Huntington Learning Center: Helping Your Kids Reach Their Potential (+ Discount)

This is a sponsored post. My opinion is, as always, my own.

My daughter is getting ready to start middle school and she’s very excited. I’m also very excited for her but to be honest I’m a little nervous. Middle school is when things start to get serious when it comes to academics and it’s important she doesn’t fall behind. She will start to get more homework, she’ll be expected to take more tests and overall, the curriculum will get more complex. She’s a good student but I know she has some room for improvement, so I took her to Huntington Learning Center to get an evaluation. Huntington Learning Center: Helping Your Kids Reach Their Potential (+ Discount)

Huntington Learning Center was established 41 years ago when a public school teacher named Eileen Huntington realized some kids need personalized education. Together with her husband, she opened the first Huntington Learning Center in New Jersey. Today there are hundreds of locations all over the country which offer dozens of tutoring programs for kids in grades K-12.

The first step is to get an assessment which takes about four hours. Not wanting to overwhelm my daughter, I decided to split the evaluation into 2 two-hour sessions. The exam takes place in a small enclosed room so that you can have total concentration. For my daughter, the first session was ELA and writing while the second part was math. Although it may seem as if four hours can be a very long time, you have to realize that the assessment is very comprehensive; it involves a variety of tests, both oral and written. Since my daughter was in fifth grade at the time of the assessment she was tested for material for fourth grade as well as sixth grade. The testers need to know about her previous grade skills to see if there are any issues that they might need to go back to and they also like to see a grade ahead just to get an idea where she stands in terms of her near future once she gets to Middle school.

My daughter felt very comfortable with the assessment and I was very excited to see what the tester might find. I was particularly concerned about her reading comprehension skills since her current teacher and also previous teachers had mentioned that it is something she needs to work on.

After the two sessions of assessment, I went back to Huntington Learning Center one more time to meet with the director and to learn the results. This visit is typically one hour and is only for the parents. In the meeting, the director goes over all the test results along with a lesson plan. Sure enough, my guesses were correct: my daughter did score low on reading comprehension. To my surprise, though, it turns out that her reading comprehension issues also hindered her mathematical ability as she was struggling with some of the word problems on the math tests.

This is the area where tutoring takes place. Younger kids learn individually while older kids (after 4th grade) learn in groups of four:

Todd, the director, was very helpful in showing me exactly what they plan for her to do in order to strengthen her reading comprehension skills. Huntington Learning Center has dozens of workbooks and worksheets with lessons specifically aimed at every skill that is needed for reading comprehension and they provide a thorough lesson plan for kids who struggle with this issue, as well as any other academic issues, such as math, writing and more. The director at Huntington Learning Center often will call the child’s school to confirm the curriculum and to find out how he or she is doing (with your permission, of course) as this helps them give your child the most specific program that is tailor-made just for them.

There are hundreds of binders for every age and every subject. Here are just some of the binders:

When it comes to the lesson plans, Huntington Learning Center sets a high bar: they expect the child to be one year ahead when they complete their tutoring program. They begin with material that is a little bit easier so that the child feels comfortable and doesn’t feel too much pressure. Then they slowly work their way up to reach grade level and afterwards to above grade level. Kids work on one or two skills at a time as they learn strategies to help them learn and to strengthen their skills. According to the Huntington Learning Center philosophy, skills drive motivation and confidence. Kids need to have their skills strengthened in order to get motivated and not the other way around. Having confidence in their abilities is what pushes kids to succeed.

Huntington Learning Center also provides help for kids in special ed and who have learning disabilities, ADHD, are on the spectrum, etc. – there are special ed teachers just for those kids. All teachers at Huntington Learning Center, including the special ed teachers, are certified by the state. What I also loved about it is that even if your kids are doing great academically they can still get tutoring in order to get ahead – in fact, some parents send their kids just for that purpose. In addition, Huntington Learning Center has courses specifically for college-bound teens such as the SATs and ACTs.

To learn more visit the Huntington Learning Center website or call 1-800-CAN-LEARN.

Senior Reviewer Maytal Wichman is a freelance writer and has written for several blogs, such as The Huffington Post. She has been living in the New York City area for seventeen years and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature as well as a Law Degree, but blogging is her true passion. Maytal is a stay-at-home mom to three kids (ages 11, 9 and 5) and loves finding great products for her family.