Our Experiment with Kumon

When our son was 4, the preschool teacher told us that he was unable to finish any task because he was prone to daydreaming. We tried working with him at home, and just could not figure out how to get him to focus on anything. The only thing he could focus on was TV. A friend told us about Kumon, and we enrolled in the program. It involved taking our son to the center twice a week where he would finish a couple of worksheets. His work would be timed, and progress monitored to see him improve over time. The rest of the week, we would work with him on worksheets provided by the center. We did this for about a year. The pros - our son learned to read. Very quickly he progressed from learning letters and sounds to reading small books. But, the Math was a struggle. He would sit with his worksheet filled with questions such as 2 + 1 = ? 4 + 2 = ? with his head in his hand, eyes staring at the sky dreaming away to glory. Working with him at home just lead to more resistance. Finally, after much frustation on his part and ours, we just gave up.