Moms Talk: How Young Is Too Young for 'Fast-Tracking' Our Kids?

This particular New York Times story is sure to be mommy blogger fodder for the next few days, at least, and I can’t seem to pass it by myself: The headline reads Fast-Tracking to Kindergarten?

Click the link to the story and you’ll see a big photo of an adorable little girl, head in hand in deep concentration—or possibly frustration—as she tries to match up little circles stamped with letters to a grid on the tabletop.

She’s a student in a program called Junior Kumon, which the company’s website says “will help your children build the fundamental skills necessary to succeed throughout their educational experience.” Junior Kumon is aimed at 3- to 5-year-olds (or maybe it’s more accurate to say that it’s aimed at their parents) to help them “begin to develop their own self-confidence and a passion for learning.” The story describes the program’s techniques as based in repetitive drills, or “drill and kill” if you aren’t a fan of the method that is said to enhance young students’ concentration skills. (Parents whose kids have used the program: Do you think the Times’ description is accurate?)

Parents quoted in the story sound like they are sold on the curriculum and its benefits to their children, one of whom was literally crying out for the enrichment that Kumon sells: One mom in the story described her 3-year-old daughter crying at night out of jealousy over her older brother’s Kumon homework, distressed that she couldn’t read, so she, too, was enrolled. Another mom says she was opposed to this kind of rote learning for her children until they tried it and derived a sense of satisfaction out of learning and accomplishing something, and earning prizes for their achievements.

One critic in the Times story says the programs are “useless” at best. Another says that children who spend their time on the playground instead of filling in worksheets will be more creative and suggests they’ll be better off in the job market someday. If 3 sounds young to you, the CFO of Kumon is quoted as saying it’s “the sweet spot”—the younger the start of instruction, the better for raising smarter children.

As the mom of a toddler myself, I’m sitting squarely on the fence about whether this method is right for our kids. While I can’t picture my daughter, who seems to be the target market for Junior Kumon at age 3½, sitting down with a worksheet, that’s not to say that she’s not ready to learn and isn’t already learning plenty from the teachers at her school (I have at least one friend who teases me about calling her daycare a “school,” but really, that’s what it is and is exactly why we chose it). I just don’t think she personally would respond to drilling her ABCs and 123s at this point. At her school, she’s getting a nice balance between formal instruction and the kind of education she gets through the supervised social interaction with her peers.

Then again, if I was an at-home mom, I could see myself seeking some kind of professional enrichment for my children, either through some home-schooling curriculum or maybe I’d even look into a program like Kumon, assuming I had the money, and that’s a big if (the New York Times story said families were spending $200 to $300 per month on the program). If my kids were home with me, they wouldn’t be as smart as they are now because of the instruction they receive at daycare. I’m pretty sure Lucy wouldn’t know all of her colors in Spanish like she does, and Isaac, who just turned 1, wouldn’t be using American Sign Language to tell us when he wants more to eat.

What do you think? Is rigorous educational instruction overwhelming for toddlers or is it just what they need to be the best they can be?