Kumon Tutor Center

Kumon for math-loving kindergartener?

Feb 2012

Hi, I haven't seen any reviews for the Kumon in Rockridge. Does anyone send their child to this specific location? Also, would appreciate any feedback for Kumon in general. Believe it or not my son is in Kindergarten and loves math! That's the first homework he does and always asks for more math homework. Would love to support this interest and thinking of Kumon as a potential after school activity. Thanks in advance. Mom of math loving boy

Cannot speak to the Kumon in Rockridge, per se. We are using the one in Lafayette for the following reason. Our math-gifted son did not get the skill and drill curriculum at his old school, and while he is very sophisticated with math, conceptually-speaking, we noticed that he was making a lot of computational errors. His very talented math teacher at his new school and I came up with the idea of Kumon, simultaenously, but she gave me the caveat (as did a professor-friend of math at UC Berkeley) that she does not ''approve'' of Kumon for conceptual learning but that it is ideal for any deficit in computational skills. She feels that a lot of parents see their kids doing more complicated problems with Kumon but with no real understanding or abstraction. My son is getting a lot of challenge at school in math, but if he weren't, I might be tempted to find a math undergrad or grad student at Cal to enrich his math aptitude and interest. Hope this helps. Anon

My daughter attends kumon in Rockridge and we've been really pleased. Her school, while good at math concepts, never really required her to learn her math facts, and by the end of third grade, she still didn't have her multipication tables memorized. Having to learn x number of equations in y time, as a previous post mentioned, allows my daughter to become fluent in math, and her confidence really soared. Sim, the man who runs that center, is a fantastic mentor that doesn't judge your child. He is another reason we have been so happy. And the price can't be beat compared to tutors and educational therapists. Good luck! Michelle

This is a P.S. to my earlier posting because I of course woke up this morning with another thought about kumon. Kumon introduces concepts in small steps so that kids can actually learn them on their own, teaching independence. It has also taught my daughter about time management (something she needed,) and she has learned that by practicing a little bit each day, she can see real progress in a short few months. She's learned the valuable lesson that success comes from consistent work. Hope that helps! Michelle

Was Kumon worth the money for you?

March 2011

my 3rd grader son has been going to kumon since january and is still not working at grade level in kumon, although the kumon teacher says he is making great progress & we will see benefits soon, i take that with a grain of salt since she is running a business. my son wasn't behind in schoolwork, he was already working at or above grade level, we just thought the extra work would be good. however, he just got his school report card & we didn't see the slightest improvement. i know kumon's philosophy is to start kids below grade level to build up confidence, etc, but how long can we expect it to take before he is challenged by his kumon work? right now, it is sooo easy for him. we are unsure how long we should hang in there to see if it is beneficial.

i'm not looking for views on whether children that are already working at/above grade level should participate in kumon, rather my question is if your child did/does kumon, was/is it worth the time/money? and, how long before you saw your child benefitting? kumon mom...for now

I utterly disagree that Kumon is purely remedial. My daughter and my niece both did years of Kumon and ended up leagues ahead of their classmates. Kumon has levels that go well into Calculus and advanced math.

However, it is not ''tutoring'' per se, although the good centers do have instructors that can be wonderful in that regard. That being said, the biggest problem in this area is that most of the good, long-time Kumon instructors have been run out of the business due to changes in the Kumon ''business model'' which requires ''store-front'' locations even though most are only open 2 afternoons per week (until recently many were run out of community centers, church halls, etc.). As a result, in order to survive financially, most have turned into ''mills'' with unqualified assistants.

Unfortunately, we quit Kumon because of this situation although it did wonders for my daughter. We started out of state (great center) and then came here. The excellent instructor we found was forced financially to close. Whatever you do, don't go to Park Avenue in Oakland (utter chaos and worthless assistants). I did not check Berkeley or Alameda (which I understand is good). Loved Kumon, not their current model

Sorry, I missed the initial post, but wanted to weigh on Kumon learning, as my eleven-year-old son has been going for about six years because he hasn't been challenged by grade-level math work in public school. He's doing ninth grade work as a sixth-grader, and I have to give all credit to Greta, his instructor. She runs locations in Pinole and El Cerrito and is just fantastic. We live in Berkeley and bypass closer locations to attend her El Cerrito school. I imagine it really does depend on the individual teacher, but if you can get into one of Greta's programs, Kumon will work to give your child fluency in math and reading, whether he is behind or ahead of grade standards. Stephanie

March 2005

I found the Kumon math program very helpful for my 5th Grade son, who was (and still is) struggling to meet standards at school, but at Kumon he's now up to grade level. We certainly plan to continue with Kumon at least until the Middle School homework load becomes too much. The way new ideas are not presented until performance with older materials is perfect suits my son better than the mix and match math curriculum of California schools. Kumon Mum

June 2003

Re: Tutors for Japanese
The Kumon on San Pablo in Albany teaches Japanese.

June 1997

Our 8 1/2 year old has been taking Kumon math classes for a year and 3 months. We think it's been helpful for her although it did take many months before we noticed any improvement. As for the daily Kumon homework - it's often been tough getting her to do it, especially during the summer when she didn't think it was fair having homework when other kids didn't, but since we switched to another Kumon center she's been much better about doing it, often doing it before being asked to. We'll see if that changes when summer vacation begins.

She went to the Berkeley Kumon Center for a year (classes on Monday & Thursday), but then we switched to the El Cerrito Center (classes on Tuesday & Friday) because the schedule was better for us and because we were very impressed with the Director there.

If it wasn't for the expense ($75 a month per class), I'd like to sign her up for both math and reading during the summer months. Debby