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August 2019 by Jimmy Y.
We had to pull our child out for three reasons: 1) the homework that was supposedly done by your child there is actually copied from one of the teachers 2) the driver who picks up your child will speed away without waiting for your child to buckle up 3) when you try to withdraw your child from the school they will not refund you the security deposit and come up with all kinds of excuses not to do so.
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July 2018 by Kay W.
People there are extremely rude. Bad communication and my kid absolutely learned nothing there. Parents need to think twice before signing up with Sun Flower Academy.
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March 2018 by Lillian G.
When I was looking for an after school for my son in kindergarten, I had two criteria: one is enough play area for a little boy full of energy，the other is Chinese immersion. I visited quite a few after schools in the area and decided on Sunflower. Turns out it is the right choice! They have a large Kungfu room where kids can have Kungfu lessons or just play time. My son is crazy about Kungfu and he gets so much fun at Sunflower. The teachers they hire are mostly Chinese and they try to speak Chinese as much as they can so kids could take advantage in their near immersion environment. It is super important for a mixed family like us( I'm a Chinese and my husband is a native speaker). We don't speak Chinese much at home and the only hope we have is from the after school. I worry if my son's Chinese decays, soon enough he won't be able to talk to my parents any more. After being there for a few months my son feels comfortable speaking Chinese again and he would often "show off" his Chinese by reciting his Chinese texts or nursery rhymes to me. Although he's not talking like a pure Chinese kid, I'm so happy to see his changes! Math is another plus at Sunflower. When I talked to their director before we joined the school she told me she used to teach math in China for 22 years. I wasn't thinking much of it at that time. But now I'm very impressed to see the progress my son makes in his math. He could barely count from 1-20 when he joined but after 7 months he could calculate two digits under 20 by heart and his abacus would take him even further. Amazing! Overall, Sunflower is a great after school. The teachers are loving, caring and experienced. My son is happy and learning. I'd recommend this school to parents who are struggling looking for the right place for their school age kids.
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June 2016 by Iris C.
RUDE! They will not tell you anything from email. So I called them as they requested. The lady on the phone asked "who are you?" " I don't remember you". I asked her about the after school program, "yea, that's what we offer right now." So what's the program is about? No detail, she's not willing to tell me anything else. I said thank you and she just hung up on me. RUDE! Do I want to send my child there for education with someone there without basic manner?
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May 2016 by Maybo L.
My niece and nephew goes here after school and it is a wonderful afterschool for K-5. I would recommend it to any parent who is looking for a very high-quality, yet very reasonably-priced afterschool in the TriValley area. Along with the Mandarin class, the kids are introduced to different kinds of enrichment programs. The Chinese class is 60 minutes daily, and I am confident my niece's and nephews' Chinese are as good as native speakers. They offer Chinese school on Saturday too. What is nice about this place: They open full-day during Spring Break and Winter break which is a huge help for working parents to find a safe place for the kids. They have a exceptional summer camp program too. All the staff members try to get to know and understand each and every student and are extremely willing to help them out on anything. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly recommend Sun Flower Academy to other parents.
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May 2016 by Hanny T.
This is the best Chinese After School in the area. After researching for Chinese after school for awhile, I finally found the perfect school for the kids! The staff are great, they make sure to keep you in the loop as well as allowing you to be involved in the learning process. I register for clay art, chess, Mad Science, and Robotix classes for the summer camp. As for the Mandarin class, each student has a good opportunity to learn Mandarin in a comfortable environment. The class is 1 hour everyday. I am happy to know that the kids will still love to learn Mandarin even when they become older. All the drivers have good driving records. Just imagine how many trips I will have to do if I were to pick up and drop them off for all these activities. We love this school and will highly recommend this afterschool program to any family.
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April 2016 by Yuan Q.
My daughter started to study at Sun Flower at kindergarten; she learned a lot math and Chinese there, and she always has fun there. Overall great teacher, great environment and very nice teachers. Don't trust other people's bad comments. Probably they are from its competitor. The facility is much better than other places, more kids friendly, safe and organized. A lot of things to do and learn.
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September 2014 by Joyce H.
My son and daughter both attend Sun Flower's weekend program. Their Chinese classes are smaller ratio compared to other schools. My kids loves the teachers. My son was able to start his abacus learning with Yvonne Zhao when he was 4 1/2 years old. At 6 years old he was able to achieve Mental math Level 1 which some of his peers are much older than him. Without their support and help my son wouldn't be where he is at today in Math!!! I highly recommend them.
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May 2013 by MJ W.
My son has come to Sunflower for the Kindergarten after school program. There are only about 3 chinese schools in the area of San Ramon, Dublin Pleasanton and we unfortunately chose this one. I have come to find out that they only spend 20 min. on mandarin. They are suppose to teach english and math but I believe they are merely giving them worksheets to do. They have no outdoor play area. The indoor play area is a room with some blocks and some legos strewn on the floor and nothing else. My son is bored to the point that he does not want to go to regular school because he knows he will have to go to Sunflower after. It's difficult for kids to concentrate on academics if they have pent up energy from sitting all day and not being able to play. The bathrooms are very dirty and smelly. I have contacted them with suggestions and either received no response or no consideration of my concerns. Sunflower teachers would reward and motivate kids with candy and cookies. This is a recipe for overweight, unhealthy kids who seek junk food when they accomplish things. I hated this since I am very nutrition minded. I asked them to not do this or at least not give my son the junk food. I don't think they listened and even if they did it would be hard for my son to understand why he wasn't getting the so called " rewards." The only decent program they offer is Kung-fu. I believe it is Wushu style. The teacher seems to be really good. The only reason I know is that they had a demonstration and the kids were quite impressive. However, the classes are pricey unless you sign up for many classes up front. We are going to send him to Yang Fan in Pleasanton. We toured the facility and it looks very clean and organized. The kindergarteners spend 40 min. on chinese and have 3 levels within kindergarten. They have an indoor and out door play area. They have all kinds of interesting programs to offer the kids especially for summer. I am hoping Yang Fan will be much better. I will review them once I have some experience with them.
