It has been almost 3 months since Laurent started attending classes at Kuno Method and when I share about it on my Instagram, the most common questions I get are, “What is Kuno Method about?” “How does it benefit Laurent?”

Briefly put, Kuno Method is a renowned experiential thinking and interactive brain enrichment programme from Japan, for children aged 3 to 6 years old.

Then the next question I get will be, “Is that right-brain training?”

We have been to right-brain training classes when Laurent was much younger and they are very different. Right-brain training focuses on exposing children to a multitude of information at high speed so that they build a large library of information in their subconscious mind to draw from and use in the future.

Kuno Method focuses on helping children to learn concepts better and build strong foundation. So rather than teaching subjects, they are essentially teaching skill sets. This is why I think it is an ideal enrichment for pre-schoolers. It helps them to develop practical skills to learn and understand new concepts independently, which they can adopt in their own learning journey when they start formal education.

Kuno Method’s 3-Stage Experiential Learning Approach

I got to sit in for a couple of lessons with Laurent, so let me give you a behind-the-scene on what the lessons are like!

Children get to explore a new concept every week, which they will learn through a 3-stage experiential learning process during the lesson. For one of the weeks that I sat in, the children are learning about Numbers & Operations – More or Less in Numbers. The lesson aims to develop in them “number sense” such that they can look at numbers and items and have an intuition whether something is more or less without first counting.

Stage 1 – Learning Concept through Interactive Group Play

When they are first introduced to a new concept, they get up on their feet and learn about the new concept through fun and interactive group activities. On the week that I sat in, for example, the children first played a game where they run across the classroom to collect toy macarons or put into their respective baskets.

Just by looking at their baskets, they were asked who they think has more macarons. To help them, Teacher Lya told them to place their macarons in a straight line above each other and see which line of macarons is longer. After giving their answers, they counted the number of macarons to check if they were correct, and answer questions like how many more/ less compared to the other children.

Through this simple and fun exercise, the children understand that there can be creative ways (or strategies) to think about numbers besides counting.

Stage 2 – Practising Concept through Hands-On Manipulatives

After group play, the children will work on individual hands-on activities to reinforce the concept they had just learnt and to allow them to understand the concept through different angles.

For this lesson, the children listened to narrations by Teacher Lya and allocated buttons to two different animals on the table. The narratives require them to think through who has more/ less/ how many more/ how many less, etc.

Stage 3 – Mastering Concept through Worksheets & Dialogue

For the final segment of the lesson, Teacher Lya works through a few pages of the worksheet with the children and get them to articulate their thought process along the way. In articulating how they come up with answers and strategies to the problems, children get to internalise the concept that they have learnt and the teacher can provide timely and appropriate feedback to them. Verbalising their thoughts and strategies also help the children build more confidence in their problem solving abilities.

In this lesson, one of the worksheet activities require the children to identify which box has more items, and how how many more. Teacher Lya taught them to use a “partnering method” to see check which box had more items, and how many more (I.e. the item which does not have a partner from the other box will be extra items). Through this activity, the children learnt a new and creative way to strengthen their “number sense” which does not require actual counting.

Parents’ Involvement in reinforcing Concepts at Home

At the end of the each 90 minutes lesson, the teacher will meet with the parents to give us an overview of the concept that was explored and what they did during the lesson to help the children learn about the concept.

Besides some activities for us to complete at home, the worksheet also contains information about the concept and what we can do at home to help our children further reinforce the concept and engage creative ways to solve problems relating to the concept. An example given in the worksheet for the week is to ask our children at the supermarket, which queue at the cashier is a shorter queue.

Although the lesson that I sat in was more related to Maths, Kuno Method exposes the children to a variety of concepts every week, ranging from Math to English and Science.

Our Thoughts About Kuno Method

After the first trial at Kuno Method, we decided to let Laurent continue with the lessons there because he enjoyed himself and was looking forward to return for another session. I could also personally see the importance of cultivating independent learning habits and developing creative learning strategies in children before they start formal education. I believe this will be a useful skill set which can translate to better problem solving skills in the future. It’s no wonder Kuno Method is the Number 1 Brain Enrichment in Japan!

Kuno Method

Website: https://www.kunomethod.com.sg

Email: enquiry@kunomethod.com.sg

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/kunomethod

Locations: Punggol Safra, Northpoint City Mall, Buangkok Square Mall