Thank you, Kumon!

We just came home from the simple awarding ceremony at Kumon Cainta where my son Kyle received a medal for being an advanced pupil in Reading. I am one grateful mom to the institution because I have seen how the boy’s reading skill has progressed. You can imagine how delighted I am to have witnessed my child happily wearing his first medal of achievement!

I considered enrolling Kyle to Kumon because of my cousin Gie’s recommendation. Her confident and smart kids are both Kumon-trained. In fact, her younger child is accelerated in school and his Kumon training could be one of the factors.

I further asked feedback from other parents I know whose kids have tried Kumon. Well, some liked the institution, while others did not. “It’s repetitive and boring.” I was told. “It eats too much of kids’ time in accomplishing worksheets.” I was warned.

Hearing both sides, I decided to try the Kumon Method myself to check if it would work for my child. I enrolled Kyle with a mindset that if it’s not going to be a good fit to his learning style, I would pull him out.

So one morning, I attended Kumon’s Parents’ Orientation and a few days after that, the boy took the aptitude test for the Reading Program.

After the aptitude test, my 3-year-old Kyle was assigned to a “comfortable starting point.” I found it quite low initially because at that time, my kid could already identify all the letters of the alphabet and had a pretty wide vocabulary already. I thought it would just be a waste of time to have him study the lessons he already learned. It was only after a few more weeks that I’ve appreciated the need to review those topics because Kumon puts a premium on mastery.

The Kumon Method is very simple. Your kid starts at a comfortable starting point and progresses to the succeeding level when he has shown mastery of the topic.

From his first day at Kumon up to now, Kyle accomplishes at least 1 worksheet in the center or at home every single day. My friend was right in telling me that worksheets, indeed, take away kid’s play time, and so I try to be creative in having the kid do his assigned tasks. Accomplishing worksheets can be done through play, right? That is why, I always make sure to incorporate fun activities while the kid finishes his worksheets at home. I want learning to be fun for him. I also appreciate Kumon’s way of having kids repeat worksheets until they have fully mastered the lesson because kids learn at their own pace.

I tried several ways to to help Kyle in accomplishing his worksheets. For example, instead of just teaching him the word “dig” by simply having him read the word and showing him the picture on the worksheet, I had Kyle plant mungo seeds in the yard so he could experience “digging”. For words such as “yell” and “climb”, I asked him to do them! Teaching Kyle new words by having him experience the language really worked!

I can go on and on with my teaching story but let me stop here and share my reasons for writing this post.

I would like to thank the Motivated Achiever’s Learning Center (Kumon Cainta) for Kyle’s wonderful learning experience. Do you know what I love when I visit the center? I love seeing all the teachers dancing and singing in front of the class while the kids follow them (Imagine more than three teachers dancing in front–production number diba?haha). I love how they smile at the kids, at our kids. They make learning fun! Plus toddlers and preschoolers go to the center not just twice a week but FOUR times! Kumon Cainta is really extending time to help the kids learn. I hope other centers do the same!

Lastly, I would like to thank Kyle’s teacher, Teacher Bing, for doing an amazing job. We are partners in helping the kid succeed. And we have just started, we still have a looong way to go. But honestly? I only do 20% of the teaching, and the rest of the credit goes to her. She has been very patient with Kyle. She is the teacher behind Kyle’s good grip of the pencil (the boy is now starting to write all the letters of the alphabet with minimal support), and the teacher who has greatly helped the kid read and comprehend simple words and sentences. How can I thank her enough? =)

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