Partner Spotlight: a paid placement by a neighborhood business, not editorial coverage.
Peyton Ding found Kumon through his own children. Eighteen years later, he still runs the Carmel West center himself.
Peyton Ding came to Kumon as a parent. He and his family moved to Charlotte from Canada 26 years ago for his corporate career, and he discovered the program when his children, Megan and Michael, enrolled at a young age. Watching their progress convinced him the method worked, and it eventually led him to bring it to other Charlotte families.
Today both of his children are physicians. As Ding tells it, they credit Kumon with the academic foundation, self-discipline and study habits that carried them through school, and their experience reinforced something he says he sees in students every day: Kumon can teach much more than math and reading.
He has been a certified Kumon instructor since 2008, when he opened the Carmel West center on Johnston Road. He grew up in a family of educators. His father was a school principal and his mother a teacher, and he developed an early appreciation for math, reading and education.
While Kumon is a global learning method, Ding believes the relationship between instructor, student and family matters enormously at the local level. At Carmel West he makes a point of being approachable and accessible to parents and of understanding each student's needs. The center keeps open communication with families and works with parents on strategies that best support a child's progress.
His goal is not simply to help a child finish a worksheet or raise a grade. He wants students to develop confidence, discipline, independence and resilience, the qualities that let them take on harder work on their own.
Some of his favorite moments come when a student realizes exactly that. The center calls it the "light bulb" moment, when a child masters a concept that had been hard and realizes, "I can do this on my own!" Ding sees the change not only in the work but in the way the child carries himself or herself afterward.
That independence is central to the Kumon Method, which is designed to build lifelong learning habits such as goal setting, time management, perseverance and the ability to work independently. For Ding, those skills are as important as math and reading. The center's own materials call him Mr. Peyton.
The center serves students from pre-K through high school, with classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It offers in-center and virtual classes, flexible scheduling, homework support when needed, preparation for North Carolina end-of-grade tests and South Carolina Ready assessments, open communication with parents and individual attention to each student's progress.
After 18 years, Ding still finds his greatest satisfaction in watching students recognize what they are capable of.
Kumon of Charlotte Carmel West · Math and reading for pre-K through high school, in-center and virtual · 10110 Johnston Road, Suite 8, Charlotte · Classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday · (704) 877-2005 · See their partner profile
This Partner Spotlight first appeared in the October 2026 print edition of Stroll Ballantyne Country Club.
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