The Child Development Center at Fairplex
We are a premier model early care and education program, proudly partnering with the University of La Verne. Our dedicated staff and leadership create a safe, nurturing, and high-quality learning environment where children, families, and educators from diverse backgrounds come together to learn and grow. We celebrate children, empower families, foster community through diversity, and strive for excellence in early childhood education.
We serve over 200 children and families from twelve weeks to kindergarten age with specially designed infant, toddler, preschool and kindergarten classrooms, which emphasize developmentally appropriate experiences for the children and is regarded as one of the finest facilities of its kind in California. Children are admitted into the various programs regardless of income, religion, ethnicity, gender, culture, language, or developmental differences, based upon enrollment space availability.
Our program is proud of our highly trained and qualified staff certified in early childhood education, many of whom hold advanced degrees in child development or related fields. The Fairplex Child Development Center at Fairplex also serves as a professional development school for students enrolled in the University of La Verne’s early childhood education program. This partnership with the University allows our Center to serve as a demonstration site for program excellence – ensuring that the Center’s program incorporates the highest standards to encourage optimum child development and learning opportunities.
The Fairplex Child Development Center is a great place with a safe learning environment for a child to grow and learn. I recommend the CDC to any parent without hesitation!”
— Current CDC parent
CDC Vision
We envision a leading early care and education community, created in partnership with the University of La Verne, where every child, family, and educator thrives. Guided by a commitment to excellence, we strive to offer a safe, nurturing, and inclusive environment that celebrates diversity, strengthens children and families, and inspires lifelong learning and growth for all.
CDC Philosophy
Our curriculum focuses on a child’s four primary developmental domains: cognitive, language, social-emotional, and physical. We emphasize first-hand experiences in play, oral language, listening, books, and phonemic awareness. Our facility is adjacent to the grounds of the nation’s largest county fair. This provides the unique opportunity to have amazing hands-on educational experiences — “from Apples to Zoo” — that cannot be taught in a classroom.
Our Comprehensive Approach to Child Development
Philosophy
We utilize research-based, best practices in all of our age groups. Taking into consideration research from brain research, literacy, and child development, our programs are well designed to help children develop to their fullest. Through guided play, fun, and well-designed learning activities, children will learn at their best pace. Our expert teachers design individualized learning activities to help children grow and learn to their potential. With our caring teachers and well-designed learning environment, children, develop confidence, competency, and skills to be successful in education and through their lifetime. We help children learn in the domains of social and emotional, language and literacy, cognitive and thinking, health and physical development.
Literacy-Based Curriculum
Our program provides a literacy-enriched environment where children develop a love of reading and language-based activities. Research demonstrates that when children are read to on a regular basis, they will be ready to be readers. Our children learn their letters and the sounds of the letters when they are in our Pre-Kindergarten classes and are ready to read by Kindergarten.
Fair Field Trips
During the month of May, the Los Angeles County Fair is right outside our back door. Our Toddler and Preschool classrooms design walking trips to some of our special learning exhibits, such as the Big Red Barn to see where milk comes from! This is a very special time for our children and families. We invite families to join us, allowing us to share the learning experience.
Conscious Discipline®
Within this program, children learn skills to build a sense of community (the School-Family) and to develop empathy and caring for others. The children learn to manage their emotions and deal effectively with conflicts. Research studies have found that when children learn pro-social behaviors early they are more likely to succeed later in life in areas such as health, education, career, and life-long relationships. And we know that all children deserve to have a successful life!
“We use a nationally known program to help children & adults develop social-emotional intelligence.”
It is the only program that integrates classroom management with social-emotional learning, utilizing everyday events as an opportunity to learn. The children are taught techniques to help manage their emotions, build trusting and caring relationships and to handle conflict in a constructive way.
Conscious Discipline® is a comprehensive social-emotional learning and classroom management program based on current brain research, child development knowledge, and best practices. Written and designed by Dr. Becky Bailey, a child psychologist, this program has gained national recognition as a model for character education for early childhood education and elementary education programs. For more information on this program go to consciousdiscipline.com or call Loving Guidance, Inc. at 1-800-842-2846.
Baby Signs®
Our center is a certified Baby Signs School, with our teachers specially trained to use simple sign language with our babies to help them learn to communicate, even before they can talk. We have found that our babies love learning to sign different things such as bottle, milk, and all done to communicate their needs and wishes. They also love to sign things such as bird, tree, and outside to express their enjoyment of our environment. We have found that our babies can begin learning simple signs as early as six months. As children begin to speak, their reliance on the signs diminishes. Some research indicates that children who learn sign language as a baby will develop expanded vocabularies.
Information for Parents and Guardians
Parent Engagement
We have many opportunities for parents to become involved at our center.
- Our Parent Advisory Committee consists of representatives from each classroom. The committee advises on issues such as events, teacher appreciation and recognition, and supporting the needs of the classrooms. All meetings are open to any enrolled parent.
- Parents are invited to help in the library. Our children’s library has over 5,000 books. We welcome families who can come and help with storing, repairing, and organizing books.
To get involved please email the CDC at cdc@fairplex.com
New Parents – CDC Enrollment
- We invite you to set up a tour of our school by calling 909-623-3899 or emailing us at cdc@fairplex.com.
- Upon seeing the school and based upon space available, your next step is registration, which requires some paperwork and payment of the registration fee.
- We will then make an appointment for you to visit with your classroom teacher. We ask that families set up at least two visits. These visits are for you and your child to become acquainted with our teachers, and for our teachers to become acquainted with your child. This visiting time helps to make a smooth transition from home to school.
Apply
We are currently accepting infant through preschool applications.
Fairplex is a nonprofit, 501(c)5 organization that leads a 500-acre campus proudly located in the City of Pomona. Fairplex exists in a public-private partnership with the County of Los Angeles and is home of the LA County Fair and more than 500 year-round events.
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