Khan Academy

I have heard and read a lot of Khan Academy, and even watched Salman Khan speak at a local TED conference.  However, it never occurred to me that any of his videos could be helpful for my 7 and 4 year old kids.  This evening, when my 7 year old was working on him Math multiplicaton Kumon sheets (yes, we are back to experimenting with Kumon...more about that later), I desperately looked online for resources to help him.  One of the sites had a link to a video, and I clicked on it not realizing that it lead to a Khan Academy video.  My 7 year old and we (the parents) watched it together.  The effect of it on my son was just amazing. Not sure if it was the reassuring voice, but he sat up and really paid attention.  The line that really got him was when Khan said "I'm not a big fan of memorization.  But, the one thing about multiplication is that if you memorize your multiplication tables that we'll start to do in this video, it'll pay huge benefits for the rest of your life".  Wow, the impact was just huge.    More interestingly, my almost 5 year old insisted that we find a video for her.  We found one of basic addition where Khan talks about adding avacadoes.  Again, I had shown my kids how to cut open an avacado just today, and that was quite a happy coincidence.  :)

Link to the multiplication video: Khan Academy Multiplication Video