We’re more than a school; we’re family!
About Us
Don't Settle
When it comes to your children, you want no compromises. There are things you can settle on, but childcare should not be one of those things. Since 1986, Grace Community School has been offering the best childhood education that money can buy, for less than the competition! We accept children from infants through age 11 (for after-school and summer camp), with full-day Pre-K and kindergarten programs.
The Place For Your Child
Our Story
In 1985, the McIntyre family moved to Naples, Florida. As a family of educators, we quickly saw that the families of Southwest Florida had unfulfilled needs. There were daycares, but none of these daycares had what kids needed to grow and thrive in all life areas. The care provided was mostly babysitting, with not much real education going on.
The childcare we found was overpriced. Working families needed help. The “stay-at-home” mom era was coming to an end. Due to economic strain, more and more households required both parents to work to meet ends meet (this is a trend that continues today). This meant an increasing demand for childcare services as more and more parents went to work.
Grace Community School was the answer to these demands for quality, affordable childcare. It would be different – rather than just babysitting and unstructured play, it was to be a genuine early learning academy. “Instead of daycare, why not school?” And it would be accessible to families, but not just as a “cheap daycare”. This would be a quality education meeting the needs of our children and working parents. By meeting these needs, Grace Community School would help more than just our families. We saw other concerning issues with America’s educational system. The national reading level was dropping, too. What could be done about this? There was a solution.
College Can Begin at Two
The answer to the reading crisis was phonics. Phonics – breaking the components of reading (like syllables, letters, and words) into sounds – has been recognized by leading educators as the best way to teach reading to children, but its adoption is controversial even today.
Teaching kids to read without phonics, as was being tried in so many schools, is very difficult, all but impossible with some kids. “Look say” and other forms of “reading readiness” was producing dyslexia and holding kids back. Since kids weren’t reading, people, even expert educators, were underestimating what children were capable of. People said young children couldn’t learn to read, and trying to teach them was even harmful.
We knew we could do it in a developmentally appropriate manner. Our breakthrough was finding a way to teach phonics to children in a fun, systematic way where kids progress at their own pace. The Grace Community School program did just that, and when we opened our first location in East Naples, Florida, in 1986, the rest was history. Kids loved coming to school and learning new things, playing with their friends, and spending time with their teachers, especially during Reading Circle time.
And these Reading Circles weren’t just for school-age kids. No, we at Grace Community School were thrilled to discover that we could teach kids as young as two years old to read – and by preschool, many were reading fluently. Thus, Our Preschoolers Can Read! By helping kids master reading and other fundamental academic skills at a young age, we build for success later in school and in life with quality education not just for the elite but for everyone. And all this academic goodness has a secret ingredient: fun!
Don't Forget the Fun
Learning shouldn’t be boring. We’ve found a way to make learning enjoyable. Rather than just rote memorization, we teach every lesson with fun games that go along with our weekly themes. In addition, classroom activities change every ten to fifteen minutes, so kids don’t get bored. (This also eliminates most discipline problems) Add to that our special dress-up days, art projects, songs, and stories, and you’ve got engaging lessons to maximize both entertainment and learning.
We want school to be a place kids love coming to. Grace Community School uses a system of positive reinforcement. Rewards, called badges, along with verbal praise, encourage our students to advance through their studies. Our philosophy of education is that learning should be fun and engaging.
We used the initial tag line “College Can Begin at Two” because the groundwork for reading and school success is best begun at a young age. Because our program allows kids to have fun while learning at their own pace, we could introduce simple phonics and math concepts to children as young as two years old. This continues today. We apply similar revolutionary early childhood education techniques to math, music, and all the child development domains.
These lessons, themes, games, and learning activities are the basis for the Grace Community School curriculum, College Can Begin at 2. Read more about the College Can Begin at 2 curriculum.
Going beyond scholarly pursuits, we recognize that physical education is essential for kids’ development. That’s why Grace Community School has the best childcare playgrounds in Southwest Florida, complete with clean and cushioned artificial turf. Daily outdoor playtimes, physical exercise times, and organized play allow lots of movement, motor development, and opportunities to get out the wiggles and burn off energy.
We Are the Whales of Grace Community
You might have noticed that we like whales! There’s a reason we chose a whale for our mascot (she’s called “Gracie the Whale,” and sometimes she visits us!). Look closely at our school shirts (“Whale Shirts”), van wraps, and other places, and you may see something. “Matt. 12:40”. This is the Bible verse where Jesus mentions the Jonah and the Whale story. Not just a cute story, this story symbolizes hope and the importance of grace, repentance, and redemption in a society.
his brings us to one more vital ingredient in the Grace Community School system: the moral foundation. We are a community of grace, a family, and we understand that our kids need a strong spiritual base for success in life. We provide moral instruction in the form of a daily fifteen-minute Bible Time twice a day to our students (including after school kids). Grace Community School is a non-denominational Christian school, but all are welcome to come. We believe Christian morals should be integral to life and early childhood education.
Our Promise to Our Families (That’s you!)
We’ve come a long way since 1986! We’ve continued to improve our programs and our mission to make uncompromising quality childcare available for everyone. Lastly, none of these fantastic programs will work without teachers and administrators who genuinely care. And so we have continuing in-service training for staff and directors so we can continue to get better.
Because you need reliability in a childcare provider, extended care is included, each week Monday through Friday, from 6:30 am to 6:00 pm and on many days even when public school is closed. We provide before and after school care, and summer camp, for kids up through age eleven.
We have various ways to help parents via our financial aid program, multi-child discounts, and referral program. We’ve partnered with Nicene Covenant Church to provide daycare scholarships because all the excellent education in the world won’t matter unless it is accessible. Childcare needs to be affordable.
All this, and a whole lot more: free registration, free breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks, free after-school transport from local public schools, twice-annual musical programs, and our parent engagement app. Isn’t all that free stuff wonderful? For that reason, we often hear, “That sounds too good to be true.” But you can see it for yourself! We invite you to call any of our beautiful facilities, or come in and visit. We’d love to give you a tour so you can see firsthand how Grace Community School can offer the ultimate in early childhood education for less money than competing daycares. Our promise to you is that we’re not going to stop. We look forward to serving you and your family!