FAQs

What is “Mastery” and why is it so important?

Kumon is a mastery and skill-building program. Kumon students are not “kinda good/sorta good/pretty good” in the concepts they are working on in the program. Kumon students master each and every concept along the way, building a rock-solid math and/or reading foundation and strong brain power.
Mastery requires being able to complete a problem correctly, quickly and without hesitation. Achieving mastery is the goal for every Kumon student for every set they do each day….

Why must my child be time and complete assignments so quickly?

Speed is just as important a gauge as accuracy of how well a child has grasped a concept in Kumon. A student must know that 9+7=16 without hesitation, or be able to read a passage fluently without stumbling on individual words or sentences….

Why does progress sometimes seem slow in Kumon?

Real progress takes patience.
Learning gaps can cause your child to struggle at school and hinder their progress. They begin to lose their self-confidence.
Kumon establishes a solid starting point which allows students to fill in any gaps and create an unshakable foundation for new concepts to build on. It takes time to build strong skills and brain power…..

Why is home grading necessary?

Students’ whose parents home grade make faster, smoother progress through the Kumon curriculum. Home grading is one of the most effective things parents can do to help their child move more quickly through the Kumon levels.

How can I help my child stay motivated?

Life happens. Even the most dedicated Kumon students experience days where their enthusiasm wanes. At Rancho Kumon we have created incentives to help motivate all students, even our middle and high-school students…..

Why is my child starting at such an easy level?

A solid, easy starting point enables children to succeed from the outset by building on a rock-solid foundation without any learning gaps to hinder them down the road. The super-easy beginning levels are also where students build the “brain power” they will need to comfortably handle more difficult and challenging work down the line, as well as establish strong daily study skills.

Now that my child is doing great in school, why should we stay with Kumon?

The Pursuit of Academic Excellence
Many parents want to give their child an “edge” in school, so that they are able to take on more challenging, advanced work with confidence and skill. Kumon shares this outlook, and provides an affordable and well-structured way of doing precisely that in an educational environment where high school and college have grown increasingly competitive.

Why is independent learning important for my child?

Students can only go so far with someone constantly looking over their shoulder and showing them how to do things. Kumon’s systematic approach allows students to work through the curriculum on their own, developing independence and self-confidence.

 Can we take a break from Kumon?

Every family needs to get away and Kumon is not meant to hold you captive. It’s easy to adjust your child’s work so that it feels more comfortable, even by giving days off during holidays or on weekends.
However, Kumon is a year-round program of daily study. It is designed to promote steady, incremental progress in the acquisition of key learning skills. Consistency and regular brain “conditioning” are most conducive to your child’s comfortable and continual advancement with Kumon. Uninterrupted study also fosters commitment, dedication and perseverance.

Why is there so much repetition in Kumon?

Repetition helps to “hardwire” the math and reading facts into the long-term memories of our students.
Kumon is a mastery and skill-building program. Repetition is a natural part of the mastery process. Kumon allows all students the opportunity to master each and every concept in the curriculum. If a student is struggling even a little, repeated practice of a particular set allows them to achieve mastery and thus move ahead with strength and confidence.

Why can’t Kumon be more flexible with the order of materials covered?

Every part of the Kumon curriculum, from individual worksheets to entire curriculum levels, is designed to build incrementally on the foundation of learning established up to that point.  Multiplication by 2 is followed by multiplication by 3; sentence building is followed by paragraph building; and so on.  Just as you might use training wheels on your child’s bike, remove one and then the other, Kumon nurtures mastery and independence by simple and logical progression.

We’re not inflexible, just uncompromising. We understand that parents may want to “jump” ahead to material that may be current at school, or precisely mirror their child’s school curriculum.  Bear in mind that material is introduced in strict sequence at Kumon because that’s intrinsic to the method by which it helps your child become a better learner.

Advancing step by logical step. Kumon is a logical and incremental progression of basic concepts.  The student must figure out, apply and fully grasp each concept before advancing to the next level.  This facilitates complete retention and ensures a rock-solid foundation for subsequent material.  Our gradual, ordered sequence of worksheets enables students to succeed on their own step-by-step.  It isn’t arbitrary; it’s thoroughly worked out and proven in practice time and again.

A deliberately linear approach. Our program is designed to supplement, not mirror, your child’s school curriculum.  Schools may take a “spiral” approach, exposing children to various topics that appear and reappear before being addressed in their full depth.

Our “linear” approach introduces topics sequentially to be mastered by the student at that time in the program.

Gaining a thorough understanding of concepts in this manner gives students a leg up with schoolwork, however, and whenever those concepts may be covered in school.

Why are some school topics not covered in Kumon?

Kumon is not meant to be a replacement for your school math or reading curriculum. It’s designed to develop a strong command of core skills that can be applied in subject after subject. Kumon harnesses a streamlined, fundamentals-focused approach to helping students build strong skills and brain power. Kumon students find that everything else they do in school is easier and faster.

 How long will it take for my child to catch up with what she’s doing in school?

All parents want to know when their child will catch up to grade level, but the answer is not simple.  The Kumon curriculum was not created to mirror the concepts that children are learning in school.  In fact, there is no correlation between the Kumon curriculum and school grade level.

Kumon is a mastery and skill-building program.  The school math curriculum tends to be a “mile wide and in inch deep”, hitting on many different concepts for brief amounts of time. Kumon students, on the other hand, work on one concept and one concept only until they achieve mastery and then move on to the next.  Students advance only when they demonstrate an independent command of newly acquired skills.  In school, the class moves forward regardless of whether a child needs more practice.

For advanced students, they are able to move ahead through the curriculum at their own pace, regardless of what other students of the same age or in the same level are doing. Students are never held back if they’re ready to move ahead, and they’re never moved ahead if they need more practice.

Advancing at a just-right pace. Because Kumon is fine-tuned to each student’s individual ability, no child advances too fast or too slowly.  It takes exactly as long as it needs to take for students to build, strengthen and master crucial skills, with a full grasp of the material to date and a rock-solid foundation for further advancement.