The Joy of Learning Academy
Mendoza FCC Preschool
License # 198009477
Parent Handbook
2016 - 2017
2517 BATSON AVE.
ROWLAND HEIGHTS CA 91748
(626) 965-4956
(626) 244-5948 cell
e-mail: [email protected]
Website: Thejoyoflearningacademy.com
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Dear Parents:
My family, assistants and I would like to welcome you and your child to The Joy of Learning, also
known as Mendoza’s Family Day Care. It is a privilege for us that you chose us for the education and
care of your child.
Teaching and taking care of children has been my passion and profession by choice for the past 19
years. Watching children learn, develop and grow has been a rewarding experience and constant joy
for us. We respect each child and we endeavor to help each one recognize his or her own worth and
help them grow to meet his or her potential. As a team we work every day looking for new ways to
improve and promote educational, fun and respectful atmosphere to provide a quality preschool as well
as an enrichment program with extra curriculum activities for your young and school age children. I
hope that our parent handbook could give you a better understanding about our program. I personally
thank you for your trust and I know that your child’s time with us will be exciting and supportive for
your whole family.
Sincerely,
Claudia Guzman
Teacher/Director
MISSION STATEMENT
The Joy of Learning Academy - Mendoza Family Day Care plants a seed for tomorrow greatness by
enriching children’s lives emotionally, socially, mentally and physically engaging parents and the
community for the best interest of the child.
PHILOSOPHY
We believe that every child in unique and that he or she learns at his or her own paste. Children learn
best through play, experiences, modeling and repetition. We believe that parents, teachers and
community could make a difference in a child’s life. Therefore as facilitators and partner of the
families we serve and the community we will provide quality interaction, stimulating activities,
meaningful experiences as a means of creating and nurturing a lifelong love of learning that our
children deserve.
HISTORY
The Joy of Learning Academy was established on May 1996 to help families that need reliable
childcare. We were located on Mescal Street in the city of Rowland Heights. The idea to open a Day
Care arose from observing friends and family struggling to find reliable and trustworthy childcare. As
we observed children enrolled in our day care growing form small babies to active toddlers we
expanded our program to include many stimulating activities to encourage learning. The Director
attended Mt. San Antonio College where she acquired skills to work with children more efficiently.
She is a fully qualify Teacher and Site Supervisor for both Title 5 and Title 22. She obtained her
Teacher’s credential in 2001 and Site Supervisor permit and A.A. in Child Development in 2003.
As time went by the director got married and became a mother herself. She and her husband purchased
a home in the area just in front of Rowland Elementary and moved to a new location located running
the day care, preschool and before and after-school program for about 5 years. During this time in
March of 2001 we were invited by California Association for the Education of Young Children
(CEYC) and become an Accredited Family Day Care in 2004. In June 2005 we became part of the Los
Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) (See Page 7 for more information) becoming one of the 10
pioneers in my area. We also participate in the California Mentor Program where child development
students of different community colleges such as Mt. San Antonio College, Pasadena College and
Hacienda La Puente Adult Education are able to choose our site to do their field work enriching our
program in many areas.
The director and assistants continue to attend workshops regularly. With this educational background
and sixteen years of experience The Joy of Learning Academy has become and important link between
home and school for young children as well as an enrichment program for our school age children. We
work every day to meet our children and families needs and getting involved in our community for the
benefit of our families.
Last but not least in 2009 The Joy of Learning moved to our new location and the director and her
husband built allocating again a large are for our family day care. We choose to continue to operate in
a home environment rather than to become a Day Care Center. We believe small children need a home
environment during their early lives. Our society already asks children to sacrifice their safety from
home and we like to offer them a family experience where they can continue to grow emotionally while
preparing for the future. So even though it may make more financial sense to some people to grow into
the next step and become a Day Care Center. We will continue nurturing one child at a time continuing
our mission of planting a seed for tomorrow’s greatness.
CURRICULUM
The Joy of Learning Academy incorporates several essential factors to ensure the quality of our
program. We use the Creative Curriculum that is a research base curriculum in combination with the
Comprehensive Curriculum.
Our curriculum:

Is based on child development and early child education where children learn through play and
hands on activities.
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It is comprehensive and addresses children’s individual and developmental needs in the areas of
physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development.
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Integrates language and literacy development, numbers, science, social studies, and arts.
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It program foster solving, inquiry, discovery and creativity.
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It is responsive to the cultural and language needs of families and children, and addresses
children disabilities and other special needs.

It provides an ongoing process of collecting information from multiple sources about the child’s
need, which may include observation, portfolio, assessment to determine the child’s
development in order to plan his/her education of services.
PARENT PARTICIPATION
We feel that parent participation could ensure a strong foundation for your child’s educational success
in the future. Parents are encouraged to participate in their child’s educational experience by daily
communication, volunteering their time, taking some work home, keeping a reading log and you will
have many other opportunities through the year where we will be happy see you involved. We will
also have a parent conference twice school year to discuss information about your child’s progress.
Your concerns and comments are welcome at any time. (Please refer to our parent, staff and volunteer
handbook for more information)
Experience:
20 Years running a Family Day Care
11 Years operating a Preschool program
11 Years a Mentor Teacher
Achievements:
2003 Family and Consumers Award Mt SAC
2009 LA County Teacher of the Year
2010 LA County Teacher of the Year Selection Panel Judge
2010 Mt San Antonio College Educational Panelist for Education Career and College Forum
2011 HLPAE Heroes Award Recipients
2012 Panelist of Student Entrepreneur Event “What’s Your Big Idea” at Mt San Antonio College.
2010 – To present Invited by LAUP and Channel 34 Univision – Educational Segments in the Morning News.
2012 Panelist of the “Let’s Move” Child Care by CDC in the 2012 NAFCC Pre- Conference in Atlanta, GA
TV Interview in the Educate segments of Univision and education ideas during summer.
Channel 52 Telemundo interviews.
EDUCATION
Teacher / Director
Child Development Site Supervisor and Child Development Teacher Permit
A.A. and A.S. in Business Management and Child Development
Working in Master’s Degree in Child Development (expected to receive in 2017)
Fully qualify teacher for both title 22 and title 5
Pediatric First Aid and CPR
Mentor Teacher (California Early Childhood Mentor Program)
Professionalism:
We are partners with the Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) participating in the Quality Start Los
Angeles (QSLA) program, member of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), Mentor
teacher for the California Mentor Program.
PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
The program will operate from September through June, and will consist of 3 Hrs. per day of Preschool education 5 days a week.
Preschool Schedule: Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Our program encourage children to learn through their play while addressing children developmental
needs in the areas of physical, social, emotional, cognitive of language development.
Our curriculum reflects the children interest, culture, and abilities while enhancing the child’s esteem
and building respect for others and the world around them.
Our program use learning centers to provide children with material where learning is child’s initiated.
Hands-on learning and problem solving experiences are available to enhance the child’s ability to
question and discover.
Children learn to problem solve, and model the world they see. Our curriculum also incorporates
family involvement, which we believe is the key for your child success.
CHILD’S ELIGIBILITY
Acceptable documentation needed for enrollment are:
* Birth Certificate
* Immunization Records up to date
PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
SCHEDULE AND TUITION FEES
Preschool Child Age: 2 1/2 to 5 years old
Schedule
Weekly / Monthly
Investment fee
5 days
AM Pre-school
3 to 5yrs. old
8:30 to 11:30am
$375 / $90
Extended
preschool
8:30am to
2:30pm
$140
Monthly/ Weekly
Investment fee
3 days
$250 / 60
$227 /55
$100
Monthly/Weekly
Investment fee
2 days
$187 / $45
$70
Our high quality preschool offers flexible schedules at affordable rates below the
market rate. Class is limited to only 12 students with 2 adults allowing quality teacher-child
interactions. *Please see Parent Handbook for more information about our research base pre-K
curriculum.
Before and after preschool available at a discounted rate.
Financial aid may be available if you qualify.
Registration:
Early Registration:
Child Discount
T-Shirt Fee
Meals
$100
$ 50 paid by June 15, 2016 (Non refundable)
10% discount to the sibling tuition.
$ 12
We provide breakfast, hot homemade meals, and snacks at no
additional cost.
*Transaction fee of $3 applies to weekly fees.
A late fee of $5.00 per day will be applied after the 3rd school day of the month. Please pay on time to
avoid any late fees.
Early or Late fees: A $5.00 fee will be applied for every 10 minutes before and after preschool. That is
anytime period that exceeds child’s normal arrival and pick-up time, we encourage our families to drop
and pick up their children on time to avoid any late fees. However we understand that emergencies
may occur of you might need care service for you convenience your may arrange child care time at our
hourly rates if needed and arrange ahead of time.
Late fees do apply if you call us when is pickup time.
ILLNESS POLICY
It is required that the parent will not bring his or her child if he/she has a temperature or has a
contagious illness. Children who are mildly ill with conditions that do not require exclusion will be
accepted for care. Children who become ill with excludable symptoms will be cared for away from
others until the child is picked up. Special care plans will be followed.
Purpose:

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

To ensure every child a healthy, safe and supportive experience.
To protect the health of everyone in the group.
To assist in meeting all the children’s needs.
To protect the rights of each family and child.
Administering medication:
The law allows any person to assist in carrying out a physician’s recommendation. This is a service or
accommodation that the Day care is not legally required to perform. It is understood that Mendoza
Family Day Care is not legally obligated to administer medication to your child. However, we offer this
service to help parents. Medication will be administered by director only. Parents must fill the
authorization forms needed.
Parents must bring the medication to school in the original containers from the pharmacist properly
labeled. Over the counter medications cannot be without given written authorization form.
Procedure:
1. A child may be excluded from attendance at our day care for any of the following reasons:
An illness prevents the child from comfortably participating in activities.
An illness requires more attention than the caregiver is able to provide without compromising the
health and safety of other children.
The symptoms of illness are any of those specified in the Appendix on Inclusion/Exclusion
Guidelines.
2. Some health conditions do not automatically exclude a child. They include:
Conditions other than those listed on the “Inclusion/Exclusion Guidelines” or those identified by their
physician as cause for exclusion.
CMV or HIV infection or Hepatitis B virus carrier state Pink eye without yellow or green drainage.
Rash without temperature or behavior changes.
Non-contagious conditions such as chronic medical conditions or disabilities.
Runny nose if the child is feeling good.
The Joy of Learning Academy keeps its rights to take the final decision to exclude a child from
care.
Emergencies
The Joy of Learning Academy will notify the parents promptly in case of illness or an accident to the
child. Parents are responsible to give prompt notice of change of address, telephone number or work
number.
PERSON AUTORIZED TO PICK UP CHILD
All children need to be signed in and out on the sheets provided with the time of the day and full
signature of the adult. The Joy of Learning Academy will not release the child from the facility to
anyone who is not authorized to take the child unless there is written or verbal permission from the
parent or guardian. If we don’t know the authorize person we will required them shown a picture I.D.,
the first time they pick up the child for your child’s safety.
Meals:
The Joy of Learning Academy cares about the health and growth of the child. We participate in the
Child Care Food Program. Through this program we are reimbursed for only some of the cost of the
nutritious meals we provide.
During 20 years we had been serving our nutritious lunches that include fresh fruits, fresh vegetable
and lean meats. We never use frozen food. Teaching by modeling, manners, healthy habits and
acceptance are values we teach and reinforce in our daily life.
We provide breakfast, a nutritious homemade lunch and a healthy afternoon snack. Please do not bring
any gum, candy or excessive amounts of sweets. Parents are welcome to bring a birthday cake or treat
on their child’s birthday. Please let us know in advance so we can plan a special day.
Grace:
The Joy of Learning Academy respects the diversity in religions and takes a non-denominational
approach to saying grace before lunch.
During lunch time we sing and said the following grace:
With the hands we go…Open, shut them, open, shut them give yourself a clap, clap, clap, open, shut
them, open, shut them put them in your lap, lap, lap. Creep them crawl them, creep crawl them up, up
to you chin, chin, chin. Put your hands like this: “Thank you Lord for the food, for my mom, dad, our
families and friends. Amen”
Freedom of religion base on our individual beliefs is one of the greatest gift we have living in the
United States of America. Our home has Christian beliefs, faith and values, virtues of honesty,
compassion, generosity, kindness, faithfulness, respect and trust. We want to encourage the importance
of being a good person and have no affiliation with a church. Although you may see display of bible
verses or decorations, no religion is instructed during our preschool program. We encourage families to
familiarize the children with their own beliefs, customs and ceremonies.
Guidance and Discipline
The Joy of Learning Academy guide and discipline children with love, help them learn, grow, and to
keep them from hurting themselves. We let our children know that we love them and we want them to
be happy, responsible and caring. We encourage and praise good behavior by using positive language
such us telling them what they should do instead of what they should not do.
Our daily Routine is designed to assist children what to expect and avoid misbehavior. Our activities
are planned to give children choices and to expect what is happening to make transition smooth and
less stressful for them.
Here are some examples of the discipline according to their age and according to what they did. Some
ways of the discipline we use are:
Fix Up:
Ex. 1 – When child hurts someone we ask and listen to their feelings. We encourage Children to use
their words and express their feelings. We ask child who hurts assist in the process of calming and
taking care of victim.
Ex. 2 – A child breaks a toy. We ask the child to assist us fixing it.
Redirection: When children use thing improperly, we stop them. We explain them why we are
stopping them and encourage using things properly or suggesting another activity or area. They may
also lose some privileges.
We will not permit children to use profane or any inappropriate language.
The Joy of Learning Academy keep is right to terminate service to a parent when are not able to
meet with their child needs.
AM Preschool Daily Routine
8:30am
8:45
Welcome and job assignment and washing hands
8:45
9:00
Breakfast and planning time
9:00
9:45
Children’s free choice play (Child initiated activities)
9:45
10:20
Outside play
10:20
10:35
Circle time (Music and Movement / Story)
10:35
10:55
Work Time
(Developing fine motor skills, prewriting activities, eye coordination, arts and crafts, etc.)
Academics twice a week
11:05
11:10
Lunch preparation and washing hands
11:10
11:30
Lunch Time (Nutritious homemade meals)
11:30
Departure
Weekly Routine for Circle Time and Work Time
Circle Time
Work Time
Monday
Theme of the week
Teacher directed activity
Fine / Gross motor skills
Tuesday
Letter of the week
Academics
Wednesday
Theme of the week
Art / Fine motor skills
Thursday
Number of sound of the week
Academics
Friday
Sharing items that begin with the letter of the week
Making the letter of the week
Please refer to the Calendar of the Month posted outside for weekly themes and details.
*Schedule may vary to fit each and every child need.
The Joy of Learning Academy
Mendoza FCC Preschool
License # 198009477
2517 Batson Ave., Rowland Heights CA 91748
(626) 965-4956 cell (626) 244-5948
Preschool Agreement
1. It is required that parents pay Enrollment Fee and one week/month deposit in advance to start. Thereafter,
tuition must be paid on Fridays for the following week/month.
2. Preschool is provided to _____________________________during the hours of ______to ______.
3. Preschool is provided ______days a week. There is no refund for partial absences
4. Parents must notify the provider by 7:30 am if the child will be absent for the day.
5. The parent is required to give the provider two (2) notice if the Preschool were to be terminated. If no notice is
given it is required that the parent pay half (1/2) the tuition for the following week due. The deposit may be
applied to the last week of class.
6. Parent will give prompt notice of change address, telephone number or work number.
7. It is required that the parent will not bring the child is he/she has a temperature or has a contagious illness.
(Please refer to the Parent Handbook)
8. The parent must notify two (2) weeks in advance in the event of vacation when the child will be absent and to
pay half (1/2) tuition. If no notice is given to the provider the parent will be required to pay the full tuition
due.
9. The Joy of Learning Academy is closed on paid holidays: 4th of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving
Day and day after, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year Eve and New Year Day, Presidents Day and
Memorial Day. (Please refer to the Parent Handbook)
10. The Joy of Learning Academy is closed 2 entire weeks for winter break and one week on spring break
vacation, half (1/2) tuition will be due.
11. Before and after preschool can be arranged if needed for an additional discounted rate and upon availability.
12. There will be a $25.00 fee for any returned check.
I, _______________________agree to pay $____________ per week for Preschool. I also agree to pay $5.00 for
each 10 (ten) minutes I am late picking up my child. I agree to abide by the above rules and regulations of
provider.
Parent/ Legal Guardian
_______________
Date