Desert Kindergarten | 100% Outdoor Learning

Children applying to Kindergarten must be between 5 and 6.5 years of age on September 1, 2023. Class meets M-Th from 9AM to 1:00PM and has a maximum class size of 12 students.

Desert Kindergarten is an integrated 100% outdoors, nature rich, play and inquiry based learning community. We take a whole-child approach to learning, with a strong focus on connection, stewardship, and permaculture.

Being outside means every learning activity is a multi-sensory experience as children soak up what Richard Louv calls "Vitamin Nature" and meet their needs for movement, exploration, and fresh air. Students take the lead whenever possible while we provide them with integrated learning opportunities where they are able to use all of their senses to make meaning of their world.

We'll be drawing from the rich pedagogies of Forest Schools, Waldorf, Permaculture, Integral theory, School garden curriculum, and Reggio. At the core of all of these approaches to learning is an understanding that young children learn best in programs where they are supported in building strong relationships and community. Students are seen as competent and capable learners who can solve problems, ask important questions and that learn in a whole system: family, community and ecology.

We acknowledge that the land we are enjoying is the ancestral land of the Maarenga’yam, Cahuilla, and Chemehuevi people who have and continue to steward it. We strive to honor these communities and their stewardship through education of indigenous technologies and traditions as well as volunteering with local indigenous organizations.

We are passionate about developmentally appropriate learning methods, and recognize that many current practices in schools are increasing anxiety and feelings of failure in young children.

Our Kindergarten classes focus on foundational oral language skills while providing a language and literature rich environment. We use conversation and play to encourage vocabulary and sentence structure development as well as singing and recitation of poetry and prose. In Kindergarten we introduce letter sounds, digraphs, and the writing of letters. Students get many opportunities to practice their sounding-out and composition skills at their level daily.

We implement best practices such as aligning our curriculum with some developmentally-appropriate CA State Common Core standards. We also monitor children's progress throughout the year through video, photos, Learning Stories, student work samples and other tools to capture moments of growth and learning in the classroom.

If your child is excited about reading and sounding out words, we recommend Teach your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons. There are so many reading programs out there, and different programs work better for different students. This one is affordable, simple, and appropriate for students that struggle with dyslexia as well.

NOTE: Most five year olds and many six year olds are NOT ready to read. There is no correlation between early reading and later intelligence. Your child is not behind if they are not reading. Pushing or pressuring is not necessary and is often counterproductive. If you are reading to your child regularly and having conversations with them, you are doing great.

We are current vendors for iLEAD Exploration, Sage Oak and Granite Mountain Charter Schools. We are not considering any new requests for becoming a vendor.

California’s Compulsory Education law takes effect at 6 years of age. When your child turns 6, you must choose to enroll in public school, private school or choose to homeschool your student.

If you choose to homeschool, you must enroll in a charter school program or file a Private School Affidavit. Once you do so, you may continue attending with no change in enrollment. Please note that if you are enrolled in a Charter School, your student is limited to 2 days of instruction or 12 hours per week.

Parents are a child’s first teacher. There is a high degree of parent participation in our program, as families are an indispensable component of students’ healthy growth & development. We engage parents in their child’s learning through a number of required volunteer shifts in and out of the classroom. Through teacher support and observations, we will also identify areas of development where children excel, as well as realms where students may need additional support. Conferences will be offered mid-year to partner with families in achieving our desired learning outcomes.

We are committed to offering affordable childcare. Class costs are based on the cost of providing high-quality education as well as our core values as a program. We believe that education should not require financial privilege to access also in paying our employees livable wages that reflect local costs of living and professional expertise required.

We are thrilled to offer needs-based scholarship funding due to the generosity of the Dale and Edna Walsh Foundation and the help of our fiscal sponsor, Arts Connection Network San Bernardino. Class costs are assessed on a sliding scale basis dependent upon your family’s income level.

SCHEDULE

Kindergarten classes are held from 9:00am to 1:00pm Monday through Thursday.

ATTENDANCE OPTIONS

4-Day students attend Monday through Thursday

2-Day students have a choice of attending Monday/Tuesday OR Wednesday /Thursday. We do not offer M/W or T/Th Part Time spaces.

CLASS COST

2-Day students | $112/wk (We do not offer Part-time scholarships)

4-Day students | $56-224/week

**For more information on our sliding scale fees, see “Scholarship Info” below.

Scholarships are available to students who do not receive funding from Charter School programs, and reduce the cost of tuition up to 75%.

We are prioritizing students whose families make less than 300% of the 2023 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for their family size. In short, that means we believe that the FPL is unreasonably low, and many families with income above the FPL deserve additional support.

You qualify for scholarship funding if your family earns less than…

$59,160 per year for a family of 2

$74,580 per year for a family of 3

$90,000 per year for a family of 4

$105,420 per year for a family of 5

$120,840 per year for a family of 6

$136,260 per year for a family of 7

To apply, email us with your interest, and include the page of your 2023 Tax return showing your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), with SSNs blacked out.

Scholarships are awarded on a rolling basis. If you are close to this figure and still need financial assistance, please do not hesitate to ask. Our desire is to keep classes affordable and accessible for our students whenever & however possible.

All students are invoiced through ProCare, with a due date for the beginning of the month.

If you are planning to use Charter School funds, you must submit a Purchase Order (PO) BEFORE classes begin. We cannot admit a charter school student to classes without a PO.

Please note that we update ProCare to show Purchase Orders we have received at the beginning and end of each month only. This means if you submit your PO after the 1st of the month, you may not see this reflected in ProCare until the end of the month.

We are a current vendor for iLEAD Exploration, Sage Oak and Granite Mountain Charters.

For charter school students, our programs are intended as a strong complement to the work you do at home. Charter school students using funds will be limited to 12 hours per week of participation. State law will not allow us to accept out of pocket payments for additional class time. This limit exists because participation in more than 12 hours of any class is considered “dual enrollment” and is a breach of our agreements with Charters, as well as California State Law.