TOPIC: Does Kumon really helps?

I have tried Aloha with my daughter for 1 1/5 years 6 semesters and she was the center toper (gold medalist) in four out of six semesters and runner up in rest of the two. But we still pull her out of the Aloha after six semesters as she was not ready to use the mind math in her regular school math work. She would just say no and I didn't find any use of Aloha if you will not use it in daily calculations. Since one can Use the calculator in most of your exams now and later in life we have all the gadgets to help do the big calculations so I don't see any use of these Aloha or Kumon courses. Kumon basically makes you to remember the problems (ratafication) by repeating the same problem 100 times, I don’t want my child to remember the math problems, Main things is to get there concepts clear.

The best thing I have found is to make your child do some extra practice at home and make their concepts clear and you spend some time with them instead of making her do the repeated work at Kumon or making her learn the Abacus to do fast calculations as we have calculators and computers available for that all the time.

We are following the www.khanacademy.org/ website they have really good video of Math’s, Science, history and English, my kids with their friends spend every day two hrs during this summer break listening to videos on this website and then discussing with me or their friends parents at evening if they have any doubts, we do this as a group of three friends and their parents and we and our kids love this.

All these three friends are in sixth grade but doing work of eight grade level at school for English and Math’s and as per there teachers they will finish the high school math’s in middle school and will be taking college credits while in high school.

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I don't believe your comment is true. Kumon may have its weakness, but it does provide step by step explanation especially in the higher levels such as Algebra. Kumon is a supplemental program, which is to supplement what the school is lacking. In the U.S., public schools do not spend as much time in mastering calculation skills as in the other countries. Kumon is a good program to fill in the gaps.

Somehow your Thing about the Center topper is completely wrong, as I know the aloha in NC has been here a little over 2 years and they do center toppers only once a year through a major competition, so 6 times must be 6 yrs of aloha which is not right & secondly aloha is more not about solving problems but a serious concentration developing and brain polishing program to be precise and I have seen my friends kids really improve with it and I mean like a 360 turn around, lastly Kumon is again a good program too, its continuos practice over and over again & thats how the kids master in the accuracy.

these 2 programs are massive all over in use with over 150 centers, they are proven and 1000's of parents are happy with it, the one whatever you say over the net, we find millions of them and theres no consistency on how we work with them becos of our busy schedules and how the website maintains in building itself.

Kumon and Aloha wrote: I have tried Aloha with my daughter for 1 1/5 years 6 semesters and she was the center toper (gold medalist) in four out of six semesters and runner up in rest of the two. But we still pull her out of the Aloha after six semesters as she was not ready to use the mind math in her regular school math work. She would just say no and I didn't find any use of Aloha if you will not use it in daily calculations. Since one can Use the calculator in most of your exams now and later in life we have all the gadgets to help do the big calculations so I don't see any use of these Aloha or Kumon courses. Kumon basically makes you to remember the problems (ratafication) by repeating the same problem 100 times, I don’t want my child to remember the math problems, Main things is to get there concepts clear.

The best thing I have found is to make your child do some extra practice at home and make their concepts clear and you spend some time with them instead of making her do the repeated work at Kumon or making her learn the Abacus to do fast calculations as we have calculators and computers available for that all the time.

We are following the www.khanacademy.org/ website they have really good video of Math’s, Science, history and English, my kids with their friends spend every day two hrs during this summer break listening to videos on this website and then discussing with me or their friends parents at evening if they have any doubts, we do this as a group of three friends and their parents and we and our kids love this.

All these three friends are in sixth grade but doing work of eight grade level at school for English and Math’s and as per there teachers they will finish the high school math’s in middle school and will be taking college credits while in high school.

i:)

My child attended Aloha in the past and completed 2 levels there and did very well. My opinion is that the system surely helps with the speed of processing but obviously contributes nothing towards conceptual understanding. The so called right brain development can also be achieved through learning an instrument, playing chess etc..which is what I decided to put my money towards. It does not help you become a better mathematician as the child is not taught alternate approaches to solving a problem or even understanding a concept. Benefits surely not worth the cost in my personal opinion.

Absolutely agree with you. Kumon may help your child in the elementary levels and not in High School. Also many Kumon children that I saw never got in the concepts, they learnt multiplication facts at a young age, but never knew where to apply it.

I put my son in Kumon for 6 months and I couldn't see much progress. At the elementary level, it is very important for children to learn the concepts so that they are able to apply them and thus teacher plays an important role here. Hence, I and my husband were looking for other options where the focus would be on teaching the concept and the learning would be more personalized. We came across a new service called Tabtor on iPads ( www.tabtor.com ). My son is doing tabtor since the last 4 months and has shown tremendous progress. Some highlights include: personalized content, presence of a tutor for each student and a closer view into child's progress. Now, my daughter has also started doing tabtor.

I would agree with Lisa in regards to the Beestar website. I came across this website about a year ago and I have seen a dramatic change in my daughter's grades. After using Beestar my daughter has been on the honor roll for her math. Beestar also offers different subjects which I am currently working through with my daughter. This is a great website if you want to cater the needs to your children.

Kumon works, jus need to make sure that you find a good Kumon teacher, just like in school, a good teacher makes a big difference. My kids are doing so much better now in Kumon after we moved from CA to Morrisvile, the Morrisville center teacher sure knows how to teach them, they are now like math and learning things that I can't teach anymore.