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I know a lot of older kids that do it because my friend owns a Kumon center and a lot of our church/youth kids go!

I used to work there in high school as a tutor!

In college... I nanny/tutored a girl that went to Kumon. She was in 5th grade and I looked after her for about 3 months. She was pretty smart. She was also an only child and her parents gave her lots of attention when it came to education so I am not sure if it was just Kumon that made her pretty smart or the parent attention. Maybe a combo?

Kumon is really popular with the well-ish to do schools in our area. I share your concern re: children having a chance to be children. There is NO evidence (that I am aware of) supporting the idea that being able to do academic tricks sooner is better. In fact, there is evidence that indicates that regular students and over prepared kinder students even out by 3rd grade, with no longterm benefit to the over prepared kids. So, for the love of all that's holy, let 'em play!

I did Kumon growing up! My brothers did also. I HATED it, but I have studied it a lot now as an educator. It takes a lot of discipline...I had SO much homework. I just remember thick packets every night and I would hide it because I hated doing it!

My friend has two of her girls in Kumon. She feels that it will give them an edge in school since they will have the basics down already. With the way math programs are at school, i may put our kids in Kumon or do something similar with them at home. I didnt do Kumon but my dad gave me math homework/drills during the summers.

My DD's BFF does Kumon. She is definitely doing much more math than my DD (we don't do anything extra outside of school). I believe she also does Kumon for reading. From what other parents have told me, it basically provides structure. You go there, do the worksheets, and do the homework worksheets every day. She said that the teachers there don't really teach, but rather just proctor the kids' doing worksheets. I don't think it's for us, but I can see why people do it. My brother did Kumon in elementary school and I don't think it really benefited him much.

My experience with Kumon is limited to knowing that there is a center in my town and that you can buy workbooks at Barnes and Noble.

I struggled with math as a kid, I think it's becase I can't visualize in my head, so I either had to memorize or work it out to get to the answer. It kind of shot my confidence and I while I did complete one year of college algebra with As, I never felt confident in my ability to do math.

So, this is going to sound insanely crazy, but I recently learned that Danica McKellar of the Wonder Years is also a published mathmetician with books aimed at making math approachable for girls. I've ordered all 4 of the books and plan to begin working through them when my son gets a little older so I can help him/answer questions in plain language.

sorry to go so off topic, lol.

I don't like the disparity Kumon can create in the classroom. In grade school so many of my peers were in Kumon that we spent zero time on arithmetic. Non-Kumon kids were allowed calculators and we just moved on to math concepts rather than addition/subtraction/etc. We used to have "human calculator" races that put the Kumon kids against the non Kumon kids with calculators. It seemed unfair to have our math teacher point out how behind we were regularly.

My arithmetic skills never caught up. I did complete many levels of college calculus and entered a math & science field so maybe it didn't matter in the end. Except in a meeting yesterday I said 7x6 is forty.... and trailed off because I wasn't sure. I felt awesome about that.

I'm not sure what I would do if LO was in the same situation. I think workbooks at home seem like a happy medium.

I think to catch up or help in an area a kid is struggling with it could be a good thing, but I generally feel like outside of school kids should be (1) being kids, playing, etc., or (2) being exposed to educational concepts in a fun, enriching way that your typical classroom setting can't provide.

A lot of my highschool friends did Kumon starting in middle school. You could tell when someone did and someone didn't (I didn't, though my brother did). I think for people who say that it is just repeating the worksheets over and over and there isn't any value in it, I would disagree. There is value in repetition -- just ask any piano teacher. Spending time practicing something will make you better at it than if you didn't spend the time. Anyone read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers?

I'm not saying that kids *should be* doing things over and over, just pointing out that repeating tasks will help you get better at that task. This is why you read to your kids everyday (even if its the same book), etc.

I don't know anyone who does it with their kids but the absolute smartest guy I know did it when he was young. He has never received a grade other than A and was valedictorian in high school & college so I think it must be an amazing program! From the article related "Varghese said he developed time-management skills, a healthy level of confidence, and an appreciation for teaching and mentoring during his nine years in the program. He started Kumon as a first grader, and by fifth grade, he was working three years ahead of his grade level in school. This advantage allowed him to excel in other subjects, including Spanish and Literature. By the 10th grade, Varghese reached Level L in Kumon Math, the beginning phases of calculus. He also scored a perfect 800 on both the math and reading sections of the SAT." Here's a video he actually did for Kumon

@Freckles: we started with cutting at age 2 , tracing at 3 and folding 3.5-4

Yeah I know people that send their kids to Kumon. But then again, a lot of kids I know in a wide age range all have some kind of extra tutoring/learning thing going on besides school. In my area it's allll about getting the upper hand when it comes to education.