At what age are Kumon Arithmetic 5A teaching materials?
Kumon Math 5A is the equivalent level of 4 years old.
In Kumon, the A materials for any subject are at the level equivalent to 6 years old. 2 and 3A are for 5 year olds, 4A and 5A are for 4 year olds, and 6A and below are for 3 year olds... I think it is generally correct to think that the Kumon A materials for 2 year olds and younger are studied in a separate material called "Baby Kumon".
What kind of materials are Kumon Math 5A?
The aims of the Kumon Arithmetic 5A materials are as follows
Through counting illustrations and ●, reading number tables and numbers, and finding numbers in number tables, the goal 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, students will develop the ability to move on to the 4A material.
In 6A, students only worked with numbers up to 10, but in 5A, they will work with numbers up to 100. While there is a lot of overlap with 6A in terms of number chanting and understanding of number sequences, there are differences in terms of the size of the numbers.
Let's look at the material in more detail. Arithmetic 5A consists of 200 printed pages, and the contents are largely divided as follows.
| 1-100 | Reading Numbers (up to 30) | 101-130 | Number Place Value (up to 30) | 131-160 | Number Place Value (up to 40) | 161-190 | Number Place Value (up to 50) | 191-200 | Large Numbers |
In "Number Counting," students count and read numbers, much the same as in 6A, but with an increase in the maximum number from 10 to 30.
In "Number Rhyme," students work with consecutive numbers. In "Numbers in a Row," you will be asked to "put a circle in 10, 11, 12," or "draw a line through 21, 22, 23, 24, 25," etc. In the past, you were asked to read numbers one by one. So far we have been reading numbers one at a time, but from now on, we will treat a series of numbers as a whole.
In the "Large Numbers" section, numbers over 51 are printed on 10 sheets of paper all at once. The same material as in "reading numbers" will be used for numbers over 51.
The bottleneck is not numbers but strokes
The bottleneck in 5A is actually not 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 memorize, and you will need to understand the pattern of counting to 10, then increasing by 1 to the tenth place, and then counting again from 1 to the first place.
However, this is a difficulty that parents can imagine, so they can gradually teach their children the concept of numbers in their daily lives.
However, the obstacle that stands in the way here is the writing stroke.
In Kumon Math, the children learn by printouts, so being able to write numbers is essential from the early stages. 6A is taught with a parent's help, but from 5A, children need to draw their own lines in "Kazuno-narabi".
Therefore, even if children understand the number sequence itself, they will not be able to move on to the next material unless they can draw a line. Parents are often unaware that drawing lines is an essential part of math learning, and this can easily lead to time loss in unexpected places.
In childhood, it is not always possible to draw a straight line due to physical developmental problems.
Even more troublesome is the fact that children may not be able to draw straight lines due to physical problems at an early age.
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 your child to practice, he or she may develop strange habits and not be able to write neatly.
Think of preemptive learning as the real work after the students have mastered the brush strokes.
Kumon's appeal lies in its ability to provide students with a head start on their studies, so it is easy to want to start learning as early as possible. However, while handwriting is a bottleneck, it is difficult to be effective even if you try to advance your learning in a hurry.
If you want to advance your children's math learning with Kumon, you should consider that they will be able to move ahead in earnest only after they have mastered the brush strokes. If you cannot wait for this, consider learning that can be done without writing, such as tablet learning.