The Desert Spring program is designed to evolve and change over time, mirroring the needs of the children, educators, and families. Our core values are to provide a play based, developmentally appropriate, child centered curriculum that recognizes a child’s early years as crucial as they are formative.
At Desert Spring, we define these values as the follows:
Play based – Children naturally learn through play by engaging in and making sense of their world. Guided play is self-chosen, enjoyable, and process-oriented. These opportunities are experiences that are child-directed and teacher-facilitated in which teachers take an active role as intentional planners, observers, and guides.
Developmental – Developmental education honors where each child is socially and emotionally and academically. Working to challenge students appropriately and to ensure they are progressing in all developmental domains is essential. This means that the output for each student may look different, however, teachers should be able to articulate how each child is progressing at their individual level.
Child Centered – Child (student) centered learning puts students’ interests first, acknowledging student voice as central to the learning experience. Student-centered instruction focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning and independent problem-solving. Student-centered learning theory and practice are based on the constructivist learning theory that emphasizes the learner’s critical role in constructing meaning from new information and prior experience.
Emergent Curriculum – An emergent curriculum is designed to follow the interests of the child and evolve as necessary to maintain curiosity, questioning, and exploration of a topic. By listening to children’s ideas and thought process, we are better able to understand their world and help them fully connect with the world around them. No two weeks, months, seasons, or years ever look the same.