This parent tried out a local school with little success. We are SO happy to have them back at Bethany!

Our son attended Preschool at Bethany and quickly adapted to their warm environment with ease. He had an immediate connection with his teacher, peers, and the staff. Later in the year, he broke his arm and stayed home from school for several days. His Bethany friends sent him sweet cards and he desperately wanted to visit them. During a painful time for him, these visits were the brightest spot of his days! His Pre-K experience was such a wonderful time for him, in spite of his injury!

We bought our house specifically with a highly regarded District 203 elementary school in walking distance. In the fall, we started our son in Kindergarten and understood his early onset jitters with a new school, teacher, and curriculum. However, these jitters (ranging from simple tears to intense frustrations) progressively became his new "norm" well into the first half of the year. We worked closely with our son and the staff to better understand his feelings and attempt other support mechanisms. Ultimately, we didn't see significant improvements and our parental intuition truly felt he needed a different environment.

Thus, we reached back out to Bethany and were able to transfer him into their Kindergarten class. We braced for the impacts of a mid-year entry into a new classroom, especially considering his recent challenges and emotions. It was so peaceful! First and foremost, our son is happy - every.single.day! He quickly made new friends in a smaller class size. The staff happily embraced him and consciously communicated with us along the way. EVERYONE at BLS operates as a cohesive team who genuinely care about the educational success, emotional health, and spiritual growth of our children. We are beyond grateful and blessed to be back!!

School and Parents Partner Together

Bethany’s teachers & leadership provide a safe, nourishing, & healthy environment for children to learn to their fullest. Our child is getting a wonderful education in a wonderful environment. He is learning more than just a top notch education; he is developing strong morals & Christian values with partnership at home.

From a Kindergarten Mom, new to Bethany this year

Best school there is!! My daughter is going to Bethany’s for almost 1 year. I couldn’t imagine taking her to a different school. This is absolutely the best school there is. EVERYONE there is ALWAYS super nice! This is not just a school this is like family! My daughter went from half day Kindergarten to full day Kindergarten and will be going to first grade there in the fall. My daughter loves it there and I feel so good about this school as well. My daughter is in best hands possible there. And a huge plus is also that she learns about God and Jesus! I highly recommend this wonderful school!!! 

We are so thankful to have this family of four at Bethany.

We love Bethany’s small and loving environment. We love the fact that they learn cursive so my kids will be able to read letters my grandparents wrote to each other and our founding fathers' documents. I love the fact that kindergartens learn through play and are allowed to be children, also that they are really learning hands on and not just handed tablets to learn like the public school that I toured. Bethany is a very patriotic school which is important to us.  I toured another school recently just for the heck of it. I wanted to kiss Bethany after that experience! I felt like an alien. When she showed us the kindergarten with monster class sizes, I told her we are doing 1/2 day and she said, “that wouldn’t work”.  Bethany is such a warm environment putting the students first, not to mention how much nicer our facilities are.

Also, I hate common core and Bethany respects and encourages our children’s individual unique ideas and supports multiple ways of learning which is key to feeding the great American spirit of thinking outside the box and promoting entrepreneurial thinkers.

This student joined us in 5th grade. They've made a very smooth transition to Bethany. Check out their story!

When our family moved to Naperville from out-of-state, our assigned schools were rated 10 by Great Schools. My husband and I believed we were making a good decision by sending our child to the neighborhood elementary school.

The school calendar began, and his report cards were great. I noticed there was very little homework, though. When there was, he would just race through it: "to get it over with as fast as I can". With little exception, he didn't seem interested in what he was learning. 

He was crowded at his desk and said it was hard for him to get seated. He was being bullied on the bus, and he wasn't the only one. Hearing how his day went was literally breaking my heart. Towards the end of the year it was evident, through an email survey, that celebrating / re-naming Christian traditions was being addressed by the District. Our neighborhood school wasn't what we had hoped it would be, but what could we do?

We were told about Bethany and encouraged to explore it by another family. After meeting with the Admissions Director, Linda Fox, it was clear that this was a place that truly cared about its students, its Faith, and its families. It wasn't "just a school"; it was something much bigger than that.

We were very hesitant to introduce the idea of another school to our son. He had already been through a big move and he had made some friends. Linda was extremely helpful to my husband and I as we weighed our decision. She patiently answered all of our questions with knowledge and kindness.

Bethany staff, families & students gave us such an amazingly warm welcome. They made our hesitant child (& his nervous parents) feel at home, even before his first day! We had never before seen our son so excited about starting a new school year.

Recently, we had a school absence and he told me: "I hate being sick because I just love being there so much", and upon his  return: "There was a huge pile of work on my desk today. I really want to get it done." He has more homework now, and he loves to show me all the different things he is learning: "Hey, did you know this?", and "but...did you know that you can also do it this way?" If the contrast isn't enough to convince you that he loves Bethany, or how his perspective on learning has changed, this is his personal testimonial:

"It is WAY, way, WAY, way, WAY better than any other school I've been to. I actually get to learn about God, which is really fun. Annnndddd..... my classmates are kind, friendly, helpful, and they try to be fair. At recess we play all-class kickball & football. I'm better at playing those now because my classmates have been teaching me how to be better at them. Everything is better. Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. Reading is kind of fun! I love P.E., Band, Music and Chapel."

This wonderful family joined our school last year; the mom works in Naperville although they live quite far away. Here's their story:

       Both of my kids love Bethany! My husband and I enrolled my son thinking we would have him attend until he was old enough to ride the bus on his own to our public school, but he talks all the time about how he wants to graduate from Bethany! And our daughter told me the other day that she loves to go to Chapel :) 

    I think the teachers my kids have had so far have been incredible. I am amazed at all of the different programs offered at Bethany - chess club, Spanish during the school day, and even though my kids aren’t old enough for sports yet the athletics seem to be thriving. Also, the before and aftercare program is also such a convenience and so reasonable.

   Finding Bethany was a true answer to prayer. The year before my son started Kindergarten I was looking around at schools. I was sure that I was going to send him to a progressive ed school in another town. I had considered a few other options and that school seemed like the best one. We had done the visits and applied and he had been accepted, but there were just lots of things that kept coming up that made it not feel like the right fit. 

    But I was afraid that it was too late to find another option, and I was worried I wouldn’t find anything else. I knew we needed a private option since we were not going to use the district we live in, and I didn’t want to go the Catholic route because we are not Catholic. I was stressing about it one day in the car and it hit me like a ton of bricks- I said to myself “you haven’t even prayed about this! You have been stressing for months and you haven’t prayed- what is wrong with you??” I had been trying to think through everything and research everything and be super heady about it all, and I had totally forgot to pray about it- for months! 

    Of course, I then immediately went to God with my concerns, and the very next morning I had a thought pop into my head - see what options there are around where you work. I had been looking close to our home, but Jackson being close to me by my school made so much more sense. Then someone suggested I look for a Lutheran school. In my head I had this notion that Catholic schools were big and Lutheran schools were tiny, so I was skeptical at first, but when I saw the website for Bethany it looked like there was so much happening! Then on the tour/visit everything was so wonderful I knew it was the perfect fit and I was so thankful to God- all the pieces we needed were there. 

    It is amazing to me that such an incredible school happens to be 10 minutes from my work and I almost missed out on sending my kids to it. BLS has been such an enormous blessing!