Not sure your child is ready for Kindergarten?
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School Age Calendar Transportation
West Shore's school-age Program Director, Annette Bristol, was awarded 'School-age Child Care Provider of the Year' by the Cleveland chapter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. We are proud to offer home work time, a theme based curriculum with structured activities in support of skill development that alternates with free play.
Our School Age Department serves children who are in kindergarten through fifth grade, either before or after school or both. Children may attend three, four or five days per week (see Fees). Full-day care is provided during school holidays (except for six employee holidays - see calendar) for an additional fee. Our teacher to child ratios are 15 children to each of three teachers.
We have three beautiful rooms built for the school age program.
They are the first
rooms inside the center's key-coded entrance. Large windows surround the
children as they play with others close in age. The kindergarteners
and PreschoolPlus children are together, the 1st and 2nd graders are
together, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders are in the third room. Each room
has one or two computers, lots of toys, books, and games. Their is a
gymnasium named Baker Hall that houses a foosball table and other play
equipment. Our playground is
right outside Baker Hall.
The afternoon is a balance between theme-based teacher-directed and child-initiated play, presenting children with age-appropriate choices. Play in this department involves building with blocks, legos, large muscle play outdoors or in the gym, a doll house or castle and knights, reenacting events and people in history, writing and performing in class dramas, developing photographs in the sun, and a myriad of other learning adventures at different levels of difficulty appropriate to the children's ages.
Rocky River school buses take children to school and will bring them back to West Shore after school. Parents of children outside of Rocky River must make their own arrangements for transportation to and from West Shore and school. Parents who are residents of Rocky River and work early morning hours may drop off their children as early as 6:30 a.m.
Highlights of After School
 | Before and after school care available |
| At least one snack at no additional charge |
| Award-winning, adult staff |
| Low child-staff ratio |
| All-day care, including lunch and two snacks, during school holidays for small additional fee |
| Parent events highlighting the children's study |
How we play...
| An Egyptian Fair, children in costume with games, displays, food and a 'museum' for parents |
| An Invention Convention for children's own inventions plus highlights of other famous inventors |
| An Elizabethan Fair or Medieval Fair, children in costumes and parent participation as possible |
| A play or musical presented for parents, based upon an original story |
| Kick ball, softball outdoors or foosball in our gym |
| Computer programs such as the 'Roller Coaster Tycoon', 'Backyard Football and Baseball', the 'Jump Start' series K-4th grade, The Oregon and Amazon Trail programs, 'I Spy', the World Book Encyclopedia and more |
| Building elaborate structures out of wooden blocks, Legos©, Lincoln Logs©, Knex© |
| Elect a 'congress' and enact laws to govern each other |
| Occasional field trips to Science Center, Museums, Cleveland Zoo |