Kumon Math and Reading Center of Natomas

Our daughter is 3 and after more than a month here, she has learned a lot!
She is recognizing words and reading phrases. I am sure some of it is memorization, but when words are mixed into new phrases, shes knows them too. Considering some of her play friends who are 6 – 8 months younger than her can barely even talk, I am impressed.
They wouldn’t take her for math, but I hope as my daughter learns numbers better, she will be able to take that on too.
I think in a few months, she will be reading her own books!
She gets one on one tutoring while she is there. You really have to keep up with the homework.
The manager was very nice.

Short Version:
The Kumon center in Natomas is deceitful, a waste of money, and does very little to improve the learning and comprehension capabilities of a child.
Unabridged Encyclopedia Version:
I make it an effort to spend time on a weekly basis tutoring my partner’s two children so they can excel in school and expand their knowledge beyond what their school can offer. The birth of our third child has been demanding, and has made it difficult for me spend the quality time the first two children need to succeed academically. We looked into an outside source to help keep the children challenged and engaged, but Kumon proved to be a costly mistake.
The center itself is often crowded with a staff that is unqualified and often times outnumbered, making personal attention and the learning experience nonexistent. There is usually one instructor monitoring several desks full of children doing busy work. When a child has a question, as described by our two children’s experience on multiple occasions, the «instructor» would simply give the child an answer with no explanation of how or why, and then instruct the child to continue with their work. There was also another person at the front desk that appeared young enough to be in high school. He appeared to be responsible for grading the children’s work, and seemed to be a greater resource to the children for answers, than the supposed instructor.
The students are taught math through repetition in their homework. They are given pamphlets to take home, answer, and have their parents score. When they arrive at Kumon for their next day of instruction, Kumon proceeds with the lesson plan based on how they performed on the homework. Unfortunately, the pathetic excuse of a lesson plan comes down to redoing the homework at the center if the child did poorly, or moving on to the next pamphlet of busy work. No actual instruction is given, simply answer the pamphlet and hope for the best. Once again, if the child had a question about a problem, the answer is given without explanation, and the child would be expected to simply move on.
Children are expected to progress on their own efforts and abilities… but not really. The eldest child has very poor math and reasoning skills. He was having difficulty with multiple number subtractions, and naturally fared worst with word problems associated with them. The «instructor’s» solution was to simply progress him to the next level and start him on multiplication. It was obvious in the many errors on his work pamphlets, lack of word problem comprehension, and likely poor test scores that the center «lost» and could not present, that the child was not ready to progress.
Kumon is franchised out throughout North America and Canada. Naturally, I complained to the parent company after having little success seeking improvement from our local (lack-​of) learning center. Several phone calls, email, false promises, and much inaction later, we decided to cancel the service. We followed proper cancellation procedures, but the company still billed us the two following months after cancellation. We have been reimbursed the funds thanks to some help from our Credit Union, but based on our experience it seemed like the center was trying to gauge us additional fees in hope we would not notice the charges. They did claim after all that they never received a cancellation notice even though we made them sign an acknowledgement of receipt after supposedly not receiving a cancellation after the first two times!