Students join us on Thursdays from 9am to 2pm for a Waldorf-inspired schedule that includes circle time, music, gardening, imaginative play and nature play, arts and crafts, yoga, language arts, pre-literacy and pre-math skills, snack and lunch time.  This is a time for students to come together in a safe, gentle, and loving environment to play with friends, learn through play and exploration, and become familiar with an environment away from mom and dad.  There is a rhythm to our school days that is soothing and fun for the students. 

Thursdays and Fridays will follow a similar rhythm, but activities will be different since many of our students attend on both days.

Our homeschool families use a wide variety of curriculum at home, and our day school programs can be used as purely enrichment days or as an integrated part of your home curriculum.

Our Pre-School curriculum is Waldorf-based and developmentally appropriate.  We believe a play-based environment is most beneficial for this age.  Our activities are centered around imaginative play, arts and crafts, nature play and exploration, and rich literature and stories.  Pre-literacy and pre-math skills are infused into many of our activities.  It is important to note that we do not teach formal reading, including letter recognition, until First Grade.  You have the freedom to do what you like at home, however. 

Our curriculum is centered on the following research, and we think these articles will also be beneficial to families at home:

• "Improving Children’s Health through Play:  Exploring Issues and Recommendations" By Joan Almon, A Collaboration between Alliance for Childhood and US Play Coalition.

• Resources on play from NAEYC

• From the Online Waldorf Library, "Why Children Need to Play in School."

Our Daily Rhythm:

Imaginative play indoors and outdoors.  Please be sure to dress appropriately.

During Circle Time the teacher will lead the class through fun movement games, songs, and poetry recitation.

Language Arts lessons will be based on fairy tales and other classic stories. Storytelling, art activities, crafts, and poetry may all be infused into this time. 

Yoga class for kids looks much different from yoga class for adults! Through movement, mindfulness, music, and breath, we will come together to cultivate a joyful calm. 

Snack and lunch times, and outdoor times will be incorporated into the day so that students have a natural balance of active play time and time to quietly focus.

Part of our outdoor time will be free play, and the other part will be focused on gardening and nature studies where students will be exposed to topics such as beekeeping, the four seasons, insect studies, nature crafts and more. Gardening class will engage students in the education, planning, and executing of a garden. We will learn how to build a garden, how to maintain it, and how to harvest the plants we grow. The aim of this class is to expose children to the wonder of growing our own food and how rewarding it can be.

Art will consist of a variety of activities ranging from crafts, puppets, drawing, painting, and modeling. Art is the foundation for creativity and innovation, it can be centered on a theme or free flowing, and it’s also a time to teach children to take pride in their work and to sometimes move at a slower, more peaceful, pace.

Preparation and celebrations of Festivals and Seasons is a time to prepare for, learn about, and celebrate upcoming festivals and seasons. This will be a time for storytelling, art, crafting, literature, poetry, song, and excitement. Examples of festivals or seasonal days include Martinmas, Michaelmas, Christmas, Candlemas, St. Nicholas Day, May Day, and more. We will work on crafts and art projects to further enhance your family celebrations at home. We will not focus on the religious aspects at school, but encourage you to do so at home, or make it your own in however works best for your family. These special festivals are integral to the rhythm of life and passing of the seasons. In celebrating seasonal holidays, the goal is to develop in the child (and adult) a sense of the rhythm of the seasons and the passage of time, and a sense that there is something bigger than himself. 

“The original idea of any sacred festival is to make the human being look upward from his dependence on earthly things to those things that transcend the Earth.” – Rudolf Steiner

Even more than that, though, we take these moments as opportunities to show gratitude both for the time we’ve been granted together, and anticipation of the gifts of time that lies ahead.

Waldorf Answers explains our focus on festivals further:

“Seasonal festivals serve to connect humanity with the rhythms of nature and of the cosmos. The festivals originated in ancient cultures, yet have been adapted over time. To join the seasonal moods of the year, in a festive way, benefits the inner life of the soul. Celebrating is an art. There is joy in the anticipation, the preparation, the celebration itself, and the memories.”