|
|
2013 April through June Newsletter
Inside this issue
Center Calendar
Center Closed Over Spring Break
Eden Prairie Center Relocation
Annual Award Celebration
Long Term Study
Parent Home Grading
Student Photo ID
Library Books
New Staff Members
Parent & Student Volunteers
Center Policy Reminders
Center CalendarImportant dates to remember:
April 1-6 - Spring Break - Centers closed
May 13-17 - Parent Conference Week
May 24-27 - Memorial Day & Weekend - Centers closed; EP Center Relocate
July 4-5 - Independence Day - Centers closed
July 29 - August 5 - Annual Awards - Open House Week
August 26 - September 2 - Summer Break/ Labor Day - Centers closed
November 11-15 - Parent Conference Week
November 8-29 - Thanksgiving Holidays - Centers closed
December 23-Jan 1- Winter Break - Centers Closed
Center Closed Over Spring Break
Just a reminder that our centers are closed over Spring Break from April 1-6. Homework has been given in the prior week. If your child missed coming to class the week before their homework would be left in the bin or mailbox outside our centers. Please return all work graded and corrected to 100% by students so that they will not be frustrated just doing corrections in class for weeks.
Parent Conferences in May
Formal parent conferences are held twice a year at the Centers. Our May conference will be held during May 13-17. If you are interested to meet with Dr. Lo to discuss your children's progress please sign up at the office. The sign up will be available first week in May. There will be a $20 no-show fee billed to your account if you signed up but not come to the conference.
Eden Prairie Center Relocation
We have found a larger, more conveniently located office space near the Eden Prairie Shopping Center by Walmart to be our new Eden Prairie Center location. We are now finalizing the lease and the layout of the center. Once approved by Kumon North America we will start to renovate the interior. If everything progresses as planned, the move will take place over the Memorial Day Weekend. More information will be provided to our Eden Prairie parents in May once the lease is approved.
Annual Award Celebration & Open House
After many years of hosting formal annual award ceremony, we have decided to try a different format that should be equally motivating for our students and families without the logistic challenges. The celebration of our students' success will be carried out in the week of July 29 through August 2 during class time at each center. Instead of regular class time students come in to exchange their homework and receive their awards. Their names and accomplishments will be announced when they receive their awards. There will be games, audio visual displays and other refreshments provided at the center. Parents will get a chance to cheer their own children and talk with our senior staff during our open house that week.
All current students and graduates will be recognized at the celebration/open house. Students advanced more than 3 levels in Kumon within the first year and more than 1.5 levels each succeeding year will be recognized with medals or trophies. Students reaching G level by 5th grade and J level by 7th grade and M level by 9th grade will be given special awards. Program completers will receive scholarships. More detail description of the awards and their criteria can be found on our website: www.kumonedina.com or www.kumonedenprairie.com.
Program Completion Awards
Math Program Completer (finished all worksheets through O200) will receive a $500 scholarship towards his/her 529 College Savings Plan.
Reading Program Completer (finished all worksheets through L200) will receive a $250 scholarship towards his/her 529 College Savings Plan.
Long Term Study
Kumon is not a tutoring service. The goal of the program is to develop excellent self-learners through Math and/or Reading skill building. The first milestone for our students is to establish good daily study habits. This means having a daily homework routine: a proper posture while sitting, previewing what they are learning that day, working with focus, writing neatly, and being aware of the completion times. Concurrently, students are guided to develop self learning skills like reading every word on the page including instructions, examples, explanations and annotations carefully and the topic of their learning focus with comprehension; noticing their mistakes while working and able to self-correct. When they come upon something they don't understand, instead of raising their hands immediately they should think deeper using every clue that is presented and try to solve the problems alone. If they still didn't get it, of course our staff would be glad to assist them. Finally, the Kumon goal is to complete the whole program and develop strong Math and Reading skills before graduating from high school. This requires self-discipline and time management to fit the daily Kumon exercises in a busy schedule. Thus finishing Kumon can be challenging as students engage in more and more activities and greater workloads from school. Good study habits, self-learning and self-discipline takes time to develop. Parents should have a clear goal for their children every 3-6 months, but should not be disappointed when their children have not caught up with what they are learning in school yet in their first 6-12 months in the program.
Benefits of Home Grading
At the Edina and Eden Prairie Kumon Center, we always encourage our parents to be involved in grading their children’s Kumon homework. After 20+ years of providing the Kumon program, we have noticed a definite trend among parents who do grade their children’s Kumon homework and those who don’t. For the parents who do home grading, we have seen their children progress faster and reap more benefits from the Kumon Program. While we understand that parents' schedules can be hectic and home grading is not mandatory, we believe that by taking as little as five minutes each day, parents can experience the benefits of home grading:
- Faster Progress for their children
- Quickly establish daily study habits at home
- Better understanding of the Kumon Program
- Better feedback to the children and Instructor
- Greater understanding of their children’s strength and weaknesses
- More motivated children with the positive involvement of their parents
For those parents who are interested in home grading but have not done so please ask any of our staff and we will be happy to explain how to grade and mark your children’s homework.
Student Photo ID
We have taken photo ID of our students this March. The head-shot of each student will be used strictly for identifying the student in our student profile database. However, we also respect the sensitivity of any family who may have objections to our new procedure. Let us know in writing if you are not comfortable with your child's picture in our database we can remove it.
Library Books
We have replenished many new and lost books in our library. Each year we have lost hundreds of books, not returned in each center. The cost of replacing them runs in the thousands. We will send invoices to families with overdue books. The charge will be $10 per book.
New Staff Members
Please extend your welcome to our new staff member:
- Mrs. Joytika Dhingra in Edina
Parent & Student Volunteers
We are happy and grateful to have the following parents volunteer at our center:
- Mrs. Lavanya in Eden Prairie
- Mrs. Shilpa in Edina
Please contact Dr. Lo if you would like to volunteer at our centers while waiting for your children to complete their class assignment. We can use the extra help in many areas.
Policy Reminders
New Absence Policy - Effective January 2011, Kumon North America will only allow one calendar month absence per year. Beyond that the student is considered discontinued from the program. New registration fee will be charged and all the prior cumulated cosmic points will disappear for the students. We highly recommend families take work with them so that their children’s Kumon study will not be interrupted even during vacations.
Students who did not attend any class or return any homework during the month would be reported absent. Kumon North America has started emailing surveys to all parents whose children have been reported absent.
Minimum commitment - A minimum one year commitment is required for all new enrollments after April 1, 2011. Tuition deposit will not be returned for enrollments shorter than one year. Families with job relocation can be exempt.
Advanced Written Notice - Our policy requires 15 days prior written notice of any unpaid absences and one calendar month prior written notice for withdrawal from the program. Without the observed notification period, your EFT payment will NOT be stopped automatically.
Home-grading - We have answer keys for each math and reading level for parents to check their children’s homework. It is important that the errors made by the students be caught as soon as possible so that the students will be able to learn effectively and experience greater success with less repetitions. Parents need to point out which problem or response is wrong and encourage their children to correct their mistakes before the next day’s assignment. We have a brochure that describes how parent can help with home grading.
Our new policy regarding home-grading is: while not mandatory, it is still highly recommended for the benefits listed above. For reading students it is more crucial that the students read aloud to their parents for at least 5 minutes each day.
Please stop by our office if you need an answer key and the home grading brochure. See Dr. Lo if you have questions regarding the grading, scoring or recording.
Self-Grading - For our Math students in J level and higher, we have provided solution book for the level of study. The solution books are to be used as a reference for parents and students. When students are having difficulties with a problem, the students may study the solution book before beginning the problems.
- For the first attempt, if the students find the problems difficult to understand, then they may copy the solution step by step as shown. This helps the students learn the correct intermediate steps to solve the problem.
- For the second attempt in solving the problem, the students may look at the solution book only for corrections.
- For the third attempt in solving the same problem, the students should not look at the solution book at all. This is the way to help students develop self-learning.
Building Codes of Conduct – Silent your cell phone and use whispering voices at the center! Students and sibling should never run up and down the hallway and make excess noise. Please pick up any litters left behind and straighten the chairs. Thank you for adhering to the Building Codes of Conduct. We do appreciate your cooperation!
Signup Times – Adhering to your sign up times avoids congestions and frustrations for being turned away at the center. Late comers will not be given the proper amount of time to complete their class work. Priority will be given to students who are scheduled to come at the appointed time.
Dress codes – Proper school attire is required for attending classes. Swimming outfits and bare feet are not acceptable in Kumon classes.
**********************************************
Contact information
Please contact us at info@kumonedina.com if you have any concerns.
Web links
www.kumonedina.com
www.kumonedenprairie.com
| | | |
|
| |