Kumon

About Kumon:

KUMON WORKBOOKS AND LEARNING AIDS introduce basic learning skills to children aged 2 and up. Subjects covered include early learning and fine motor control skills; verbal skills; and math skills.

THE KUMON METHOD is what makes our workbooks so unique and effective. This Method is a proven learning system developed to help each child reach his or her full potential. Concepts are introduced in a step-by-step manner that allows the child to master each in turn without getting frustrated. Before long, children gain confidence in their abilities and are motivated to learn on their own.

KUMON PUBLISHING has more than two decades of experience and editorial expertise in creating products that are fun and educational. Our illustrations engage and delight children, and we use only the highest quality paper and full-color printing. Kumon Publishing has established itself as one of the world’s premier educational publishers with strong brand recognition and customer loyalty.

I was first introduced to the Kumon Method when my sisters took the classes at a local Kumon facility.  They used fun little worksheets and lots of repetition to help kids learn math skills quickly and adeptly.  Now that Brandon is 2 years and 4 months old, he is becoming a sponge for knowledge and is eager to learn new skills all the time.

Brandon will be starting preschool later this year, but in the meantime I wanted to have something to let him work on to help develop his skills.  I am not a teacher and Brandon is my first child, so I don’t have any other experience raising kids and don’t really know what I should be teaching him.

These Kumon books help me as a parent understand what types of activities a child is capable of doing at  what age range, and also how to slowly introduce a child to a new skillset.  Each book has an age range on it, and all the ones I am reviewing are either 2-3-4 or 3-4-5.  I’m finding that the suggested age ranges are really accurate so far.  Each full-color book starts out with a very simple activity, and then gets more complicated.

What may seem like simple activities such as cutting with scissors are not something that you pick up overnight.  The first step is to cut a short, straight line.  Duh, right?  But these Kumon books make it fun, simple, and rewarding for kids to learn more complex skills with colorful and cute illustrations.  In My First Book of Cutting, some of the things you cut out are actually fun crafts too, like this cute turtle that jumps up and down!

At this point, Brandon knows all of his letters (upper and lowercase) and numbers 1-10, but cannot write them.   I’m really excited to be able to teach him in a step-by-step manner with My First Uppercase Letters.  Number Games 1-70 is a connect-the-dots and color by number book that starts with 1-10 and gradually goes all the way up to 1-70.

Mazes and Tracing are also things that I wouldn’t have thought to teach him, but are fun and useful skills to have.   Who would’ve thought that the first step to tracing is drawing a straight line?

Brandon doing his My First Book of Tracing workbook

There are lots more great workbooks available for this age range, and Kumon publishes workbooks for kids all the way through Grade 6 (and even a couple of books for adults)!  No matter what stage of learning your child is in, there is a Kumon book for him or her.

Buy One

Each My First Workbook is 5 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches, paperback, 40 pages, full color, and retails at US$6.95 and Canada $7.95.

Win One

Kumon would like to offer one lucky babybix blog reader their very own Bundle of 5 My First Books!  This is a $35 value!

This bundle includes:

• My First Book of Tracing
• My First Book of Cutting
• My First Book of Mazes
• My First Book of Uppercase Letters
• My Book of Number Games 1-70

To enter this contest, simply fill out the form below so I know how to contact you.  You must do this before you can do the extra entries below.

For extra entries:

• Visit kumonbooks.com or Kumon on amazon and tell me what other book you like.
• Tell me if you already own something from Kumon and what it is, or if you’ve heard of Kumon before.
• Tell me what educational activities you do (or would like to do) at home with your child.
• Tell me who the lucky recipient would be if you won, and how old the child is.
• Follow Kumon @KumonPublishing on Twitter or on Facebook.  One extra entry each.  Another extra entry for writing on their Facebook wall that babybix sent you!
• Tell me how you got here (bookmark, RSS, link from another blog, twitter, iphone app, etc).
• Follow babybix – follow me on networked blogs, Friend Connect, become a Facebook Fan, follow @babybixcom on Twitter, or subscribe to my RSS feed. One extra entry for each one.
• Spread the word – RT this giveaway and leave me your Twitter ID (can be done daily), write an entry in your blog and link to this giveaway, or place my link in your blogroll.  One extra entry each.
• Go to babybix.com, sign up for an account (free) to track your child, and tell us what your favorite feature is.  If you already have an account, just let me know what your favorite feature is.
• If you haven’t taken my survey yet, you can get an extra 5 entries to any giveaway!
• Support the new babybix iPhone App (up to 12 extra entries)
• Add my logo to your site:



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If you do any of the above, please leave a comment saying which one you did.  Feel free to leave multiple comments if you do multiple extra entries.

This contest is open to US residents excluding Alaska and Hawaii.  I will select a random winner on 8/9, and the winner will have 48 hours to reply to my email or I will select a new winner.  Good luck!