Kumon or Alternatives - For Kids - Help?

[bjcheung77]

Hey, my wife and I were deciding to place our kids into the Kumon or Alternative program as they've got virtual classes offered now.   I was wondering how their service is, has anyone placed their kids into these programs before?  Is there a recommended service over the other?  We're going to an orientation to see how it works and to see if our kids like the service or not.  Just wanting feedback from people who have used these services to help them with English, Math and whatever else they teach/tutor besides english and math...

[davewill]

Our kids went through Kumon. I can't really recommend it. The method basically hands endless worksheets to the students with zero instruction. They are sort of expected to soak it up by osmosis, which quickly becomes very demoralizing. They also have to get a certain number right before they are allowed to move on, and the kid gets frustrated with getting a couple wrong and having to do the same worksheets over again and again.

If I were to do it again, I would look for something that was more active and more engaging. If you do decide to try it, plan on being more hands on than the center tells you to be.

[rachel83az]

I don't have any direct experience with Kumon but I've only ever heard bad things about them. It's all essentially what davewill said: boring, frustrating, repetitive. If you're looking for online classes, I've heard good things about Connections Academy. If you're only looking for tutoring services, I'm not sure where to go.

[dfrecore]

Can you pull them out of their current school (assuming it's going to continue to be virtual meaning Zoom and whatnot pulled together badly for the rest of the school year), and put them in a virtual charter school for free in your state (assuming said school was virtual long before Covid came along, and the whole system was originally created to be online)?

My kid was doing this horrible hybrid virtual/on-campus thing that was the WORST. It was so much work, at a really fast pace, and he lost his mind. Once we pulled him out and put him in virtual charter school, it was SO MUCH better. He spends way less time doing schoolwork/busywork than his friends who are still in the hybrid fiasco of a system, and he feels like he's actually learning, while they all say they've learned nothing since last March.

Just another perspective. It's the same with college - ones that were already online are just fine, generally speaking, while those that tried to wing it are terrible (my daughter is in a CC now, she tells me horror stories from her friends).