Consistency is the Kumon Advantage
It's been a few years since I've posted here. Some context. I was a Kumon kid in the 90s for a few years. And I have had to get reacquainted with the program when my daughter started a few years ago.
Further context, my daughter is an anglophone child attending school in French in Canada. She started with the English reading program halfway through Senior Kindergarten at the very beginning. And then the math program a year later (halfway through Grade 1) basically at the bottom (6A 101). She's just finished Level C in math and is almost done Level CII in reading just as she is about to enter Grade 4. So basically it took her 4 years with reading and 3 years with math to get on grade level (as per Kumon standard). But she's now starting to pull ahead over school itself as she starts to learn things that haven't been covered in school. It's improving her confidence and reducing frustration with school itself.
I see posts on here from parents all the time. This is why I thought I would put this here.
The main advantage of Kumon is that consistency over time builds a compounding skill advantage. I'm a serving military member. And something we routinely think about is the idea of "skill fade", the loss of skill at a given task (flying, shooting) when it hasn't been done consistently for a while. We burn billions of dollars of gas and ammunition to avoid skill fade in the military. Math and reading are no different for kids. Two months off school is a massive hit. 20 mins a day in the summer isn't just avoiding skill fade, it turns it into an advantage (time to catch up). Similarly, during the school year concepts are often not practiced enough or then taught and set aside for months. The consistent "Drill and Kill" and building blocks approach of Kumon makes sure that once a concept is mastered, it's never forgotten. And the fact that mastery is insisted on, not just adequacy, is a notable difference from a lot of other programs.
Kumon is difficult. For both parent and child. It's particularly tough with a young child who simply can't see the advantage. But then again, nothing worth doing is ever easy. It does get better. As they get older and start doing better in school, they grudgingly start to see the advantages.
Some notes on our approach. And credit to the community here who helped inform my approach.
Target a workload/time. Not the number of pages. The amount of time required to finish pages goes up with each level and goes up with progression within a level. Adjust the workload to keep the time consistent. Since Kumon works in sets of 10, all patterns add up to 10 pages. They usually start at 5-5 or 10 pages. But we reduced that to 3-4-3 or even 2-2-2-2-2 at various times. We target about 20 mins per subject per day and adjust the workload so that it's not significantly under or over. We used to only target 10 mins per subject when she was in Grade 1.
Celebrate each level. Every time my daughter finishes a level, she gets a treat from the Starbucks beside the Centre. A Starbucks Cookie or Cake Pop every 3 months is a small price to pay to keep her motivated. And her big win came when she got her D pouch. She called her grandparents and her cousins to show it off.
Don't take breaks. We don't do Kumon on Christmas or Easter or Birthdays. But we don't skip Kumon during vacations either. My daughter has done Kumon on Transatlantic flights and in hotels in Europe on leave. Consistency avoids skill fade.
Hope this helped any prospective parents out there.