Singapore Maths Club Bothell

Dear Chung - Thank you for your feedback. We would have appreciated the opportunity to address your concerns and work with you to design a plan to help your child ramp up to the SMC program, had they been brought to our attention. Instead, let us try to address them now. As you have noted, the SMC program is rigorous with the algebraic thinking example you referenced and the students “learning amazing things”. Our lessons are layered and for maximum benefits, we encourage students to attend the lessons at the grade level, ideally without skipping any part of the year-long program. Otherwise they will need to ramp up on what the lessons they missed.Most of our students are enrolled in the program for the whole academic year. They also progressed to the next grade level year upon year. Unfortunately, based on the information provided, your child was enrolled in Grade 1, part of Grade 2 and again for part of Grade 3. Nonetheless, had we been notified of the challenges he faced transitioning back into the program, we would have gladly scheduled “HELPDESK CALLS” with him to help him ramp up. This is an additional service provided to all our students. In addition, SMC offered unlimited access to the “CLASSWORK AND HOMEWORK REVIEW VIDEOS” to every child enrolled in our program. These videos are excellent resources for our students provided at no extra costs. We always encourage our students to use these videos to review what they have learnt and to use them to focus on practicing the techniques or strategies where they may need more reinforcement. It is our practice to check the work of our students in the classroom before they can move on to the next problem. This is the reason for the check marks on their classwork. There is no other intended purpose to those check marks. It is unfortunate that you feel that we are an “afterschool babysitting/activity” service. However, we appreciate that despite that sentiment, you plan to have your child “likely return to SMC sometime in the future when his cognitive development catches up a bit more”. Last but not least, the 10% fee you reference is for the credit card charges imposed on the business and other fees. As you are aware, SMC does not charge registration fees nor impose any charges other than the tuition during registration. SMC is a small Washington state business which has managed to expand primarily through “word of mouth” by our parents. We believe in providing excellent customer service to our parents and a “safe learning environment” for our students. Besides our centers in WA, we currently have students in more than 20 states in the US and Canada. One third of our students are online students learning from remote locations. It would be challenging to provide babysitting services to these students. Please contact us directly if you wish to discuss further. We are happy to devise a plan to work with your child so that he can reap the maximum benefits of the program.