We believe children learn by living — not by being taught.
At Spring, that faith shapes everything: a Reggio-inspired environment where Mandarin is the living language of inquiry, where children's questions drive the curriculum, and where learning happens through direct encounter with the real world — outdoors, through materials, and across the languages children are building inside themselves.
The Child, the Environment,
and the Hundred Languages
At Spring, we treat every child as a capable thinker whose curiosity is worth following.
Guided by the Reggio approach, we build an environment where Mandarin is the medium — not the subject — where children's questions shape the day, and where STEAM thinking emerges naturally through projects, materials, and direct encounter with the real world. Immersion works because language is absorbed through daily life — the songs, the conversations, the stories, and the routines that make up every morning at Spring.
"The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking."— Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach
How Reggio Emilia Lives at Spring
Reggio Emilia is not a curriculum you follow — it is a stance you take toward children. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Every Child as a Thinker
We start with observation, not instruction. We watch what each child notices, what questions they carry, and what they return to again and again. Then we build from there.
In practice: A question one child brought in on a Monday can shape the group's work for two weeks. We write down what they say while they work, and read it back to them. The child as co-constructor of knowledgeThe Third Teacher
Our space is intentionally designed — natural light, open-ended materials, and areas that shift with the children's projects — to provoke thought, invite exploration, and reflect the children's work.
In practice: the materials on the low shelves change when the children's questions change. What is on the walls at their eye height is their own work, not decoration bought for them. Space as the third teacherLearning as a Shared Story
Documentation at Spring is not a report — it is an invitation. Photos, recorded dialogues, and displayed projects open a window into your child's inner process, turning learning into an ongoing conversation between school and home.
In practice: photographs, the children's own words written down as they say them, and their work posted where you can see it at pickup — shared through Brightwheel the same day. Families as partners, not observersWhat Families
Ask Us Most
The full policy is in the Parent Handbook, and we would rather talk it through on a tour.
How do the first weeks work?
Before day one, a Welcome Meeting: routines, feeding, comfort habits. Then a gradual start — Day 1 a short visit with pickup before lunch, Days 2–5 extended at your child's pace, full days after that. Teachers adjust as they observe. Children settle on very different timetables.
A comfort item stays in the cubby and comes out at rest time. Through those weeks we tell you how the day actually went — including the ten minutes after you left.
My child no longer naps — or naps here and won't sleep at night. Can rest time be adjusted?
California licensing protects a child's right to rest: we may neither keep a sleeping child awake nor make a child who isn't tired lie still.
Rest runs about 1:00–3:00 PM. A child still awake after 20–30 minutes is offered books, puzzles, or drawing in the rest space. What we can give you is accurate information — how long, and when they woke — so you can shape the evening at home.
My child is bitten, or two children collide. What happens?
We go to the child who was hurt first — comfort, first aid, and word to you promptly if a bite breaks the skin. Then to the other child, calmly: what happened, what it did, what to do instead. No shaming, no labels.
Both families hear from us the same day, with documentation, and neither child is named — in either direction. The 1:4 ratio is what lets us read patterns and step in early; it reduces the risk without eliminating it. Biting is developmentally typical between 18 months and 2.5 years.
My child has a food allergy, or there are foods we'd rather not have served.
Allergies and dietary needs go in writing before the first day, and are updated in writing whenever they change. Photographic allergy lists are posted in every space, and caregivers are trained in allergy response and EpiPen administration.
Menus balance nutrition, safety, and every allergy and requirement in the current group. The week's menu reaches you in advance. If a day doesn't work for your family, tell us and we will look at it; where we cannot accommodate it, you are welcome to send food from home.
Cooked fresh on site each day. Organic where it is available — Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, local farms — and built around what is in season.
My child isn't talking much yet. How will you help?
A small group means more turns, which is the condition language needs.
We narrate what is happening as it happens, name what your child reaches for, give the word and then wait long enough for them to try it. Gestures and signs count as communication: we answer them, and pair them with the word. Songs, rhymes, and stories run through every day. The highest-value words come first — help, more, mine, my turn, stop.
We write down what your child actually says, and share it. We do not diagnose and we do not label; if you pursue an evaluation, our written observations go with you.
How does Spring prepare a child for kindergarten?
Projects that grow longer and more collaborative; structured Mandarin including character recognition and storytelling; STEAM investigations; early numeracy and pre-literacy. No worksheets, no drills.
What is being built is what a kindergarten asks for on the first morning: sustained attention, carrying an idea across several days, solving something with another child, self-regulation, asking an adult for help. Instruction here is in Mandarin — if your family has a specific expectation about English literacy before kindergarten, raise it at the tour.
How do I know we have a Founding Family place?
In writing. Status is confirmed on receipt of a signed Admission Agreement — first eight enrolled families, non-transferable, for the enrolled child only.
The $100 registration fee is waived, and your child begins with a three-week trial: nothing is due before the start. At fifteen business days you decide — continue, and the deposit and first month follow within three business days; or stop, and nothing is owed. It is not a tuition discount.
Safe, licensed, and accountable.
Spring is a state-licensed family child care home. Here is the groundwork that keeps your child safe every day.
State-licensed family child care home (DSS #013424115), and we carry liability insurance covering the operation of our home.
Our caregivers hold current CPR and First Aid certification.
Every caregiver is a mandated reporter under California law (CANRA).
Written fire, earthquake, and evacuation plans, with drills at least twice a year.
Staff trained in allergy response and EpiPen administration; photographic allergy lists in every room.
DSS-licensed and subject to unannounced inspections; our license is publicly viewable on the California CCLD site.