At what age are Kumon Maths 5A teaching materials?
Kumon Maths 5A is the equivalent level of 4 years old.
In Kumon, the A materials in all subjects are at the level equivalent to 6 years old; children under 2 years old study in a separate material called 'Baby Kumon', so it is generally safe to assume that 2A and 3A are for 5-year-olds, 4A and 5A are for 4-year-olds and 6A and below are for 3-year-olds...
What kind of teaching materials are Kumon Math 5A?
The aims of the Kumon Maths 5A materials are as follows.
Through counting illustrations and ●, reading number tables and numbers, and finding numbers in number tables, the aim is "to be able to read and easily recite number tables and numbers up to 50" and "to understand the sequence of numbers up to 50". In addition, by becoming familiar with numbers up to 100, children develop the ability to move on to the 4A material.
In 6A, the children only worked with numbers up to 10, whereas in 5A they will work with numbers up to 100. There is a lot of overlap with 6A in terms of number chanting and understanding of number sequences, but there are differences in terms of the size of the numbers.
Let's look at the material in more detail. Maths 5A consists of 200 printouts, the contents of which are largely divided as follows.
| Material number | Content | | | --- | --- | 1-100 | Reading Numbers (up to 30) | | 101-130 | Counting Numbers (up to 30) | | 131-160 | Counting Numbers (up to 40) | 161-190 | Counting Numbers (up to 50) | | 191-200 | Large Numbers |
In the 'Number Counting' section, children count and read numbers, much as they do in 6A, but with the maximum number increased from 10 to 30.
In Number Rhyme, children work with consecutive numbers. Questions such as "Circle 10, 11, 12" or "Draw a line through 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 as you read them" are given. So far we have been reading the numbers one at a time, but from now on we will treat the numbers as a series of numbers.
In the 'Big numbers' section, numbers over 51 are dealt with all at once in ten printouts. The same material as in 'Reading Numbers' is used with numbers 51 and above.
The bottleneck is not the numbers but the strokes
The bottleneck in 5A is not actually the numbers but the strokes.
Of course, there is the difficulty of getting to work with two-digit numbers. The more the number increases, the more difficult it becomes to memorise, and you will need to understand the pattern of counting to 10, then increasing by 1 to the nearest 10, and then counting again from 1 to the nearest 1.
However, this is a difficulty that parents can imagine, so they can gradually teach their children the concept of numbers in everyday life.
However, the barrier that stands in the way here is the writing stroke.
In Kumon Maths, the learning progresses through printouts, so being able to write numbers is essential from an early stage; in 6A, the learning progresses with the parent's help, but from 5A, there is material in Kazuno-narabi that requires the child to draw the lines themselves.
Therefore, even if they understand the number sequence itself, if they cannot draw a line, they will not be able to move on to the next material. Parents are often unaware that drawing lines is an essential part of arithmetic learning, and this can easily lead to time loss in unexpected places.
Physical development in childhood can make it difficult to draw a straight line.
Even more troublesome is the fact that children may not be able to draw straight lines at an early age due to physical problems.
In children under the age of four, the bones of the arm and wrist may not yet be attached. In this condition, the wrist cannot be held in place and straight lines cannot be drawn. If you force them to practise, they may develop strange habits and not be able to write neatly.
Think of pre-emptive learning as the real work after the students have mastered the brush strokes.
Kumon's appeal lies in its anticipatory learning, so it is easy to want to move ahead from an early age. However, while handwriting is a bottleneck, it is difficult to be effective even if you are in a hurry to move ahead.
When learning maths with Kumon, you should consider that it is only after the children have mastered the brush strokes that they can really move on to the next level. If this cannot wait, consider learning that can be done without writing, such as tablet learning.