Six-year-old Leszek finds great joy in Maths and studying with Kumon

Six-year-old Leszek joined the Kumon Firhouse Study Centre in Ireland late in 2019 to study the Kumon Maths Programme. In a short space of time, he has made considerable progress and is already studying long multiplication and division. Leszek appeared to have a strong interest in maths from a young age; enjoying counting large numbers and eager to develop his maths ability.

We asked Leszek’s mum, Karolina, “what prompted her to enrol Leszek to Kumon”: “We were looking for additional maths lessons for Leszek. He was bored at school”, she told us. “He could count large numbers and he did it every day. He was fascinated with Roman numerals and he counted absolutely everything. He was even correcting cashiers at shops!” Karolina then discovered Kumon whilst searching online and decided to enrol Leszek at their local centre. Since Leszek joined Kumon, both his ability and love for maths has blossomed.

Leszek said: “I can now multiply and divide confidently, and I’ve reached the top of my maths class in school. I look forward to completing my Kumon every day.” Alongside learning to multiply and divide he is now able to think logically, solve problems faster and concentrate for longer periods, which has improved his abilities across all subjects at school. At Kumon, students learn to do calculations in their heads, without the use of a calculator or using tools such as writing with carries and borrows. These fundamental skills become invaluable as maths becomes more complex and often allows children to progress much faster and to a more advanced level than their school peers.

Karolina told us, “Kumon has helped Leszek to improve his confidence and maths skills; he can now add large numbers with great speed and no mistakes. Before joining Kumon, Leszek would easily become distracted with his studies. Now, he can concentrate for longer periods of time and his writing skills have also improved, especially when he writes numbers. It would be great if Leszek can complete the maths programme before he turns ten.”

Kumon study is different from a traditional classroom in that Kumon Instructors do not teach. The Kumon Method develops children to work answers out by themselves, with careful guidance. This form of learning is very powerful and enables students to build a solid foundation before moving on to more advanced work. Leszek soon developed a great relationship with his Instructor, Audrey, shortly after joining the centre. Mum Karolina added, “Audrey is brilliant; Leszek loves her. She’s always there whenever we need to contact her and is always patient and understanding. Leszek often can’t wait to attend his next online Zoom class with Audrey.”

Instructor, Audrey is also incredibly proud of Leszek’s achievements to date, she said:
“When I met Leszek it was clear he had a wonderful natural ability with maths. He loved when his Mum would challenge him with questions about addition and subtraction and he calculated all his answers mentally. I wanted to focus on developing concentration and stamina initially because his knowledge was already ahead of his school level. I needed to help him become a student who had the focus to work through Kumon as the level of difficulty increased. I knew he would love discovering all the new mathematical concepts that lay ahead once he had the necessary study skills.

Leszek is now studying long division with confidence and will move to working with fractions in just a few weeks. He rarely asks for any help and possesses the sought after ’have a go!’ attitude. He is a delight to have in class and he has taken to Zoom classes with enthusiasm, he competently uses the shared white board to show me his understanding of examples when we move to new topics. I would like to add that Leszek’s parents have passionately supported him throughout all of his developments.”

Leszek told us he hopes to become a maths teacher when he is older. We wish Leszek every success as he continues to study the Kumon Maths Programme and becomes a step closer to achieving his dream!

Keep up the great work, Leszek!