Day School Programs
Programs
St. Chrysostom’s Day School is an Episcopal preschool in its 51st year. We welcome children and families regardless of faith or race. The school enrolls children in 8 distinct programs ranging in ages from 8 months to 5 years of age. Each program offers a developmentally appropriate play-based curriculum that focuses on age appropriate social, emotional, and academic development. We offer small class sizes taught by well-trained early childhood educators. Our programs follow a traditional September to June school year.
St. Chrysostom’s Day School has eight programs that are geared to eight different age groups for children ranging in age from 8 months to 5 years old. The following is general information about these programs by age group. Our programs follow a traditional September to June school year.
Tuition assistance is available for all programs.
The rich curriculum is designed to be both developmentally appropriate and relevant to the lives and experiences of very young children.
Each program uses the Illinois Early Learning and Developmental Standards (IELDS) as a guide in creating the learning standards for each age group. The IELDS is a document that offers guidance and expectations for the children’s social and educational growth in the preschool through kindergarten years.
Parents and Tiny Tots
Child must be 8-14 months old by September of the year they enroll. This class takes place one day a week from 10:45-11:30am. The parent or caregiver remains in the classroom with the child and participates in class activities.
Meets: Monday or Friday | Time: 10:45-11:30am*
Tuition: $1,550
*Days and times listed reflect the offerings for the current academic year
Parents and Young Tots
Child must be 15-21 months old by September of the year they enroll. This class takes place one day a week from 10:30am-11:30am. The parent or caregiver remains in the classroom with the child and participates in class activities.
Meets: Wednesday or Thursday | Time: 11:00am-12:00pm
Tuition: $3,590
*Days and times listed reflect the offerings for the current academic year
Parents & Tots
Child must be 22-26 months old by September of the year they enroll. This class takes place one day a week from 9:00-10:15am. The parent or caregiver remains in the classroom with the child and participates in class activities.
Meets: Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday | Time: 9:00-10:15am
Tuition: $4,925
*Days and times listed reflect the offerings for the current academic year
2 Day Just Tots
Child must be turning 3 between January and June the year they are enrolled. This is a drop off class.
Days: Tuesday & Thursday | Time: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM*
Days: Monday & Wednesday | Time: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM*
Tuition: $6,150
*Days and times listed reflect the offerings for the current academic year.
Preschool
St. Chrysostom’s Day School (SCDS) offers a half or full day play-based preschool program to enhance the educational, social, and emotional development of our students. Children are divided into classrooms based on their birth dates. Every class consists of a lead and an assistant teacher, who work together as a team. Morning meetings are held in each classroom where students are able to greet one another, review the calendar, weather, and daily schedule before the classrooms come together for a one-hour free play. During this time, students have the opportunity to engage with one another and investigate the week’s theme through art, science, reading, building and dramatic play areas. Music, literacy and small group art projects are held daily in each classroom. All classes have an allotted physical education time as well as a time slot for our resource room for science and larger projects. Throughout the course of the year students also participate in on going book studies that carry over from week to week.
Child must be three years old by December 31st of the year they enroll. This class takes place five days a week and is from 8:30AM-11:30AM.
Tuition: $12,900
Extended Day Preschool
Preschool children who stay for the extended day program are served lunch and an afternoon snack. Full day students will have a rest/quiet period after lunch followed by organized art and science activities, free play, gym and circle time to end our day.
This class takes place five days a week 8:30AM -3:30PM. Parents may choose if they want their child to stay a certain number of extended days.
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Extended day 5 days a week: $21,000
Extended day 4 days a week: $19,475
Extended day 3 days a week: $17,800
Extended day 2 days a week: $16,125
Extended day 1 day a week: $14,450
Fours
St. Chrysostom’s Day School (SCDS) offers a half or full day play-based four’s program to continue the social, emotional and educational development of our students. Children in this program are divided into two classrooms, with a class size of 12. This program consists of weekly themes and has a focus on early literacy, uppercase letter recognition, gaining a strong sense of self and becoming more autonomous, recognizing yourself as part of a larger community and fostering cooperative play and positive decision making.
The students start their day in assigned centers and rotate through fine motor activities, cooperative play and theme-based manipulatives. Throughout the day each class has a designated physical education time as well as a music period in their classroom and a school provided snack. During free play students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with teachers on theme-based art projects as well as continue to build positive peer relationships and work on making independent constructive choices for cooperative play. The morning ends with a teacher led learning activity, focused either on the theme or letter of the week.
Children must be four years old by December 31st of the year they enroll. This class takes place five days a week from 8:30-11:30. A minimum of one year of preschool is preferred for this class.
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | Time: 8:30AM – 11:30AM
Tuition: $12,900
Full Day Fours
Children who stay for the full day program will be provided with lunch, quiet/rest time, and then the two Fours classes combine for gym and afternoon activities in the resource room and a circle time to end the day.
This class takes place five days a week from 8:30-3:30.
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | Time: 8:30AM – 3:30PM
Tuition: $21,150
Junior Kindergarten (full day)
St. Chrysostom’s Day School (SCDS) offers a full day Junior Kindergarten (JK) program for children who are four by September 1st of the current school year. The JK program works towards preparing the children for kindergarten and providing them with the tools and skills they need to succeed in Kindergarten and elementary school. There is a strong focus on literacy in the JK; encouraging pre-literacy skills set the foundation for future reading development. The students begin by studying the alphabet one letter at a time as a way of focusing on upper and lower case recognition and phonetic sounds. They study four great authors throughout the year and work on concepts of print, sequencing stories, journal writing and group story writing to further enhance their language and literacy skills. There is also a focus on mathematics, working on patterning, number recognition, skip counting and understanding basic addition and subtraction through everyday situations and dramatic play.
The JK uses a thematic approach in their curriculum, which often coincides with the fours and preschool and allows for whole school collaboration. Students begin each morning with free play or centers, which is a time where children can work on their social and emotional development, independent problem solving skills, and engage in imaginative play with their peers. There is a block of time each morning set aside for a learning activity, which is a time when students work on literacy or complete a theme-based art project. Throughout the day there are two snacks, a rest time, lunch, two gym periods, music, literacy blocks and a slot to use the resource room to explore science related activities.
Child must be turning 5 after September 1st of the year they enroll. This class takes place five days a week from 8:30-3:30. A minimum of one year of preschool is preferred.
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | Time: 8:30AM – 3:30PM
Tuition: $21,350