Kumon Math and Reading Center of Skokie - Central - Skokie, Illinois

Kevin S.

Kumon itself is not so bad. This particular center, well... read on. In 5 months my 5 year old advanced quickly from pre-K level math to 3 column adding and basic word problems and reading likewise, but herein lies the first problem.

This particular Kumon center is one of the very few that makes you sign a 1 year contract and there are no circumstances whatsoever that they will let you out of it. They do not care if you are leaving the country (as another parent there told us) or that your child is already so far advanced that to continue is pointless when she hates it so much. Mention non-payment and they threaten to call their attorneys. It did not matter that there is zero cost to them. They will tell you that you signed a contract and there are no clauses for termination.

I felt like I was being subjected to extortion. In my mind, they use those 1 year contracts to leverage the Kumon name into a money stream to primarily fund their retirement and helping the kids is a distant second.

Our main problem with Kumon in general, is that it is very repetitious and if your child gets as bored as our child was with that repetition, it will take her longer and longer and longer to complete the exercises and tension within the family will build, yelling will start to get her to just finish the worksheets already and she will start to HATE math. She went from 15 minutes per 10 pages to 2 hours. Who has that kind of time? Just what I wanted... to teach my daughter (I am a CPA) to hate math.

When we first discussed signing up they said she would have a personal tutor during the time she was in the building because I believe she was only 5. However, once they have our signature on the dotted line, there was very little guidance from then on. They had their signed contract guaranteeing them $2,500 of income no matter what they did. It took months of questioning other tutors and parents to figure out the procedure and to finally get her a tutor. Their basic position is to leave the kids to their own devices and distractions to complete the work in the building with a couple of very poorly paid high school students trying to help as best they could.

Personally, I believe you would be better off just finding the worksheets in a bookstore or on-line and go thru it yourself at your own pace. I had read that some centers are willing to just sell to you the worksheets. Kumon is a franchise and some franchisees like this one use it to make money and are not overly concerned with how well it suits your child.

Also know that they do not give you answer sheets, so you are forced to do all that repetitive math yourself in order to grade it. I hope you love math. I know my wife does not and she probably hated grading those worksheets more than my daughter hated taking them.

My advice? If you can, try to find a different center that does not lock you into a 1 year contract.

They did agree to stop the Math after 5 months and let us fulfill the 1 year contract with just Reading, bringing our grand total to just $1,750. Annoyingly enough, they were convinced that our 6 months was already up after only 5 months and this was even after looking at our contract. 5 + 6 = 10.

Ritu A.

My experience with Kumon was good previously but it was surprising after visiting the center that they were not transparent about no exit clause in agreement. I think they should review and reduce the time period. I was very confident of signing up but now after my experience I really need to look for other options.

Pham N.

Im certainly happy the effect of kumon to my child.I like the staff and we love kumon.My child is doing great in school,everything is easy for her because of Kumon.

Minh T.

This kumon doesn't help much on studying for the kids. They keep charging tuition after one year contract ended.

Marlene S.

Lara B.

GHOSTT

Calvin M.