To commemorate our tenth year of operation in Edgewater, we are launching our “Hand-in-Hand:  FTCNS 10th Anniversay Online Auction" from November 23 - December 6, 2009. 

In 1999, a small group of committed parents moved FTCNS from its birthplace in Evanston to our current location.  They faced almost insurmountable financial difficulties, yet found a way to make their vision of a truly cooperative, economically accessible, play-based nursery school a reality.  

A peek into our classrooms will reveal children loving school as they learn key social and academic skills through play, experienced and passionate teachers facilitating this play through truly emergent curriculum, and parent classroom assistants supporting both children and teachers.  The magic of the FTCNS classroom would not be possible without the inspired work of our many volunteer parent committees (handling everything from website design to weekly recycling!), staff, and our unique team of co-directors.

 While we have grown in size, we still face some of the same challenges our founders encountered ten years ago.  We are the only cooperative nursery school in the Chicago area that provides sliding scale tuition, making our high quality, play-based education affordable for an economically diverse population.  Our ability to continue to maintain our sliding scale relies solely on our wonderful parents and supporters – we receive no public funding.