Hi everyone

Our 7 year old son (starts yr 3 in Sept) does does about 8 papers of kumon maths a day which takes him about 10-15 minutes depending on if its a quick or slow day

We were thinking about starting him on kumon English as well but didn't want to burden him with too much work each day, what with homework as well.

The reason we were thinking about kumon English was that he reads really well but often doesn't recall what he's just read very well when we ask him questions on the passage (concentration etc).

Any feedback from parents would be welcomed, especially those whose children do both Kumon maths & English .

Best regards
Villagedad

I think it's a bit late in the day but I saw your topic only now..So here we go :-

I took the same approach as you and started with Maths and then added English a couple of months later. My daughter was in Year 3 and we started during April-May.

I don't think it's difficult to manage both unless you do other extra daily work with him apart from Kumon(we used to do additional Maths,bits of English/Science, some homework). For us, it did get a bit too much to handle on certain days for example ..say when she was starting on a new/difficult topic in maths or when she was tired. In these instances the work did lag behind a bit,we then did extra over the weekend.

I used to take a break(you can do that if you are doing both the subjects at the same time) and would suspend English for a month or two and resume it after that. One thing which can get boring with English, is the repetitions, unlike Maths my daughter remembers her English answers and furthermore I felt there was no point in her reading the same passage and answering the same questions 2-3 times,when she got them right the first time.

So I requested the Kumon tutor to give her each paper just once only.. After a certain set was over, say B1 we then took a month's break and then moved to B11. I guess you will have to find a pattern that suits you.

Now we have reached a point where I have suspended English totally (she is in level E in English now) and am concentrating on getting her through the Eleven Plus

Based on my personal experience and of a few parents that I know, Kumon Maths is a lot more helpful than Kumon English. Kumon Maths follows a set pattern which helps in developing basic mathematical skills tremendously. Kumon English just covers certain areas(like comprehension, where again recollection doesn't come into picture as you can read the passage again and find your answer) whereas your grammar skills(like tenses, adverbs, adjectives etc) are just skimmed over.That's my conclusion based on how far we have reached in English, I am not sure if it changes later on. But I would defintely put her back on English Kumon when she is in Year 6 , once all the eleven plus is behind us.

Hi Ang's mom. Have you started Kumon english again. We have never done Kumon but am wondering whether to send my DS next month when 11+ is done and he has had some "fun time". My local centre is very close and it sounds good. His English is ok but I want him to have an extra push before starting 2ndary school - and if it works we can keep going. Would be interested in knowing how your experience with English is going.

thanks.

Hi TP123

No, I haven't restarted Kumon English. My daughter would be doing her eleven plus exams this year and hence I wouldnt be restarting it till thats all over.

We actually did English for more than an year before I discontinued it. Like I mentioned earlier, its the repetitions in English that got to my daughter. Then I asked the teacher to just give the English papers once and no repetitions. We did that for some time.

If your centre is good, give it a try. You can discontinue it after 6 months or just before he gets into secondary. Tell me how you get on.

Thanks Ang's mom. I'm going to give DS about a month off to chill out after all the 11+ work - I need a break too. Then I plan on at least giving it a go. Will definitely let you know how it goes.