When should Kumon Japanese begin? As Kumon can be started from infancy to high school or even as an adult, it can be difficult to find the right time.
In this article, we will examine the appropriate time to start Kumon Japanese.
Reasons for wondering when to start Kumon Japanese
Compared to other lessons or cram schools, there are clear reasons why you may be unsure when you should start Kumon.
There is no goal with a deadline.
Consider an examination cram school. The purpose of attending cram school is, of course, to achieve good results in the examinations. Therefore, the time to start attending cram school is naturally calculated backwards from the date of the examination. For high school and university entrance examinations, most students start to become aware of the examinations at the end of their second year. For junior high school entrance examinations, the timing for entering a cram school is usually around the fourth grade. Others may want to enter a school earlier to gain an advantage. Either way, the question of when to start can be answered rather smoothly, since the strategy is based on working backwards from the goal.
The same will be true for many lessons. If you want your child to achieve results in that area of learning, whether it is sport or music, it is almost always better to start learning as early as possible. If the child has expressed a desire to try something, there is no need to wonder when to start, and if the motive is to get a bit of physical exercise, there is no need to wonder when to start taking the lessons so seriously.
However, Kumon is different.
This is not to say that there are no goals in Kumon learning. In fact, Kumon has many elements that can be used as goals, such as the number on the printout that shows which part of the grade you are currently studying, trophies for your progress, and your national ranking.
However, Kumon learning is essentially at the pace of each individual. There are no date-specific events such as examinations. Even in the same age group, there are children who are learning addition and subtraction and children who are learning factoring, so there is no way to develop a sense of competition. Without competition, the idea of 'how old should I start before others' is not born.
There will definitely be fewer clues to decide when to start Kumon.
It is not an urgent subject.
Furthermore, compared to other subjects, there are fewer opportunities to start Japanese.
For English, a good time to start would be around the start of school lessons or when you are thinking about taking the English Proficiency Test. For maths, calculation skills are a concern in the early grades of primary schools, so it is conceivable that Kumon is started with the aim of improving calculation skills.
However, a lack of Japanese language skills is difficult to see. If your child is struggling with Japanese, the first thing that comes to mind is probably kanji. Since they are conversing in Japanese on a daily basis, it is difficult to suspect a lack of reading ability at the right time. And when you think of having them learn Kanji, I think there are few people who think of Kumon Japanese. This is because kanji drills and Kanji tests are more immediately effective than that.
Insufficient Japanese language skills have a negative impact on all subjects in the long run. It is definitely a subject of high importance. However, from the point of view of urgency, a situation in which a serious problem will arise if Japanese language skills are not improved immediately is less likely to occur than in English or arithmetic.
There are too few triggers to decide when to start based on external factors.
You need a trigger to start many things. It is difficult to start a diet when you don't feel fat, and it is difficult to start studying for exams when everyone around you is playing. It takes a lot of energy to start things. However, I think that in the Kumon Japanese language only, such a strong trigger does not come anytime soon.
Why is there no 'trigger to start' in Kumon?
The reason why the trigger for starting Kumon seems weak lies in its founding.
When his mother saw an answer sheet that came out of the pocket of Takeshi, a boy in the second grade of primary schools, she was worried that the score was not very good for her child, who she thought was good at arithmetic, and consulted her husband, Kumon Ko, who was a mathematics teacher at a high school at the time.
The Kumon Method was not created to meet a clear objective. Rather, it was born out of a mother's vague concern to help her child acquire basic skills through self-study. Therefore, Kumon does not take the form of clearing exams or solving other pressing issues in modern society.
Yet arithmetic began with a single trigger, "a mother's worry". However, when it comes to Japanese, even the element of worry is not included. The Kumon Japanese language was born from the idea that the Kumon maths classes had been so effective that the learning method should be extended to other subjects as well.
It is understandable if you look at the history of the project that it was difficult to find an opportunity to start.
So how do you decide when to start Kumon Japanese?
If you cannot expect an external trigger, you have to decide when to start on your own initiative.
So how should you decide when to start? There is no single correct answer, but there are some helpful ideas.
When can you start learning?
The first thing to look at is "when can I start Kumon".
Kumon is a learning school with a very wide age range, but as expected, you cannot start Kumon Japanese from the age of 0. Between 0 and 2 years old, there is a programme for babies called Baby Kumon. However, unlike regular Kumon, Baby Kumon does not offer separate learning in Japanese, maths and English.
Kumon Japanese can only be studied from the age of three, and although it may be difficult to imagine children solving printed problems from the age of three, Kumon also offers seven different materials for pre-school children, ranging from 8A to 2A. Even if your child cannot read or hold a pencil, there are materials to suit their stage of development. Even if your child is not a particularly fast learner, it is possible to start Kumon at the age of three.
At what age is it easier to learn?
Let's look at this another way. You can start Kumon as early as three years of age, but you can also start learning as late as adulthood. What is the best time to start learning Kumon within a very wide age range?
My view is that it is a time when there is plenty of time to spare.
As I have mentioned, there are few situations in which Kumon Japanese is important but urgent. It is safe to say that there is rarely a time in your life when you say, "Let's concentrate on Kumon Japanese for now".
However, Kumon requires students to solve a number of printouts every day at home and to attend classes twice a week. It takes five or ten years to progress to the final material, and the cram school fee is around 8,000 yen per month, which is not a price that can be said to be cheap.
Kumon Japanese is the first thing to be put on the back burner when the time comes when you can't afford it.
The higher the grade, the less you can afford.
So when is the time in your child's life when you can least afford it? The first thing that comes to mind is the period before the entrance examinations. Although studying is certainly a higher priority before exams, Kumon does not study for exams. In fact, the most likely time for a child who started Kumon at an early age to quit Kumon is when they enter a cram school for junior high school examinations.
Or the same goes for club activities. Especially if they belong to an athletics club, not only Kumon, but even balancing schoolwork and club activities can become a hazard. Club activities start in earnest at junior high school. It is quite rare for students to be able to continue Kumon after junior high school.
The later the school year, the more likely it is that the burden of exams and club activities will increase. It would then be generally correct to say that the younger your child is, the less of a burden he or she will have to bear.
Of course, it is not only the child who should be able to afford it. It is also true for parents. The younger the child is, the greater the burden on the parent, and the more independent the child becomes, the less mental and physical burden there tends to be for the parent. Many parents, especially in the early years, may be too occupied to learn.
However, in terms of the best time for your child to learn, the earlier the better.
Starting as early as possible is the most effective way!
In this article, we have looked at when to start Kumon Japanese. It is not always easy to find the right time to start Kumon Japanese, but the importance of improving reading comprehension is very high. Because it takes time to learn, it is important to start learning at a stage before various other more urgent events come into play and to acquire a solid foundation.