Neo Fine Art Learning Center

My 5 years old son has been attending neo for the past year and I have seen a tremendous amount of improvement. I knew my son was going to be difficult to work with because he was used to being at home with me all the time. I didn’t know how he would react at school nonetheless follow rules at school. I knew I needed to start him off with a little practice but I didn’t know exactly where. Soon after I came across neo learning center and boy did it pay off! Not only did they help him learn everything before he started school they also offer to pick your kids up straight from school, and have Saturday schools, private tutoring. My son is now doing amazing with his education and also knows how to play piano and read music.
This place is honestly one of the best places I have ever came across. With the friendliest staff and teachers. Ms Kate and Ms. Nora are amazing directors and communicate effectively. I understand that in order for my child to succeed I also have to help him at home. This school allows my son to complete his assignments with understanding and exceed in his education all in while associating with their friends.

My child attended this school for about 1 yr. Overall, we were pleased with the level of attention that they provided to help my daughter with her homework and educational advancement. This is why we kept her there for the time that we did.
The reason for this low review is because of the tremendous safety concerns and lack of good judgement in the staff.
1^st occurrence took place early on when our child reported that two students were asked to share a seat belt as they were picked up from their school to head on over to Neo. We, immediately raised our concern with the program director to which we felt, at the time, was met with the seriousness that it deserved. We chalked this up as an isolated incident and moved on
2^nd occurrence took place when my child reported that on their way to Neo, the staff member decided to make a run to a restaurant to pick up an order of food. Then, the staff member decided to leave our child and other kids in the vehicle as she did this. I can’t express what a poor series of decisions that this staff member made. Needless to say, we pulled our child out of the program because of this serious safety concern.
An after school program can have the best teachers, venue, program directives and friendly staff, but all means nothing if they can’t keep your child safe!

My daughter enjoyed Neo and so did we for about a year until the following occured: her permanent front tooth got chipped at the school due to an accident and no one notified me, I found out from my daughter when I picked her up. She told at least two adults. Then I found out that they had too many kids in the van picks them up at Camino Grove. The driver asked them to share seatbelts. The last straw was this past Wednesday when the driver stopped by to get Chinese food for herself and the other teachers at Neo, with the kids in the van and left them in there as she ordered and picked up food. They have no regard for your children’s safety. This is common sense. I hope Neo is reading this review and starts making changes to how they operate their program.

I like Neo learning center
I have two son who attend for 7 and 8 years
Good part is teacher’s enthusiasm
Staffs have encouraging spirits therefore my sons improved a lot in wtiting and debates
Specially ms. Kate who charges on Neo, she has the best knowledge for every kids individually. I really wonder how she does all this, she knows every single kid’s strong or weakness abilities. She is really amazing director. I really appreciated what she had done for my two sons.
Leaning center with joy with consistency would be tough. Only well managed one remains.
I strongly believe that Neo’s endless efforts and love to the kids made their good image now. They have been in business for more than 25 years now with good reputation and i enjoy to recommend Neo to my friends and other parents who really want to their kids grow with joy and also academically as well.

This fine establishment has been at the same location in Arcadia for over 2 decades and I can’t say a single negative thing about Neo Fine Art. Every one of my siblings and family member has gone through these doors and it has been a great environment for all of us. They promote education while being in a social environment with a classroom setting.
This is a place for parents to send their children who want to do more than just the «bare minimum» that most public schools promote.
They offer tutoring, piano classes, extracurricular activities in the summer, and even pick your kids up from school.
A real place to build lasting friendships and mentorship from teachers to colleagues.
Only someone uneducated would not appreciate this kind of environment.

My daughter has been attending Neo for 4 years and it was the best decision we ever made regarding her education. The staff is kind and very knowledgeable. Highly recommend.

This place was great for my child’s education, but the way they acted towards my child was horrible. They yelled at her and when my child tried to explain, they always had a rude comeback. They always made my child feel so low. I wouldn’t recommend this place, only if you want to make your child miserable. Do not send your child!!!

I sent my daughter here when she was having a hard time at school in the 2^nd grade. Some of her classmates had referred me to Neo so I decided to check the place out.
After about 3 months of hard work, I had seen some major improvements in my daughter. To be honest I was pretty amazed at the results. My daughter has been here at Neo for more than 4 years and during that time they had helped her so much. She even became the student body president of Holly Ave Elementary School in the 5^th grade.
Since that point, I had enrolled my two younger sons as well.
I wouldn’t know what to do without them.

Honestly, after reading Cici’s daunting review, I was VERY skeptical about signing up my daughter at NEO Fine Art Learning Center, but was strongly urged to «check it out» by a friend of mine whose son attends NEO.
I’ve enrolled my 1^st grade daughter in several other learning centers (for summer and after school programs) such as Kumon and Tutor Time but my daughter always seemed to put up a fuss about going. She complained that the educators were very «boring» and the material was not fun to learn. I discussed this with the director and looked at my daughter’s assignments and saw that her scores were near perfect. I studied with her at home and realized that the math and English materials were too easy for her! She wasn’t being challenged. So, I decided to give NEO a try.
Several weeks before school got out, I visited NEO and spoke with Kate (the founder) and Nora (the director) to inquire about the 1^st grade curriculum and activities for their summer program.
1^st grade Curriculum:
9:30 — 10:50 Writing Time: Students will learn the basic, proper format for creative writing and book reports.
15 Minute Break Time
11:05 — 12:00 Phonics/​Comprehension: Students will learn new vocabulary, parts of speech, and reading comprehension.
1 Hour Lunch Time
1:00 — 2:30 Math: Students will be challenged with new concepts and terminology.
20 Minute Break
2:50 — 4:45 Fun Time: Students will have field trips, Science projects and other activities.
The students were in «Speech Time» when I was given a tour, which I found to be unique about NEO. Kate explained that NEO’s teachers were trained to stress on proper enunciation, loudness/​clarity, and energy when reciting their speeches. Kate further explained that public speaking is crucial in a child’s development and will be helpful not only in the school environment, but also in life situations because «it helps children learn how to present themselves properly» and «allow them to be more comfortable in front of an audience». She also told me that her «goal» for her students at NEO was to not only gain a larger understanding of textbook materials but to also gain «beneficial life skills». Piqued by interest, I decided to sign my daughter up.
My daughter LOVED her summer days at NEO! Though she put up a fuss during the first couple of weeks about going, by the end of the second week, she was excited to get to class with her new friends and teacher! Like Cici’s son, my daughter was challenged to write a journal every evening on a topic chosen by the teachers, and on Fridays, there would be «Free Topic» where students were able to write about anything they wanted. Yes, there were A LOT of red marks and X’s, but they were all editing marks and suggestions to help improve my daughter’s sentence structure. By the end of summer, the red markings decreased significantly and comments of praise were written in her journals. Her writing improved immensely and I can see that there is a lot less ambiguity and a lot more description within her stories.
Every week, the 1^st graders were given a math lesson and test along with an English lesson and test. The students were being taught fractions and word problems, which I thought to be very extensive for incoming 1^st graders, but the teacher informed me that the concepts were «challenging» and were to «evoke problem solving skills». Still concerned, she assured me that the students understood the concepts and scored well on their tests. She showed me my daughter’s tests which were all in the 90’s percentile! My daughter was also taught alphabetical order, past and present tenses and new vocabulary and spelling words.
Unlike other institutions, I find that NEO gives students incentive and goals. During «Fun Time», there were field trips and activities such as Raging Waters, bowling, Science projects and art classes. Though, as Kate explained, partaking in «Fun Time» is a privilege and can only be earned if students show good workmanship and diligence. I find that Kate’s disciplinary actions at NEO helped my daughter become more responsible and wary of the consequences for making good or bad decisions. For example, if my daughter chose not to do her journal, her breaks would be taken away or if she was consistently off task, she would not be able to take part in the fun activities, and in contrast, if she did particularly well in her speech recital (which she did!), she would be rewarded with a medal, or if she demonstrated eagerness to learn, she would be rewarded with a treat.
Again, NEO’s philosophy isn’t just about learning the material within a textbook, it’s about life long learning and understanding inside and outside the classroom.
Thoroughly impressed with my daughter’s growth and improvement within JUST ONE SUMMER, I HIGHLY recommend parents to sign their children up for NEO Fine Art Learning Center! I’ve already signed my daughter up for this upcoming year!

This is a terrible school that I actually regretted sooo much for putting my son there for only 4 days.
1. Security issue: from 8 am to 9:30 am there is only 1 adult at entire school. School is place you can go in and out TOTALLY free! No signing in or out, no camera system, absolutely nothing. In the afternoon after 2:30 pm there are 2 adults one is a college looking young guy and the other one is the director who is always busy talking to parents. The young guy (tutor?) he looks very lost and confused all time.
2. Kids watched a big amount of TV at school everyday. I don’t know what channel they have the tv on, my son came home and told me he knew what the world cup score was and the earthquake happened in south cal. Well, pretty good coverage for 5 years old class?
3. Lack of communication between director, teach and parents. Teach never made a clear notification about homework. My son was there for 4 days, and everyday comes back home with RED strong angry message on his paper. «incomplete story, underline, many !!! big red mark cross the whole page. I felt very stressed when I review my son’s homework. The problem is there was no clarification of her expectation, and she just decided put a big X! I’m not letting this negative impact hit my son any more!
4. Homework: for 5 years old, my son needs to do (I just found out this yesterday because he kept getting sad face)
a. journal EVERYDAY (INCLUDES SAT. AND SUN.)with at least 5 sentences. Teach will give a title but won’t explain what the title means.
b. Friday, use 10 words outta 25 they learned through out week and make a story. Basically students need to write 3 journals over the weekend.
c. Math? I haven’t figure out yet. Their workbook doesn’t seem like teacher is focusing on math much.
Please remember, this is only summer camp. I heard many parents are the one who actually do homework for their kids. And I believe this is totally wrong. If kids can’t learn anything from their own homework, why do so?
So after 3 days I wrote a letter to bother principal and teacher request them to set up a meeting with me. Both my husband and I spoke with them and ask for the answer back within same day. They never called me back. The reason was: they had an internal meeting with teach and decide to give themselves an opportunity to approve without inform me anything! I felt they were definitely not taking my concerns seriously enough. So I went back school again and asked director, she just stated how wonderful their program was and how famous they are in city of Arcadia. None of other parents ever complain about their program. Basically it’s my entire fault! I had a conversation with my son afterwards and decided this is not a proper school from him to attend any more. He will be going to 1^st grade in 2 months, and he is already afraid of going school. BTW, my son has been the top kids in his preschool since he was two years old. He never had such a negative feeling about doing homework and going school. I’m glad I spoke my voice out and decided not wasting any more effort to make argument.
Please consider carefully when send your kids to this school. My husband was there this morning and asked for refund of tuition. He waited little while because the principal was dealing with other parents’ complains.