Loves to learn

Kioni is very keen on learning how to read and write, a few weeks back, Dan let her use his computer to play Starfall, she would hold onto the mouse, click here and click there all by herself. Just last month, she always had to ask for our help in order to play this learning game.

Because of this, we stronly feel the need to visit the Kumon center in Cebu, well, there are two Kumon centers in Cebu, we visited the one that is just 15 minutes from where we live, it was tucked in a quiet area with a nice Chinese buffet restaurant right next to it. We were told by the Kumon center owner in the U.S. to go to this particular one because they have good teachers there.

The center is nice and clean. There was a yaya (nanny) looking lady and a driver sitting inside waiting for two Chinese looking kids. Only the students can go inside to do their work with their tutor. We walked in with Kioni and the lady at the desk asked how old is Kioni, we told her she will be three in January. We told her which level she is at (3A) and the lady couldn't believe it. We asked for some material and Dan started asking Kioni to read some of the words, which she did. The lady was amazed! Later she told me, as the center's policy stands, they don't accept children into any program until they are at least five, and that is for Kumon Math only, for Kumon Reading, they want older kids. She said Kioni will be the youngest student they have ever had. But since Kioni has demonstrated her ability in reading, she allowed us, the parents, to make an appointment for an orientation. Yes, policy requires that there has to be an orientation. Kioni probably will start in that center to continue with Kumon Reading in about a month. Maybe starting next year, we'll enroll her in Kumon Math.

Kioni loves doing Kumon very much, when we walked into the center, she immediately reconized that this a Kumon center, and she let me put her on the floor, which rarely happens in Cebu, and walked over to sit on a kid's size chair to read a book! She asked to go into where the teachers were tutoring a couple of kids, we told her she can't go yet, but will soon. She looked quite eager.

We pay $90U.S. dollar per month in the U.S. for Kioni to do Kumon Reading, here we are going to pay $30U.S. dollar a month!!! We are thankful that it is less to do it here, so we feel like starting her in Kumon Math also will not be a big burden on our budget.