Kumon/Beestar/Gideon/Aloha etc...... Classes for kids

Hi all,

just wanted to say that I debated a lot about sending my sons to Kumon. One of my close friends sent her son to Kumon and he really improved a lot in his reading etc. However, as I did not research on the internet, I realized that there are soooo many free resources; its just that we need to take the printout or sit with our child to make him go through the material the first time. If we can take the time to do this, we do not need to spend a lot of money of tuitions.
Just my opinion!

 

Hi Big a littlemom
Why dont you share those links here

 

My dd is 5.

We started with Starfall.com (beginning reading and numbers among other things). It is really good and we upgraded to paid.

She has also been using abcya.com and funbrain.com for kiddie games. These are good.

The latest one is Letsmoo.com. It is an interactive site for learning geography. The “basic” free version worked out well and now we upgraded to paid.

I am also trying to get her to add numbers and trying many sites. Will post those findings later. For reading, I am using phonics.

Hope this is of use to fellow ilites.

 

Further to my above post, I had mentioned I will check on math sites, recently started using fun4thebrain, it seems to engage her so far but we will see long term. Additionally I am also concerned about sugar coating all learning by all extra cartoons, music, moving objects etc.

 

Hi,

Has anyone tried both Kumon and abacus for Maths? If you have tried both, which do you think is better for your kids? I am thinking of putting my daughter for abacus, which I thought is good to develop the ability for mental maths?

Thanks!

 

I have been a Kumon parent for the last 2 years and have seen at close quarters friends' kids going to Aloha (which is based on the abacus). I think it really depends on the nature of your child and whether he/she is amenable to the discipline and repetition that the Kumon style requires. If it clicks then Kumon works very well in building mental math skills since the program pays equal importance to speed and accuracy. That being said, there are many kids for whom Kumon just does not click and they have been very happy with the abacus way of learning. It clearly seems to work in terms of building the mental math abilitiy. The one caveat that I have seen is that sometimes the child can get confused between the abacus method and how math is taught in school and as a result it slows the child down at times.

 

anyone tried Russian school of mathematics for your kid? what type it is? KUMON TYPE ? ALOHA ? ABACUS ?

 

from what i know the Russian School offers classroom based instructions using a set curriculum and Kumon has a curriculum but offers one-on-one instruction.

 

Let me just say that the Kumon doesn't really have formal instruction time per se. It's based on self-directed learning - so kids need to look at the examples in their worksheets and follow the method. If they are stuck or make mistakes then they can get help from the instructors but it's not like there is a time set aside for teaching - the worksheets themselves are seen to be the teaching aides. The way Russion Math is taught I think depends on the specific class that is offering it. Where we live, they follow a formal curriculum with teaching time after which homework is given to the kids.

 

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