Children & Youth

St. Stephen's Preschool

The Preschool | New Preschool Cookbook | Summer Program

In operation since 1971, St. Stephen's Preschool offers a variety of weekday programs for children from 12 months to five years old. The mission of St. Stephen's Preschool is to provide a safe, nurturing, educationally rich environment in which young children can explore and construct their own learning within clearly established guidelines.

St. Stephen's Preschool is founded on the following principles:

1. Young children need a secure and loving environment for emotional and social growth. Therefore, rules and expectations are clear and teachers provide models of mutual respect and affection.
2. Young children grow and develop best intellectually when they can structure their own learning. Therefore, they are free to choose from a wide range of developmentally appropriate manipulative activities to explore, are encouraged to ask their own questions, and are given opportunities to seek their own answers in an enriched, carefully planned environment.
3. To create our unique program, we have selected what we believe to be the best from Montessori and Piaget, and have incorporated these ideas into a traditional, play-centered nursery school setting.

Today nearly 50 percent of the children in St. Stephen's Preschool are children of parishioners. As a mission of the church, it is the policy of St. Stephen's Preschool to give a first preference for enrollment to parishioners of St. Stephen's Church and siblings of children in the program, then to the children of the community.

If you would like to learn more about our programs or schedule a time to visit St. Stephen's Preschool with your child, please contact Marion Chenault, Director of St. Stephen's Preschool, at 288-6401.

St. Stephen's Preschool Cookbook

St. Stephen's Preschool Cookbook has arrived and is available for purchase ($15 per copy)

We've collected 150 well-loved recipes from a wide array of people with connections to the school, past and present, and compiled them into an attractive keepsake cookbook. All proceeds will go to St Stephen’s Preschool. For more information, call Renita Sommers at 363-7712.

Preschool Summer Camp

For those children three and a half to five “plus” years old, St. Stephen’s Preschool hosts a two week summer camp program.  Beginning Monday, June 2 and running through Thursday, June 13, the camp for our older campers runs from nine to twelve daily, Monday through Thursday, for two weeks. You can download and print more information about this camp, as well as a registration form.

For those children who have been in the Toddler Morning Out classes and those new to St. Stephen’s Toddler program in the fall, there is a two-day, three-week camp beginning June 5 and ending June 20.  This Thursday-Friday camp acclimates children who have never been in St. Stephen's Toddler program to the routine, teachers and fun of the Toddler classes.  Cindy Rhodes and Patty McDonnell will lead this program.

Those who have already been in the Toddler classes have the opportunity for a three-day, three-week camp program beginning June 2 and ending June 18 with Cindy and Patty.

To see the letter about the Toddler camps, click here; for a registration form, click here.