Down to Earth Garden Club

I need some suggestions on which would be best for shade trees to plant in front of my house. I would like them to grow no more than 25 feet in height, smaller leaves.

I'm no expert on trees and it would depend on where you are. Here in North-Western PA, where we garden, flowering crabs would meet your criteria. Also some of the Japanese maples don't go much over 25 feet although we are marginal zone wise and they do like a little shade themselves. The size of the leaf depends on the variety.  American mountain ash (Sorbus americana) is good and hardy and grows to about 25 feet. You might also look into one of the more popular flowering cherries Kwanzan Flowering Cherry (Prunus serrulata "Kwanzan), .
 If you are looking for a "street tree" the state of PA highly recommends the Bradford Pear or its less brittle cousin, the Cleveland pear.