Parent Sees More Growth in 6 months at Math Genie than 18 months at Kumon

Math Genie Parent Success Profiles

How the Program Has Changed Rohan

At the time that Rohan started the Math Genie program, he could count to about 100, but he could not add, subtract, or multiply. He had no clear knowledge of what math was, other than the basic knowledge of how to count. Within 3 months, he clearly made quite a bit of progress and could do the computations he was given easily. Now, only in kindergarten, Rohan can do complex math computations (adding and subtracting), the kinds of computations that 4th graders are doing in India (the country Milind studied in).

How is Math Genie different from Kumon?

Milind tried Kumon for a year and a half before enrolling at Math Genie. He has seen a huge difference in the way that kids are learning math at Kumon and the way that they are learning at Math Genie. He told us that Math Genie is very instrumental in the way that a child’s brain thinks, where as Kumon seemed as if it were very repetitive and memorization-based. After just a few months at Math Genie, Milind and his wife decided that they saw much more potential in the Math Genie curriculum, and they chose to stop Kumon and continue at Math Genie.

What’s are the key differences?

Math Genie Method is different
Milind says the main difference is the way that math is actually taught at Math Genie. Children here are not just memorizing the calculations (such as 2 cows + 2 more cows = 4 cows). Milind recalls that the Kumon method seemed to be based on repetitive practice and the same assignments day after day. He says that this was not only boring for Rohan, but boring for them (as parents) as well. Milind says that at Math Genie, no sum is the same. Kids have to actually solve the problem instead of memorizing it.

Student Teacher ratio & Teacher quality.
The second key difference is the teacher to student ratio and the quality of the teachers. He recalls that his son was getting much less personalized attention at Kumon and that the teachers seemed inexperienced. He says they may have even been high school students, with no teaching background at all. Milind recalls that the lack of experience often led to a lack of patience in the teachers. For instance when coming to pick his son up from Kumon, the teacher would often say things like, “He was not able to focus very well today.” He felt as if they were just making excuses and making it seem like those days were just “bad hair days” for his son. At Math Genie, he has seen a huge difference. He is very impressed with the pool of teachers, and this is mainly because of the experience that they possess. He says that the Math Genie teachers he has trusted his son’s learning to seem extremely concerned with the progress of each and every child. When Rohan does not understand a new concept, the teacher will help him understand. The teachers at Math Genie pay special attention to help each child focus better. When he asked Rohan’s teacher how she always has a way to help Rohan understand a concept better, she says that she has a “toolbox” in her head. This “toolbox” allows her to have plenty of different ways of approaching the same concept. No day was simply a bad hair day for Rohan, and there were no excuses for teachers to make.

Key Areas of Improvement

Milind has seen some key areas of improvement in his son. Firstly increased focus (with all subjects, not just math). He has also seen a huge improvement in Rohan’s confidence, the way he talks to people, and the way he processing information. The mental math ability has definitely seen a huge improvement, as Rohan can do sums in his mind, using the abacus to visualize the math problem he is doing. His fine motor skills have also improved, and this has helped him in piano class too. Another huge difference Milind has seen is Rohan’s urge to do things, his overall motivation. He is internally motivated to do a whole page of sums, and he uses his “mental abacus” to help him. He likes to do the sums, and he likes a challenge. With such improvements in focus, confidence, math ability, fine motor skills, processing, and motivation, what parent would not be happy? Milind is actually so impressed that he can’t wait to enroll his younger son.