Went for the Kumon parent info session last night.
I love Daylight Savings. By the time we left at 7.45 pm, it was still light enough for me to drive home without qualms. So different from what happens in May till Aug.
The minute we entered the Werribee Baptist Church, we spotted a few familiar faces. Beth waved at a fellow Grade 2 who was her classmate last year. I saw a fellow reading mum marking a student's work. And I met a mum from our brief association with the school basketball team last year whose 5-year-old son sat quietly doing his worksheets: a 5 year-old boy who can sit still is a rare sight anywhere. She said she enrolled him (but not her daughter, who is in Grade 1) because he is a boy and he needs the discipline. Obviously her decision is producing the results sought.
The session gave me an insight into what it's like for the students who attend, and just as importantly, what the coordinator has to do to keep things flowing along.
At the same time that she was briefing the four families who were there, she was also fielding questions from helpers and other parents, attending to students, giving out worksheets and stickers, telling people to pipe down, confirming which helper was coming the next session, and making encouraging remarks to students who had completed their work. There were people coming and going all the time. The only part of the room that was relatively peaceful was the study area, where students sat at benches doing their worksheets.
The frequent interruptions caused the lady to lose her train of thought several times, and I definitely gained an appreciation of the challenges of being a Kumon supervisor.
At the start of the session, the lady handed out to each new child a diagnostic test booklet for Math (it happened that the families that came were interested primarily in Kumon Math) pitched at an easy level. Then she set her timer.
When Beth came back with her completed booklet in record time, she was sent off with another that was more challenging.
The booklets were marked by a helper (a high school student I think) and given to the supervisor, who then showed us the result and what that meant.
The Kumon centre is open on Mon and Thu. On centre days, students come through at their pre-appointed time slot and work on a given worksheet. This is then marked and they correct any mistakes made and are assigned worksheets for the next two days. Parents are expected to mark this homework. Then the students come in the following session and the cycle repeats.
Fees are $100 per subject per month.
The idea behind Kumon is to create an individual learning plan for every child with the ultimate aim of helping them to learn at a higher level than what they are doing at school, through a system that fosters self-discipline, self-correction and consistent hard work. The child begins at the level where he can easily attain 100%, so that he enjoys the feeling of success and is motivated to keep up the good work.
The Kumon system uses speed (hence the timer) and accuracy to determine how a child is progressing. It can even tell when a child needs to repeat a certain unit. So if a child is weak in a particular topic, he may have to do worksheets on the same topic two or three times before he can move on.
In Beth's case, her result identified her entry point to Kumon Math at Level 2A. Two children can be the same age but start at different entry points. Likewise, a Year 9 student could be on the same entry point as a Year 2 student. So the benefit of doing the diagnostic test is you get to see where your child is in her journey.
As I understand it, staying long-term with Kumon will strengthen the foundations of Beth's Math understanding, help her keep on moving to higher levels of achievement so that she is learning beyond her grade, and encourage her to be self-disciplined by doing the worksheets daily (the idea of ten minutes each day as opposed to an hour a week).
Beth and I are both very excited and most likely she will start next Monday in the 6 pm slot.
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