To Kumon or not to Kumon?

[Ma Kanaima]

I have a friend who has been promoting Kumon to me as something that could really help kids in math. I'd like to hear from any parents who are in or have done Kumon math with their kids (or maybe did it when they were kids.) I have some broad questions about it:

• What kind of expectations should I go in with?
• What do you think they do well that works and what don't they do well? 
• I don't imagine that my kids would be excited to do extra school work, how could I motivate them to do it?
• Is it worth the money? (The closest center is charging $125 mth for just math.) What value does it add over the stuff you can get for free from Khan Academy or other stuff on the internet?

[Rosie_0801]

Whether it is worth the money depends on several things: whether you have the money to spend, whether their style works for your children, etc.

The advantage is that you can drop the kids off to someone else instead of doing it yourself. This being a homeschooling board, most people do it themselves, but if you don't have the time or inclination, and your kids need extra help in maths, go ahead and outsource. What matters is the job gets done, right? How to motivate them to do extra work is for you to be doing it with them. 

That's just about tutoring in general. Kumon specifically, I only used their little books for my pre-schoolers and never used their maths books. There are certainly better resources for free on the internet. I had no reason to use their tutoring service.

Before you commit to anything, you might spend some time thinking about what you think a suitable maths education looks like. Don't pay people to solve problems you don't know if you have yet!