We started homeschooling towards the end of the last school year. During her 1st grade year she regressed from doing double digit addition and subtraction to barely being able to do basic facts. We were using Math U See. While my daughter could work through the problems quickly and without issues. I felt she was to reliant on counting and the manipulatively. Since we were traveling a lot this summer we decided to try going to Kumon - we also liked it taught Spanish reading/spelling (we live in Mexico) her losing spanish grammar/reading etc was one of the reasons I was hesitant to homeschool even though my heart was telling me to do it. She has been doing it for two months now and I see progress. Now that we are going back into a regular school routine I am worried that Math U see will set her back but Kumon is 10-15 mins max a day everyday- I am not sure that is enough.
Does anyone have experience with using a Kumon’s center to supplement math? What did you do with it?
Not exactly what you asked, but relying on manipulatives is actually a good thing and is developmentally appropriate at this age. You want her to have a solid foundation where numbers and her “number sense” is very concrete. Written numbers are abstract, so don’t feel like you have to be in a hurry to get her to solely working with just written numbers. As she gets more solid in her skills, she’ll be able to do problems faster without the blocks and will drop using them fairly naturally (except when first modeling the concept back to you). MUS is great for conceptual knowledge and helping kids really picture math in their minds. When my ds used MUS pre-algebra, he started using manipulatives more for a time after not really using them much since 3rd grade or so–and then dropped them again when he didn’t need them. My dd used manipulatives heavily through about 4th grade and then dropped them and never needed them later. Different kids, different needs. Have fun with your little one!
