MathsTeaching
Kumon: One to avoid
Lots of learning by rote, possibly at expense of deep understanding. The model is Japanese style, lots of repetition until a time/accuracy target is hit. The result is speedy fluency in the operations covered - but I have seen plenty of comments along these lines:
It is very expensive. The tutors are often students - often sixth form age. The tutors are not qualified teachers. There was very little, if any, actual teaching - just sat at a desk answering hundreds of repetitive worksheets under time constraints. It is death by worksheet. It requires you and your child to do worksheets every single day as well as attending twice a week. It is very repetitive. It doesn't really each a child to understand maths - just focuses on answering questions as fast as possible over and over again. They start your child on an incredibly low level - apparently to gain confidence but imo to ensure that the child makes so called massive improvements in the first year. The level is VERY low - thing counting dots - even for junior age children.
Good free resources
- BBC Bite Size is free
Of the paying sites these seem to have a number of positive reviews:
- Maths Whizz this is apparently good at diagnosing where level is, better than mathletics there
- Mathletics also seems popular with teachers in a way Kumon is not
- Komodo Maths is supposed to be relatively gentle, has worked where other sites failed
- The Maths Factor Carol Vordeman
There are others that also have positiive reviews