Math Enrichment

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Eye Level Vs Kumon

So at the end of last year (2025) , I decided I had enough of trying to teach my son Math.

I am the kind of mother who teaches my son pretty much every subject because he’s 5 (in October) and I figure, I can do it all! (famous last words) — but when it came to math …. when it came to math, was when my nightmare started.

I tried easing into it , he already knew his numbers, we practiced writing the numbers then I bought a little abacus thing from Ikea and tried helping him visualize the numbers — and then we moved on to Addition.

I threw in the towel when we moved to Addition.

Explaining math to a toddler…

I tried every way there was to teach him addition without screaming but I couldn’t do it. I ended up probably teaching the whole damn block math from the way I screamed at my poor child. I was guilt ridden after every “tutoring” session with my own child. It was obvious that I couldn’t teach math and after tens of worksheets that I had printed off the internet according to the “Kumon” method — he was just not improving.

and you know what else I realized? explaining math to a toddler is just a skill on its own. As adults we have already seen the complete picture of math. I did college math (which was ew) so I understand how to do Addition and Subtraction but how do you explain it to a kid?

turns out there are ways. There are — plans and strategies and this whole teaching concept that I never knew about until… until I came across Eye Level.

THIS IS NOT SPONSORED.

Before you think this is a sponsored post or something — no. This is my experience as a mother who wanted to give herself freedom. Freedom from not having to scream and yell at my kid teaching him MATH. I hated math in school but now here I am trying to sell math to a toddler who still gets confused between big numbers and small.

I knew I wanted Singapore Math because I had it in my head that Singapore math in the Asian region is superior . Even Mat Salleh’s overseas were doing Singapore math, we need to do Singapore math!! So I started researching and looking around but all the centers around me seemed defunct and non responsive. They weren’t active on social media , it was hard to find non-sponsored, recent, ANYTHING about them.

I gave up and I decided to look on Threads, then I asked a few friends. Nothing was really helpful, but from the conversations I read and had (with real life people) , I started leaning towards Eye Level.

Why ?

Because they seemed to emphasize more on UNDERSTANDING the concepts rather than just memorizing it. Their workbooks also looked more fun, it looked like a mix of activities and not just the typical traditional workbook filled with equations. There were also some mums that said on Threads that the concept of Kumon is more “independent” which means your kid basically sits there , they’re given a worksheet and then they’re just mostly TIMED so time is very important for them to complete a level.

I didn’t really like the reviews I read because as a person who HATED math as a child, I knew in my heart of hearts that UNDERSTANDING a concept was more imperative than just memorizing that 1+1 is 2. I didn’t want my child to be rote memorizing something that would get more difficult, more complex and complicated as he leveled up through the education system. I wanted an enrichment class that would TEACH not just leave my kid with a worksheet to memorize.

I looked up a centre near my place and we went in. Didn’t really expect anything but they pulled my son for a trial . Surprisingly he came out loving it… he said he preferred it because no one was yelling at him ‘mama, she’s nicer than you’ — was what he said.

6 months later

So about 6 months later, here I am writing about my real life experience.

The teachers; are very supportive. They are very warm and kind to the kids which is what I really notice every time I go into the centre. The centre itself (the one nearest to my neighborhood) is very basic but still it’s comfortable enough to wait for your kid.

My son managed to start with level 2 instead of 1 . The teacher told me that he seemed very well versed with his numbers 1-10 so they were comfortable to let him skip ahead. The workbooks look very easy and at some point you might wonder, why am I paying for this? it looks too easy for an enrichment class. But I think that’s how they ensure that the child’s foundation is strong. There’s cute little activities inside the workbook (which is a very thin workbook btw) activities like “find the missing object” which I think is a secret way to train a child’s observation skill.

My son is now on Level 3. In case you’re wondering Level 3 is where the “fun” begins — they learn Addition. Except this time , there’s no yelling and screaming so he’s having a more enjoyable time learning about Addition now. (can’t blame him)

The teacher’s have their own method of repeating certain workbooks (each level has sub levels) and as a helicopter mum, I sometimes sit with him to see his work but I’m not sure am I suppose to help him or not, so one day I casually asked the teacher and she said a big NO . The teacher further explained kindly, Please don’t try to help because Eye Level has their own special method and they don’t want the child to be confused. So…. this mother had to step away and resist the urge to “help”

But most times, his workbook gets completed with very minimal mistakes (I know coz I secretly flip through) which I am very proud of . Like every mother out there, I truly want the best for my child and I think I really found my holy grail of math enrichment!