In this issue, we introduce the features of Kumon's recommended books. The true value of Kumon's recommended books lies in the fact that they show the path from the first picture book to the top level in a way that anyone can understand, through "subdivision of difficulty levels.
Kumon's recommended books are subdivided into levels of difficulty.
One of the major characteristics of Kumon's educational materials, not limited to recommended books, is the "subdivision of levels of difficulty. The level of difficulty is divided in detail from infant to university level, so that children of any age can start learning from materials with the appropriate level of difficulty according to their level of understanding.
Although Kumon has an image of being for students in the lower grades of elementary school, thanks to this feature of "subdivision of difficulty levels," even children in pre-school and junior high school can achieve great results.
This feature is also evident in the selection of recommended books.
Reading can begin at any stage.
Kumon's recommended books are available for ages 0 to 15, with ages 0 to 2 being grouped together and divided into 13 levels of difficulty.
Grades and ages are only guidelines. Kumon students are not assigned to a grade or age, but rather to a level of understanding, so you can start reading from the recommended books according to your current level of understanding. This means that you can start reading recommended books according to your current level of understanding, and if you continue reading according to the level of difficulty, you will be able to improve your reading comprehension step by step.
You can acquire the ability to pass the university entrance exam and beyond.
Then, of course, the question arises, "What should I do after the age of 16?" The answer to this question is "read the recommended books. The answer to this question is, "You can read almost any book after reading all the recommended books. This is because the books listed in the highest level of recommended books are far beyond the junior high school level.
In Kumon's Japanese language textbooks, once you finish the Grade I material, you will hardly find any modern Japanese, and you will mainly be reading ancient Japanese and Chinese texts. This means that Kumon's policy is to have students acquire all the necessary skills for reading modern Japanese up to Grade I. In fact, the last book recommended by Kumon is Tolstoy's "War and Peace," and if you can read this book, there is almost no other book you cannot read.
Although the target age range is up to 15 years old, Kumon's recommended books cover reading comprehension up to the university entrance examination and beyond.
You will be able to learn most things on your own.
Once students have acquired sufficient reading comprehension skills, they will be able to study almost anything on their own.
Programming, for example. It is an addition to the subjects you learn in school, and if you don't have any experience with it, you won't know how to learn it. However, in programming, all information is available in the official documentation, and the better programmers refer to the official documentation. If you can read and understand the text properly, you will always be able to at least run the program on the exam (alone).
University research is also based on reading papers and reference books, isn't it? The papers are not designed to be read like the best-selling books in the bookstore. The content is technical and difficult. However, you cannot even start your research without reading many papers and acquiring a minimum of knowledge. Conversely, most papers are publicly available, so as long as you have the reading comprehension skills, you can acquire the necessary knowledge on your own.
In work, it is a world where it is natural to understand and be able to do things for which documents and manuals are still available. On top of that, there is something to keep the results in the parts that are not clearly stated or in the parts that no one else is doing. Especially these days, with the availability of tools and the spread of remote work due to the Corona disaster, conversations have been greatly reduced, and the weight of communication through documents and texts has increased dramatically.
It is often said that schoolwork is not useful in society, but there are many opportunities throughout life where learning is necessary. Being able to learn on your own will give you many more options in life.
So, where can I check for Kumon's recommended books?
First, let's check the list of recommended books.
You can check the recommended books by grade. It is somewhat difficult to see, but you can print it out, paste it on the wall, and use it to fill in the books you have read.
Let your child do what he/she wants to do.
Let your child do what he or she wants to do. This is one of the fundamentals and ideals of parenting. To make this happen, many people focus on being tolerant and making enough money.
However, looking back on ourselves, how many of us would say that the reason we gave up what we wanted to do was because of "parental permission"? I believe that more often than not, the reason for giving up on a dream is not because of the parents, but because they did not have enough ability to make the dream come true in the first place.
Many students quit sports or music that they have been doing for a long time because they realize that they are not good enough for the next level, or because their parents decided that it would be better for them to focus on entrance examinations than to continue with their studies. It would be a rare case when a student receives an invitation from a prestigious school or an industrial company with a recommendation, but gives up because of parental problems. Of course, parental understanding and financial resources are both important factors, but the higher priority is to improve the child's own abilities.
Reading comprehension is a very versatile ability. No matter what field of study, being able to read books, articles, and documents is essential. Reading comprehension takes time to develop, but it is a very cost-effective skill to provide through education because it is definitely useful.