Remember when I was thinking about enrolling my oldest in a Kumon program? I took her to an assessment and learned about the program. I’m telling you, I was tempted. I was tempted because I thought it would take all the pressure off of me to get her up to speed on her math.
Then reason kicked in. Reason in the form of $100/month tuition. I gathered from the assessment that the goal is mastery plus speed. They figure out where the kids have mastered concepts quickly and start them there to build confidence. They then work them up little by little. They do homework every single day. They don’t do any direct teaching. And the $100/month is for what again? Paper I guess.
Anyway, being the loyal Math-U-See users that we are, I went to the MUS website and played around with the worksheet generator. I made my own “Kumon” like packets for Maddie. The file on my computer is called “Memon.” Get it? Because it’s me making the worksheets instead of Kumon? *groan*
Anyway, I made several worksheets with 125 problems on them each. She was blazing through them in about 4 minutes each and getting 100% right. Success. And confidence. We’ve had no math struggles this week, even in her normal MUS lessons. She just needs it proved to herself that she can do this.
Today we moved up to concepts one step harder. Again, 100% correct and fast.
The goober has been yanking my chain all this time. She can do this. SHE CAN DO THIS!
I think she has surprised herself. She likes that I’m making the sheets for her. She sort of even likes the timing aspect of it. We’ll eventually move up to the hard-for-her stuff that she so easily gets stuck on, but I think by the time we get there she just might have forgotten that she’s “supposed” to hate math.
And we’re accomplishing this for the price of some printer paper and ink. No tuition, no drive across town.
That’s my kind of math program.
Half-Pint House 
Fantastic! Congratulations, Megan! I wish I’d known about this when I was tutoring my (then 11 year-old) brother-in-law who was really struggling with Saxon math. My suspicion was that he had never achieved true mastery and confidence with basic skills, and the fact that Saxon’s lessons skipped around (one geometry, the next pre-algebra, then another entirely different one) as opposed to building sequentially (and thus building confidence) had a lot to do with it. I hope I remember this some day when it (inevitably) becomes an issue with out kids. Well, okay “kid” for now…but Lord willing, “kids.” 😉
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I think you made a good decision about this. We have a friend, who took her son to Kumon. It didn’t help him, and she complained about the high cost for nothing. You are a great teacher. You know M10’s needs and you are doing a good job of home schooling. I think building on a strong foundation rather on sand is the way to go.
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You *are* the clever one!
I tutor two children who are bright as buttons. Their mother is paying me good money. I think she needs her head read, but she is happy, and I am happy, so I’ll keep my mouth shut. I use EdHelper’s maths sheet generator to do a similar thing for these kids – it’s got some useful resources, too – particularly for maths.
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Way to go, Megan! And, way to go M10! Thanks for sharing the tip. A lot of us can definitely file this one away.
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Hooray!
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Megan,
My kids were enrolled in Kumon…then it got expensive. I realized it’s all about consistency, focus and moving to the next sheet when they are confident enough. When the child is taking too long, losing focus, they make the child go back a few sheets to regain confidence to propel them forward and over the challenge. the hard part is really making the material and structure it like a ladder where the next step is only slightly above the previous one.
gret blog btw!
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