Desert Sun Child Development Center’s mission is to provide high quality education for young children and to assist parents in their role as primary educators of their children.

The philosophy behind our curriculum is that children learn best by doing. Learning requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work and to learn first-hand about the world in which we live. In their early years, children explore the world around them by using all five of their senses. Brain research shows that 90% of a child’s brain development happens by the age of five. The first five years are the most critical years in the development of a child’s brain. During these years, children begin to develop cognitive, social, emotional, and language skills and they start to relate and interact with the world.

Desert Sun is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach.

Desert Sun Child Development Center is based on the concept that parents are the significant teachers in their child's life. We hope to be a resource to you in this role as teacher of your young child. Towards this end, we encourage you to participate in your child's education at Desert Sun. Desert Sun has its philosophical roots in the fields of child development and early childhood education. The program offers "academic content", such as reading and math in developmentally appropriate ways. Research has shown that children must experience their world through visual, auditory, and tactile means in order for brain development to progress to the later level of dealing with abstractions of numbers and letters. Thus, teachers at Desert Sun offer academic content through experiences, which require children to "DO" to construct their knowledge. As the young child progresses, these concepts will be strengthened though usually not in the familiar worksheet format. We believe this "hands on" approach to learning assists children in building a foundation for understanding later abstractions.

All actions of Lead Teachers and Aides are founded in the basic assumptions that every individual is unique and, therefore, deserves respect (love) for him, for anything he owns, and for anything he produces or does. This statement does not mean that inappropriate behavior is condoned, but that the person who shows the inappropriate behavior is treated with respect (love) and is assisted to acquire more appropriate ways of behaving. General behavior objectives for each class are set up with the age of the group and the individuals in each group as determining factors. For children with persistent inappropriate behavior, a team including parents, teachers and other professionals will work together to develop and implement an individual plan to support the child’s inclusion and success. Staff will never use physical punishment, psychological abuse, or coercion when disciplining a child. For example, there will be no physical punishing such as shaking, hitting, spanking, slapping, jerking, squeezing, pinching, pulling arms, hair, or ears. There will be no psychological punishing such as shaming, name calling, ridiculing, and humiliating, cursing, threatening, frightening, or withholding affection. There will be no coercion such as rough handing, forcing a child to sit down or stay down, physically forcing a child to perform an action, except when restraint is necessary to protect the child or other children from harm.

Desert Sun Child Development Center has been serving East Valley families since 1978. It was started by Peg Brokaw, who had been a teacher in the Child Development Laboratory at Arizona State University. The school rented various locations until the spring of 1996, when the school purchased the property at 1512 West Elliot Road in Chandler, Arizona. The property had been the home of the Dobson family when their local farm was in operation. The home was built in 1951, and therefore required extensive renovations in order to meet state licensing, city code, and school use requirements.

Parent Participation is participating in your child’s education and getting involved. It may be in your child’s classroom or outside of the classroom as a volunteer.