Tutoring/Education Centre?

Dear RFD Parents:

Do you send your kids to tutoring/education centres (Sylvan, Kumon, etc.)? Any tips and suggestions in selecting a good ($$-wise and quality-wise) place?

Thanks!

We haven't and won't for a couple of reasons. My oldest and youngest have both been diagnosed with learning disabilities, central auditory processing disorder, visual processing issues, specific math LD's. Both centers cannot deal with kids with LD's. My 2 need very specific teaching styles. My middle son is a gifted learner.. One is very expensive, one is more reasonable but I can't recall right now which is which. We checked into them about 4 years ago but decided to put our money into specific therapies (vision therapy, phonemic synthesis, etc.). After completing some specific therapies everything else fell into place with a few accomodations.

They can be good for kids that generally "get" the curriculum but need a little more time and experience to master the skills. But things like learning disabilities need to ruled out if the child is behind and cannot be diagnosed at a learning center like these.

To be honest, I think these tutoring schools are a waste of money.
They are all way too expensive and not really all that helpful either.

I took gr.8 math at Success Tutorial when I was in gr.7 and I didn't find it very useful since I could have learned this stuff on my own or in school anyhow. I also took one class for Algebra in OAC, but after that 1st session, I quit cuz it was so pointless to be there. And I still aced Algeo with a 95%.

Anyhow, I guess it would all depend on the child and whether or not they need the extra attention/help, or whether you want them to get ahead in school. You can always try it out for a bit to see if it's helping, and if it isn't, just stop going then.

Just my 2 cents!

if i was a parent, i would let them go.
it doesn't hurt to try, anything to get your kid atleast a chance to have a head start is only a good thing.
money may be important but im sure your kids are more important. i say try it for a semester or something and if it's not the thing for your kid, then i guess you don't have to have them keep going.

thanks for the replies. I'm researchng as a favour for a relative. They like to give the kid a little "extra". But there are so many options out there... the two I mentioned are the most established centres out there and I heard both positive and negative opinions before. Hard to find the "perfect" centre unless they (both the parents and the kid) try each one out

Thanks again. I would like to hear more opinion

I went here: http://www.brainchild.org/

And I thought it was pretty good. Really, I think that if the kid has good work ethic and will actually study they'll succeed whether or not they go to these supplementary classes, but nonetheless it helped put me ahead of public school curriculum and therefor higher marks.

I think they are all a waste of money. If a child really has an interest, all they need is a push from the parents.

Kids that are falling behind need extra attention. But you have to make it interesting for them. They found the subject boring, that is why they fell behind in the first place.

I don't have kids. But I've been through series of tutoring and whatnot when I was kid that my parents put me through. Now I look back, it was an aboslute waste of time. The only thing anyone gets out of is a satisfaction for the parents who *think* they are getting to kids to learn. But not really. I wasn't interested, and I felt pushed and pressured. Didn't enjoy a signle minute of it. It could just be me

I used to take kumon as a kid and tutored at a kumon center when i was in highschool

kumon is all about drilling. It increases speed, mainly. If you do it in the summer, it keeps the kids' minds sharp in the math vein.

I would reccommend it. If they are even average at math, they can get ahead of the rest of their class by doing regular kumon work

I think tutoring/education centres are ********. When your kids really need it, their not there. Like in High School.

Those places are a waste of money...
You dont really learn anything, they're more like daycare centres instead of learning centres.

You can probably teach your kids better than they can.

Originally Posted by VTEC_Gurl

To be honest, I think these tutoring schools are a waste of money.
They are all way too expensive and not really all that helpful either.

I took gr.8 math at Success Tutorial when I was in gr.7 and I didn't find it very useful since I could have learned this stuff on my own or in school anyhow. I also took one class for Algebra in OAC, but after that 1st session, I quit cuz it was so pointless to be there. And I still aced Algeo with a 95%.

Annnnd now it's time for some spelling or typing tutoring...lol. Just razzing you VTEC-Gurl, I'm really not trying to be a spelling nazi here... .

Originally Posted by Gee

I think they are all a waste of money. If a child really has an interest, all they need is a push from the parents.

Kids that are falling behind need extra attention. But you have to make it interesting for them. They found the subject boring, that is why they fell behind in the first place.

Or just not very smart. To say that everyone who doesn't do great in school is simply bored and that's the whole problem is a pretty wide generalization, and not at all accurate.

Originally Posted by Nikita

Or just not very smart. To say that everyone who doesn't do great in school is simply bored and that's the whole problem is a pretty wide generalization, and not at all accurate.

This is the "reason" everyone gives for not doing well in school: "oh I never study", "I'm just bored", "class is useless".

Originally Posted by Lone_Prodigy

This is the "reason" everyone gives for not doing well in school: "oh I never study", "I'm just bored", "class is useless".

This usually is the case for students not doing well in school. If you never study, you'll never get marks. This is why a lot of the time, I've found that people who slack off in my classes, don't pay attention, and say those words "oh, I didn't study", when they get a bad test paper, are all either failing or borderline failing. The more homeworking, studying, and class participation you do, the more you'll succeed.

Smartness can only be achieved through hard work. If you don't try, get used to making threads like "why shoe smell bad if shoe dutty".

Wow this is old is the OP even still alive?