Our Kumon Experience

When I first brought my six-year old son Wico to the Kumon Center in New Manila last July 2010, we had no idea what it could do for him. He hardly cooperated when he was being evaluated. At that time, he was scared of anything or anyone new. So Teacher Joey advised us to talk it over at home and ask him if he still wants to enroll. Meanwhile, she also explained to my husband and me that the goal of Kumon is not just mastery of math. That more importantly, it teaches kids independent learning, and sense of accomplishment whenever they finish a task. It also helps develop good study habits because it entails doing 1 set of worksheet per day. We liked the idea at once. We had a feeling it would help our son to be more confident. But we never forced him.

Two days later, Wico said he wanted to go back to "The Kumon School". So we went back, and this time he was more cooperative.

In Kumon, they always start with a level lower than what a child already knows. This is to help build up their confidence. Then they can always advance at their own pace.

At first, he wanted me to fully supervise him, even turning each page for him. There were a lot of times that he would refuse to do a worksheet and say he does not know how to do it yet, that it's hard. We kept reminding him that when he first started, plus one was difficult. But because he kept practicing, it became easy. Same for plus 2, plus 3, plus 4, and so on.
Eventually,after a few weeks,he already realized that anything that is difficult in the beginning will eventually become easy if you just keep trying and practicing.

It also helped a lot that his Kumon teacher, Teacher Marita was very helpful and encouraging.

Now on his fifth month at Kumon,he is already able to add faster than me or my husband. More amazing is that he once asked my husband how multiplication works. My husband explained that 2X 3 is simply two threes or 3+3 and so on. To our surprise, he figured out and memorized the multiplication table up to ten--on his own. And he memorized it with not without understanding the concept.

As predicted, his performance in other subjects improved as well. He used to have this peculiar habit of answering his seatworks and exams in a random manner and as a result, he would skip a few items each time. It doesn't happen anymore.

But what was really most amazing is that he became more confident. He isn't afraid of new situations, environment, or people, anymore. I guess the most important lesson he learned from Kumon is that though things may seem difficult at first, everything can be learned and mastered.