I researched Kumon on this forum and got so much useful feedback but they do test your child for free to grade level so I set it up today.

Just wanted to give my experience, in case it helps anyone. We set it up an hour before DD's gymnastics, which was a few blocks away. I asked how long, they said about 25-20 minutes.

She comes back about 15 minutes and shows me the results of K- early grade 1 math. Everything was done. And she starts selling me on the level and what they would do. I asked why they didn't test her to see how far she could go? So they took her back and continue to test her. About 30 minutes past and I had to pick her up to go to gymnastics. So I left without the results and they were calling me tomorrow. But just the fact that they didn't test her through to her ability, I thought was so stupid and against their program. I was already committed to CTY but thought I would do this as it was free.

Ren

We did the same thing with a "Learning Center" that was around the corner from us...the had just opened and were offering a free assessment to show grade level in Reading and Math. So we signed up thinking maybe it could give us a clue as to what level DS5 (at the time)was on. The assessment took about 30 minutes and when they came out they showed how he had already mastered the Kindergarten level skills and how to enrich at that level - he was supposed to be going into K that Fall(which was frustrating because I told them I knew he had already mastered K level and that I wanted to see what level he truly was at before the assessment began)....I also questioned why they didn't go higher when they saw that he had passed all the skills for K...so they took him back the next day and they showed him at a 3rd grade level Math and a 4th grade level in Reading...then the pitch began about what they could do - it was all workbook based - very little manipulatives - the tutor would give a short lesson and then the student was expected to sit and complete workbook assignments to practice what was taught....SO not what my son is into - so we opted out

We tried Kumon and CTY is way better. At KUMON they wanted DS5 at the time to simply memorize the answers. Off the top of his head he should know 17-9 = 8 etc. I did not like that. I like him to know how to compute it and not memorize the answer even if he counts on his fingers. Doing it fast because of memorization is not really understanding. Plus it is sooooo repetitive. Ther was no way he would do sheets and sheets of the same thing over and over again.

My child has been using Kumon for a while. We liked it at the beginning. It helped my child in math calculation skills. But over time, the benefit is no longer that visible and we feel more pressure on its monthly bills. Two months ago, my child started using Beestar. To my surprise, she loves the 10 quick questions very much, and the math program is free. It�s fairly great. Plus, I also don�t have to drive her to kumon.
Lisa

I'm with Tracyqns on this one. We took my son for a free math evaluation at Kumon a couple years ago, thinking it might be a good thing for him. We were wrong.

I looked around the room while DS was taking the tests and then spoke to the tester afterward. I got the strong impression that Kumon is about rote memorization and increasing scores on standardized tests. All the kids were doing worksheets full of the same problems, over and over and over again. The tester told me that you couldn't move up a level until you'd got 100% on a test (possibly in a certain time or less). She also told me that my DS7, who was learning fifth grade math, had a lot to learn about multiplication facts at the 3rd grade level.

I didn't see anything requiring problem-solving or creativity. It was a big turnoff for me, as I was looking for a problem solving course. I suppose it could be a good environment if learning math facts is your goal.

Val

I didn't even know Kumon was a school. �I just knew about the great little workbooks they sell at the bookstore. �We liked the "tracing" workbook which was like mazes without dead ends to learn how to control the pencil around the curves and zig-zags. �And I bought the dot-to-dot #'s 1-150, but I have it put up because I believe he'll just trace the dots around the edge without looking at the #'s. �Anyway their workbooks are colorful and cute. �

But it seems like video games would be more fun for repetitive math drills than workbooks. �