Child’s Play

Frustrated by their inability to find high-quality, low-cost care for their preschool youngsters, parents at Temple B’nai Abraham, in Decatur, Ill., banded together 35 years ago to create their own program. Today, the Cooperative Nursery School is still operating, offering half-day programs to 38 3- and 4-year-olds.

The school is a parent cooperative: Parents run the board, buy the equipment, raise money, and take turns helping out in the classroom a few days each month. Geri Sherman, who serves as director and teacher, plans the programs, leads the classes, and provides guidelines to parents on how best to teach children.

The Cooperative Nursery School, which has a secular curriculum, rents classroom space from Temple B’nai Abraham. The school gets the bulk of its roughly $30,000 annual budget from fees for each child. The rest, about $3,000, comes from special fund-raising events, such as a golf tournament.

A hallmark of the school is its “special days” program, which helps the children learn new words and skills, as well as preparing them for challenges, such as travel to unfamiliar places. “Our philosophy is learning through play,” says Ms. Sherman. “They’re building vocabulary and learning about situations in which they may feel powerless.”

On Dinosaur Day, children learn techniques for excavating bones and fossils, while on Doll Hospital Day students get to see firsthand how a stethoscope works. Here, Wrazsanae Porter prepares to operate on a patient.