Waldorf Early Childhood Education

thisgardenofgrace

🌈 Waldorf Early Childhood in the home 🏡 Discovering Steiner-Waldorf for me has been a life changing experience. From the moment I scrolled through those dreamy images of the Kindergartens around the world, with their soft pink walls, as alive and ethereal as the pink clouds at sunset, the wooden tables and chairs, polished and enriched by hands of the generations of children who had gathered for mealtimes and and snack times in friendship and song. The womb like spaces filled with natural toys and playthings, spaces which cradled children’s bodies, minds and souls as they grew and developed. These spaces had my heart. As I began to delve more into the work of Rudolf Steiner, of Anthroposophy and of his vision, of a society which was rich in tradition and reverence, in appreciation for the human being, for the natural world for the rhythms of the nature, I found a man who was trying to provide solutions for the epidemic of modernity that was changing the world so quickly in the early part of the 20th Century trying so desperately to bind together human beings and societies who were divided by war, by science, by faith. Health Care, Social Care, Banking, Education, Medicine, Agriculture just a few of the areas his work informed and touched - which has had a lasting impact on the world today. I loved this approach and it greatly began to inform my thinking on what education could be as part of a world working together to a common goal. Waldorf education educates the children in love and reverence, through the head heart and hands, and the simplest way I can describe it as a whole is it aligns itself with the life of the child, the whole child, outer and inner. It does not impose on the child but allows itself to relate to them, to become a tool for growth, a catalyst for learning, an ode to their time, their generation. Early Childhood however, Steiner never intended to be in a school environment - and we have developed kindergartens through society’s need for wrap around care. Indeed I only have a playroom because I was set to open a home based kindergarten until the pandemic hit. If you are in the midst of or are embarking on a journey in Waldorf education be rest assured it is one of the most beautiful ways of allowing your child to live in their youth.