksheet for a week(which may be the same for each day) do thei worksheet for tat day at the center, i mark, they do the corrections and they go home. the maximum time a student spend time there is only 10-20 minutes depends on the number of students there. And the monthly fees cost a whopping Rm130!!
i personally feel mental arithemathic is way much better, i take classes in it from age 4 until form3 and stop to focus on my SPM. during my time it only cost RM250/level. The duration of each level is depends on u. this course really helps a lot to do qucik calculations during my lower forms. in SPM the usage of calculator kills my speed of calculating. LOL

Ps. the fact that a child is able to finish a few hundreds of questions in just minutes is questinable. the child might have done the same question for a dozens of times. and the questions in each worksheets are repetitive. for eq. 2+5 , and juz a few questions after tat is 5+2...

This post has been edited by loveuallso: Jun 13 2008, 11:02 PM

I am interested to go to KUMON since my friend who go to KUMON always get 100% for her math.

Looking forward to go to KUMON beyond JULY

Math in school has no single connections with KUMON math! School math are way much complicated than KUMON. And one more ting, KUMON don't work for every person. I dont go for KUMON but i still score an A for my MM and AM. Same goes for my classmates who score A's for AM and MM too.

A friend's kid has been doing Kumon for awhile and I managed to search under this thread. Can anyone share the following?
- what is the tip (or trick) to encourage a Kumon student to practise the worksheet every day with good discipline?
- apart from making students think "in advance" on arithmetic, is there other benefits that Kumon student can reap eg improve in overall analytical thinking etc?

Fret not, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

What about making useful of those practices? Kumon seems to be only focusing in brute arithmetic solutions but not on application.

You see, when a particular student undergoes intensive Math class which is beyond his current level, they will be exposed to many topics that are even considered 'out-of-syllabus'. For example, there is a student who completed the whole Kumon maths course and he even did several pre-university questions when he was at the final stage. FYI, all of his practices paid off when he was chosen to take part in the International Mathematics Olympiad competition and he was able to apply all of his knowledge that he had acquired from his numerous training in Kumon. Though he didn't win any medals,he got the consolation prize as he was still able to complete numerous portion of questions in the renowned competition. If it wasn't for the practice he did in Kumon, I doubt he will solve even a single question in the competition. Clearly enough, this is where his application of his knowledge from his previous practices comes in.

This post has been edited by RED-HAIR-SHANKS: Jun 13 2013, 12:32 AM

Well, this could be one of the success route that a Kumon student may end up with.
But in order to achieve this, the student must have strong passion in maths, be able to remember all the stages that he/she gone through while completing different levels etc etc. What concerns is that via this sort of brute learning, it might develop more on the left brain rather than the right side, which is creativity & more on artistic.

for me.....it does train the children's mental arithmethic..... but most of them just follow what the teacher says blindly, they have the arithmetics skills to calculate but not ability to think and solve problems....and most kumon teacher's arent actually teacher.....most of them dont even have a degree/diploma......
experience: worked at kumon for 3 months

for me.....it does train the children's mental arithmethic..... but most of them just follow what the teacher says blindly, they have the arithmetics skills to calculate but not ability to think and solve problems....and most kumon teacher's arent actually teacher.....most of them dont even have a degree/diploma......
experience: worked at kumon for 3 months

I think the qualification of the Kumon teacher is not that critical. More importantly is that they must have the patience and provide encouragement to the students. Because ultimately, it is up to the students themselves to learn at their own pace. Of course the centre "headmaster" must be capable to manage either "interpersonally" or technically.

what is the appropriate age to send my child to Kumon?

Kumon instructors don't teach, do they?

Guess the topic is dead.Anyway, I was really angry when I saw my gal didn't do her kumon HW on yesterday which I walk through with her on the English subject but found out that she dont actually know or understand more than 80% of those wording inside and not even pronounce it. They are teaching her past & present tense now which she dont seen to understand any of those..

I went to meet up with the Kumon Center teacher at Puchong Jaya and ask about how do the teacher coach them and it seen like they dont really coach them but just giving them hw and do and mark and ask them to do correction.. I do not know whether this is effective particularly for the English subject which I dont see it beneficial at all.. Maths perhaps do more exercise will be ok.. but perhaps we could just buy books for them to do and mark it ourselves as the cost for me to send 2 kids there is RM640/month and been sending them there since Aug last year but will terminate it now as didn't allow them to go on yesterday. I would guess that Puchong Jaya Kumon center is too crowded beside their teachers are keep on changing and I dont think they can handle the number of kids there effectively beside causing jam outside of the shop.. Perhaps other Kumon center elsewhere is better but would think they should control their teacher quality and not just keep on taking student without limit..

Just waste of time and money.

enrolling my 4 yrs daughter in kumon pulau meranti...hoping for the best!

HI , can I ask everybody's advise. I'm about to join Kumon as a part time teacher. Any feedback on how the treat their employees? Are teacher overworked with paperwork ,forced to stay extra hours to work or moved around centre's at managements will ?

Im studying Masters , so i need to be sure i wont be working beyond the hours they have advised currently

Appreciate your advise