What kind of teaching material is 7A?
Kumon Japanese 7A is a teaching material that begins in early childhood. Maths starts from 6A and English from 3A, so it is positioned for young children who cannot start English or maths yet to start learning from Japanese 7A or 8A.
Next, let's look at the explanation of the list of Kumon Japanese language materials.
Through learning to say 'hiragana words' as words, we raise the children's awareness of the letters of each unit of speech, and on the basis of their memory on side a, we improve their memory by learning to 'look at the letters and say hiragana words' on side b. Vocabulary is increased with a focus on familiar nouns.
Children do not recognise letters at a young age. They try to recognise sounds and objects by associating them with sounds from conversations with their parents. Kumon Japanese 7A materials go one step further from there and provide training in connecting objects and sounds with letters.
The image of the printouts is shown in the diagram below. They may be similar to flashcards.
At what age are the materials studied?
In most cases, the material is learnt at the age of three or four, when the child joins the school.
In 7A, we explained that this is the stage where children 'connect objects and sounds with letters'. Therefore, children learning 7A material need to make some connections between 'objects and sounds' to understand the material. When an adult says 'apple', they need to know what an 'apple' is to some extent.
In other words, the time to start the 7A materials is when the language is starting to come out.
And in many schools, the minimum age to start Kumon is three, because there is a 'Baby Kumon' for babies up to the age of two. 3-year-olds are often the ones who are starting to learn a few words. That's why many children in families who want to start Kumon from a young age start with 7A as a starting point.
What are the key strategies?
The material at this age takes the form of reading the printed words aloud with the parent. So for the child, it is not that different from a picture book and is less likely to be a big burden.
If anyone should feel stressed at this time, it is the parents.
In Kumon, homework is done every day. The number of printouts per day may be increased or decreased depending on the child's motivation and progress, but the basic rule of Kumon is to study at home every day. However, children as young as three or four years old do not voluntarily try to do Kumon every day. In order for them to learn a little every day, parents need to encourage them to do so every day.
However, even without Kumon, there are situations in parenting that can be frustrating. I was floundering and it was past 8pm. Tomorrow is the day you go to Kumon class and you have to finish your homework. I'm in a hurry to tell my child to do Kumon, but he doesn't start Kumon at all. In these situations, you inevitably put pressure on your child to do Kumon. If this pressure builds up, the child will realise that their parents get angry when they talk about Kumon, and they will naturally start to dislike Kumon.
Also, if the child is a slow learner, he or she may not be able to move on from this point at all.
In Kumon, there is a set criterion for each material: "If you can do it in a certain number of minutes, you can move on to the next material". However, many small children do not want to solve problems quickly in the first place. So they may get bored of repeating the same material without completing the material around 7A endlessly.
Parents rushing their children in this regard will only cause stress. If the classroom teacher does not seem to have anything to draw out to work with the child, continuing with Kumon at that stage will not yield good results. It is better to withdraw from the class and consider resuming when the child is a little older.
What changes have you seen in your child as a result of finishing Kumon 7A?
The following is a list of changes that we have seen as a result of completing Kumon Japanese 7A.
The most noticeable change was the recognition of language.
They had read picture books and seen the Aieo chart before. However, there was not much indication that the letters were in their eyes. When she saw the illustrations on the aieo chart, she said, "Ice cream! Strawberries!" but they did not respond to the letter 'a' or 'i'.
In Kumon Japanese 7A, the illustrations with letters and the pages with only letters are read alternately. This makes the children more aware of the letters. It is true that if pictures and text are side by side, as in a picture book, it is natural for young children's eyes to be drawn towards the pictures. Kumon seems to have created an opportunity to attract children's attention to letters.
As soon as they became aware of letters, the picture books they wanted to read changed. His interest shifted from books with appealing pictures to books about letters. In line with this, I was able to read picture books in genres such as 'words starting with a', and I was able to create opportunities to see words such as 'yawn', for example, which is surprisingly difficult to see naturally in everyday life.
I had felt that it was difficult to bring children from the world of pictures and sounds to the world of letters, but Kumon has changed my child's focus in just one month. I have to say that Kumon is indeed the way to go.