My son has done 7 months of Kumon in Silver Spring, MD.
What is Kumon?
It is a math (or math & reading) program that supplements your kid's school math program with very computationally focused math. It goes well with common core math because common core math is conceptual focused and assumes you are using a calculator or learn your computation elsewhere.
In theory, you can take Kumon all the way to Calculus, but in practice, it looks like kids drop out when they hit the hard level (I forget which), or when it transitions to algebra.
My theory is that the program has a few features to keep costs in check. Kumon is $140-$150 per kid, they keep labor costs in check by having the kids do a lot of the work "self directed" - This is likely to break down when the going gets really tough or when it transitions to a skill that you can't improve at by just doing more of it (i.e. if you can't solve an algebra equation, you can solve it by staring at more of them, someone has to step you through it)
This even breaks down for arithmetic- written drills for 9+9 are somewhat useless unless you do the verbal drills first, else, you get a half hour of "what is 9+9? don't know- it is 18, kid writes 18, immediately forgets, etc" So the workbook pages are more for creating permanent memories than for learning a fact for the first time.
Every day my son and I work through about 20-30 minutes of math. I supplement Kumon with some common core based workbook pages I found on Amazon (180 days of math)
How's it working out?
I never learned piano, but piano looks like years of boring drudgery to master. It looks like it is more fun to know how to play piano than to learn how to play piano. That is Kumon, but that is also learning how to do arithmetic better than the average person.
My son says he hates it and complains every time we do math, but he gloats to his sister, age 3, that he knows how to do math.
This is also working out OK because I did reasonably well in math in college, the grandmother is a math teacher, so we got the right ecosystem.
Why? Isn't Conceptual Math more in style?
If there was Algebramon or Logicmon that emphasized symbolic manipulation over arithmetic, I'd sign my kid up for that, but there isn't, so we're doing Kumon.
Why not other tutoring services?
Because 1/2 of those are for kids who are failing in math and school and need to pass some test to avoid something horrible, like not passing, or not getting into community college.
And hiring, say an underemployed community person with a math degree for one on one tutoring, just isn't as cost effective- that would be $50 an hour, so $2600 per year instead of $1680 per year, for 2 1/2 hour sessions a week. (more likely $5200 a year for minimum 1 hour sessions)
What is Kumon?
It is a math (or math & reading) program that supplements your kid's school math program with very computationally focused math. It goes well with common core math because common core math is conceptual focused and assumes you are using a calculator or learn your computation elsewhere.
In theory, you can take Kumon all the way to Calculus, but in practice, it looks like kids drop out when they hit the hard level (I forget which), or when it transitions to algebra.
My theory is that the program has a few features to keep costs in check. Kumon is $140-$150 per kid, they keep labor costs in check by having the kids do a lot of the work "self directed" - This is likely to break down when the going gets really tough or when it transitions to a skill that you can't improve at by just doing more of it (i.e. if you can't solve an algebra equation, you can solve it by staring at more of them, someone has to step you through it)
This even breaks down for arithmetic- written drills for 9+9 are somewhat useless unless you do the verbal drills first, else, you get a half hour of "what is 9+9? don't know- it is 18, kid writes 18, immediately forgets, etc" So the workbook pages are more for creating permanent memories than for learning a fact for the first time.
Every day my son and I work through about 20-30 minutes of math. I supplement Kumon with some common core based workbook pages I found on Amazon (180 days of math)
How's it working out?
I never learned piano, but piano looks like years of boring drudgery to master. It looks like it is more fun to know how to play piano than to learn how to play piano. That is Kumon, but that is also learning how to do arithmetic better than the average person.
My son says he hates it and complains every time we do math, but he gloats to his sister, age 3, that he knows how to do math.
This is also working out OK because I did reasonably well in math in college, the grandmother is a math teacher, so we got the right ecosystem.
Why? Isn't Conceptual Math more in style?
If there was Algebramon or Logicmon that emphasized symbolic manipulation over arithmetic, I'd sign my kid up for that, but there isn't, so we're doing Kumon.
Why not other tutoring services?
Because 1/2 of those are for kids who are failing in math and school and need to pass some test to avoid something horrible, like not passing, or not getting into community college.
And hiring, say an underemployed community person with a math degree for one on one tutoring, just isn't as cost effective- that would be $50 an hour, so $2600 per year instead of $1680 per year, for 2 1/2 hour sessions a week. (more likely $5200 a year for minimum 1 hour sessions)
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