Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Kumon workbooks?

Did any of your children use the Kumon workbooks and like them?

I told myself I probably wouldn't do workbooks / worksheets, but... why not? DD loves doing "flash cards", where I tell her what things are (or she signs to me), and we match words to pictures, and she signs her letters. Workbooks might be fun for her and help her with her fine motor skills.

I'd love to hear opinions and favorite titles.

We used kumon mazes (not really mazes, just beginning pencil excercizes), kumon alphabet, and kumon telling time, we have kumon division but haven't used it yet. The maze book and the alphabet really jump started his handwriting nicely! The book store in town closed down or else we probably would have used more of them. How I started the book was sticking my finger in the maze in front of my sons marker (markers are easier to start with). I convinced him to follow my finger with his marker through the maze. After a while he knew how to do the pages himself. The pages get really hard by the end so we had to put it up for a little while at one point. I would recommend the kumon mazes for anyone getting ready to write.

What age did you begin using that? I think your LOs are more advanced with motor skills. For instance, DD (18 mo) just yesterday finally managed to physically get two jigsaw pieces together. She was frustrated before.

I think they are fine. But prob. not what I would choose. I love the book Mommy Teach Me by Barbara Curtis. Lots of Montessori activities that IMO are better for fine motor skills. Or you could just check out any of the montessori blogs for lots of great ideas.

We are doing Montessori-inspired stuff. I have all the teaching manuals, actually. We have a lot of wooden toys and activities that are meant to help her work on different skills. The puzzles have done a lot for her fine motor, I think. I think I need to finish actually reading those manuals...

The workbooks just look like something fun to keep her busy. She has taken to drawing lines on walls recently. First with a Sharpie, but now, luckily, just with a pencil.

I think we'll be a pretty eclectic homeschooling family, so I'm open to trying a lot of things.

He started at age 2.  He never got into the jigsaw puzzles.  He started the mazes with a fat marker in a fist grip which let me teach him how to control his lines before he developed finger strength.  My daughter is 20 months old now.  She has some random extra workbook that I give her just to scribble in just to keep her from marking her brothers workbooks.  The lesson is "write on this book, not on that one."  The other day one page had a large circle on it so I tested her to see if she'd follow my finger.  She did.  She didn't draw a straight line but narrowed her scribbling back and forth down tighter and did actually follow my finger halfway around the circle which is enough to get started with the maze book, which I haven't bought another copy of yet.  She has a coloring book of strawberry shortcake.  The other day I told her verbally, "go color her eyes, where's her eyes" and she scribbled over her eyes.  Then I said "color her shoes".  She did.  Using a workbook will teach how to control the pencil and how to follow the instructions.  She just got her first two lessons.  I'll buy her the Kumon maze book soon.   She's a prolific scribbler anyway and she has a dry erase easel. (supervise the markers !!!)

I think if you want to use workbooks it's just a way to develop skills like understanding directions and learning to draw your response down to the piece of paper.  

He was close to three when he  used scissors to cut straight lines.  We worked together on a construction paper chain and a construction paper American flag.  I say that because there are cutting workbooks but he cuts fine and you really have to practice with straight lines first, but you have got a year or two before you try that.



I think this game helped his fine motor skills.  It's the travel sized version.  I bought it at Walmart. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2297894

I missed the boat on the fine motor stuff but I'm always curious about that. The Handwriting without tears preschool stuff looks interesting. Id love to hear if those fliip crayons helped anyone.

Smiles
Grinity

We used the scissors skills one because that was one skill both my kids seemed to need a little help with. (Actually, I should get it out again for DS4.) I always have some workbooks floating around the house when the kids are in the 18 months-5 range. We have liked dry-erase ones a lot, because otherwise they get useed up too fast, generally. Mazes and connect the dots, letter practice, circle the whatever.

We've dabbled in Kumon workbooks. They are really great for giving your child confidence and repetition in doing math facts. Alot of kids where we live go to the Kumon Center for hours each week and just drill, baby, drill! on their math facts.
That would be just way too boring for us. The weakness, I think, for Kumon is that it lacks creativity and supporting problem solving skills. It also doesn't really teach you the topic- it sort of assumes that you already know the skill. Singapore Math also doesn't teach new topics that well but was pretty good for problem solving skills.
My third grader is just finishing the 5th grade math workbook put out by Bright Child. It's pretty good. At least it explains things a bit, and he is smart enough to figure out the rest. I'm going to start him soon on the 6th grade algebra one they put out.

Singapore Math is in my opinion great at teaching new topics, if used correctly. There is a line of "Singapore Math" workbooks that's not actually part of the Singapore Math system, however; those may be similar to Kumon for skills practice. We have tended to shy away from Kumon workbooks because of the drill aspect. Kumon math workbooks are not in my opinion very good for gifted kids because they're kind of dull. I do believe we bought DS6 a maze one a long time ago, though, and I think he didn't dislike it though it wasn't challenging.

ETA: Here's a sample of the "Singapore Math" workbooks that are not actually part of the Singapore Math system at all-- these of course would not be a proper resource for teaching new concepts:
http://www.amazon.com/Math-Practice...ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1338251023&sr=8-6

(jack'smom, based on what you've written before about using blue and white workbooks, I'm thinking these are what you've used. Is that right? If so, I don't think you can draw any useful conclusions about the Singapore Math program from your use of out-of-program workbooks. It's not that they're bad-- I have never personally used them and wouldn't argue about that, and I'm guessing that they can be used just fine for some skills practice-- but rather that they don't contain the teaching part of Singapore Math.)

The actual Singapore Math system includes teacher's guides, home instructor's guides, textbooks, workbooks, and challenging/intensive practice problems. It is structured to teach concepts using a progression from concrete to pictorial to abstract-- but the key is to actually use the teaching materials instead of just doing workbooks. It's a leading math curriculum for the primary grades, and for good reasons.

Here are samples of some actual materials from the Singapore Math curriculum:

Home Instructor's Guide
textbook
workbook
Challenging Word Problems

I'm not shilling for anyone, but that particular site also has the best pricing I've found, especially if you take advantage of a free-shipping deal.