Preschool and Pre-K

Play-based, hands-on, and built on pre-K standards.

Two programs, one small building, and small, intimate classes in either room. Both are aligned to the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards.

A child's hands pressing into two bowls set in a tray of dried beans and chickpeas.

Preschool

Ages 3–4

Three and four year olds

First school for most of the children in the room. The year is built around settling in: learning that a classroom is a safe place, that a teacher will listen, and that other children are worth the trouble.

Large-group meetings, small-group centers, and one-to-one time with a teacher
Letters, numbers, and colors woven through play rather than drilled
Process art, sensory play, and daily time in the gross motor room

Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:15–11:45am · Tuition: $230 a month

A child sorting wooden numbers and colored shapes into the compartments of a wooden tray.

Pre-Kindergarten

Ages 4–5

Four and five year olds, kindergarten next fall

The bridge year. Same warmth, more stamina: longer projects, harder questions, and the independence a kindergarten classroom will expect in September.

Jolly Phonics, early writing, and number sense at each child's level
Practice at the unglamorous parts of school — lining up, listening, finishing
Progress checked three times a year, and shared with you plainly
Pre-K enrichment: a fourth day on Thursday, 9:15–11:45am, for Pre-K children only

Schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, either 9:15–11:45am or 12:45–3:15pm · Tuition: $230 a month, or $280 with Thursday enrichment

What gets taught

Six content areas, taught six ways at once.

Children here do not sit through a math lesson and then a science lesson. One activity — building a ramp, sorting leaves, telling a story — usually touches several of these at the same time.

Language arts
Mathematics
Science
Social studies
Social & emotional learning
Physical development

Inside the room

What a child is actually doing while they are here.

Every week moves between three shapes: the whole class together, small groups at exploratory centers, and a teacher sitting with one child. Children are stretched inside what they can manage — far enough to grow, not so far that school starts to feel like failing.

The goal is the benchmarks set by the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards, the precursor to the standards they will meet in kindergarten. The route there is guided play.

Guided play

A teacher sets up the invitation; the child decides what to do with it. Most of the real learning happens here.

Jolly Phonics

A sound-and-movement approach to letters that suits children who learn with their whole bodies.

Process art

The making matters more than the finished thing. Nobody's turkey has to look like the teacher's.

The gross motor room

A room of their own for running, climbing, and balancing — because three-year-olds cannot sit still that long, and should not have to.

Interactive whiteboard

Used in short, shared bursts as a group activity, not as screen time for one child at a time.

Three assessments a year

A quiet check on where each child is, so nobody coasts and nobody is pushed past their level.

Between school years

Camps at Little Shepherd.

Same teachers, same classrooms, new adventures, new friends.

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2026–2027 registration is open

Come see our classrooms for yourself.

Tours run Monday through Thursday, 9:00–10:00am or 3:00–4:00pm. Come and see for yourself how it actually goes.

Schedule a tour Enroll now