Checking the positioning of the B materials in the overall Kumon Japanese
First, let's understand the positioning of the B materials by referring to the Kumon progress chart.
The B materials are at the level of second grade primary schools.
In the early childhood materials, the number in front of A became smaller and smaller, such as "8A→7A→6A". When you enter the primary schools level material, the material progresses in the following order: 'A I → A II → B I → B II'. It is as if when one letter of the alphabet moves forward, the grade level also moves forward by one.
How old are the Kumon Japanese B materials?
Around a while after entering primary schools is one of the best times to join Kumon. If you start Kumon after entering primary school, you will generally reach the B materials in the first or second grade, as per the level.
If the child started Kumon earlier, around the age of three or four, it is closer to the sense that sometimes the B materials begin at the age of five.
What are the contents of the Kumon Japanese B materials?
First of all, let's look at the contents of B I.
In Subjects and Predicates, we try to help you grasp the skeleton of a sentence, and in Modifiers, we try to help you grasp the meaning of a sentence more precisely. Use diagrams to strengthen syntactic skills, find out that there are many variations in sentences and improve your reading skills. Students learn 60 kanji characters from the grade 2 (and some grade 3) dividend. In addition, students will also review all the kanji learnt in B I, using sound and kun as a starting point.
Kanji learning continues, but the focus of the B I material is grammar. The basic grammar of subject, predicate and modifier is dealt with.
This is followed by BII content.
Through the work on 'paraphrasing', both content comprehension and syntax are further developed. As a first step in understanding relations, students are taught to use the phrases "What's going on? What happened?" to show the progress of the content of the sentences, and "similar/different" to grasp the similarities and differences in the sentences. Students study 96 kanji characters from the grade 2 (and some grade 3) Japanese language curriculum. In addition, students review the kanji learnt in BII, using sound and kun as a starting point.
Gradually, the nuances of reading comprehension will become stronger from the point of interpreting the meaning of short sentences. In addition, 12 works from the recommended books appear in the course material, and the level of difficulty is beginning to increase.
What are the points of attack for the Kumon Japanese B materials?
The difficult part of the B materials is the gradual introduction of reading comprehension elements.
In the A materials, there were also printouts in which students read passages and answered questions, but they were still limited to extracting single sentences or answering questions about the order of events, and they were not yet required to "read and understand". However, from this point on, the questions start to involve changes of state and comparisons, and the questions require understanding and answering the relationships between sentences.
The reason for this is that up to this point, the students have acquired the minimum knowledge to read and understand the content of the texts: they have learnt katakana and kanji in the A materials and are now reading with an image of the content. With this foundation, the minimum knowledge has been acquired, so it can be said that the BII materials are for moving on to the next step of understanding.
Even if a child has smoothly learned knowledge, another ability is required when it comes to understanding. This is where the number of people who find Kumon materials difficult may increase.
One way to counter this is to talk with your child about the contents of the book when you read to them or when you read to them. Even if they cannot understand the written text, they can still enjoy the story to some extent. In order to understand the written language, they have already learnt kanji, grammar, hiragana and katakana through Kumon. It will be important for parents to assist them in understanding the content through conversation.