KUMON AT HOME: PROPER STUDY APPROACH [INFOGRAPHIC]

Would you like to support your student with their Kumon study at home, but are not sure how? Here are a few of the study habits that students acquire at the Center that you can help reinforce at home.

Study with concentration 

We aim to ensure students form the habit of concentrating on their worksheets right from enrollment. There are a few indicators that children are fully focused while studying: their eyes stay on their worksheets and their pencil continuously writes answers quickly. As students approach and then surpass grade-level material, they may require more thinking time, whether it be to thoughtfully compose answers in reading or to calculate mentally in math. If their pencil is poised and ready to write, this can indicate a good level of concentration while they are thinking. 

Read the information in the worksheets carefully before writing answers 

Students should read the instructions, examples, and passages on their worksheets before they start to write their answers. In other words, they should read everything on the page. Although speed is important in Kumon, following the proper study approach is just as important. If students are not in the habit of reading the instructions or carefully studying the examples and instead are in the habit of going directly to the exercise and writing answers, they may answer correctly while the work is easy; however, this poor study habit can result in students making mistakes when the material gets harder. It’s important to establish the right approach to studying from the beginning because habits can be hard to change later. 

Write neatly and carefully 

Students should pay attention to the written guides on the worksheets and write their answers within the space provided. Examples of guides include the size of text on the worksheets, the size of the boxes for writing letters and numbers, and the size of the line for the answer. They could also include things like gray letters indicating they should trace, or an asterisk denoting a word definition or pronunciation. Writing neatly and carefully helps to reduce the number of mistakes and leads to more effective learning. It can also help students more easily make corrections. 

Erase only what is necessary when making corrections 

When students are changing their answer, first they should determine what the right answer is, and only then should they erase just the incorrect portion of their answer. This is the most efficient way to learn, and students can fix their mistakes more easily. Students who are in the habit of erasing everything and then answering the question again, sometimes mistakenly write the same wrong answer. As they study more advanced materials, their error might be in the second-to-last step in math, or in one particular clause in reading. By deciding what the right answer is first, and only erasing the wrong part, students will be prepared when they reach the higher levels, where answers are longer and perhaps more nuanced. 

Try the exercises by themselves

Learning from the worksheets is one of the fundamental tenets of the Kumon Program. Students should gain the attitude of learning from the worksheets through self-study. It is important to have the student first try the exercises by themselves, with no outside explanation of how to do them before they start. Praise can have a great motivational effect, and students should be praised when they are able to complete exercises independently.

Check out our “Parent’s Guide for Implementing the Proper Study Approach” Infographic below for best practices when establishing a working study strategy.