<p>My son (9th grade) is in Kumon Math for the past 4 years and he is working on Level J now. He is in Algebra II honors at school and he feels like Kumon is not helping him at all. When I talked to the Kumon instructor, she said that he will be using the algebra concepts very soon at school. My son hates it and he claims that he does not have time to do the worksheets. We pay $100 every month and I feel like it's a waste of my time(driving him back and forth) and money. I would like to get some insight from parents who kids are in Kumon Math in high school. Does it really help as they progress to Prec-calc and Trignometry. Please advise.</p>
<p>We chose to not use outside tutoring for our kids simply because we felt the internet provided enough free resources that my family could use at home. We have been largely successful with this approach. I should throw in the disclaimer however, that rmlmom and I both enjoy helping our kids with their homework.</p>
<p>I would suggest that if your son hates it and refuses to complete the work, he will gain minimal benefit. It might even prove to be a negative influence as he becomes resentful. As a rough analogy, we dropped piano lessons with our kids for similar reasons.</p>
<p>Level J should be reasonably advanced algebra, not the more complex Algebra II, right? If your son is further ahead in HS than in Kumon, then Kumon is a waste of time and money. </p>
<p>Both my daughters did Kumon for aeons; one was not helped very much (the artistic type) and the other is good enough on math on her own to not need it after Algebra (she finished I and was in J). Kumon was also a waste for geometry, word problems of most kinds, and so on.</p>
<p>I don’t know Kumon. But I see no reason to continue with something that is inconvenient and nonproductive. </p>
<p>We too once had a might little mathematician. (The only time he ever got in trouble in school was challenging a ms teacher about a proof. And he was right.) It really never occurred to us to do any outside math stuff, other than Math Counts. He did fine following his own learning intuitions.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Kumon but the comments indicate that you might have some “adverse selection” issues, i.e., the kids who could benefit most from it don’t ever enroll, and the kids who need it least or not at all are the ones who show up. That happens in a lot of situations.</p>
<p>Kumon seemed to be very helpful for our daughters thru Algebra I, where practice, practice, practice seems to help. Once you hit the conceptual stuff it’s time to move on.</p>
<p>oMG- your post brought back so many “happy” memories. I loved Kumon- kids, not so much. Our deal was as soon as you place into honors level math courses you can quit. They were both done by seventh/ eighth grade as that was their main motivator in doing well in math at school. Flash forward and, up until a few years ago, I used to find unfinished pages of Kumon stuffed under couch cushions and bed mattresses. I so (not) miss the old days.</p>
<p>If it’s any help to you all, I also gave up on Kumon when our kids started hiding the worksheets and even hiding them at other people’s houses (don’t ask!). I recently spent some time with a friend of mine who is a Fulbright scholar and he told me to lay off on my kids because he used to hide his Kumon as well, and look how well he has done for himself!</p>
<p>I can imagine the faces of archaeologists from the year 2900 AD digging into suburbia archaeological digs and finding Kumon worksheets stashed in the most strange of places…</p>
<p>I found Kumon very helpful when my kids were younger, as elementary and middle school math didn’t allow a lot of repetitive learning due to class time constraints. Yes, they tried to hide the worksheets, but of course they would if their friends are playing outside and not doing extra work.</p>
<p>If you yourself are resenting it, then it is time to quit. Your comment suggests to me that your spouse may be forcing it and you have to be the one driving them to and from and checking their worksheets? Regardless, I think when this level is done throw a kumon party and burn those old worksheets. Your kid will be relieved and will have accomplished something.</p>