Kindergarten
Waldorf education is shaped to reflect the developmental stages of the child, which occurs in roughly 7 year cycles.
In the Kindergarten, the very first years of the child are entirely committed to nurturing what Nature does at this time – build their health and life forces. Unless the body becomes healthy and strong,it cannot be a vehicle for learning. The kindergarten is a bridge between the nourishing home environment and learning years that will follow from the second cycle of growth.
Children at this stage must move naturally (think of what hours of sitting still can do to them), play in Nature and play inside classrooms with simple toys, (natural and spontaneous possibilities of socializing),sing and speak in unison with the teacher (development of speech in an age appropriate manner) and of course listen to beautiful tales and stories ( most natural way of developing good listening skills.)
Such young children are very open to receiving sense impressions from the world around them. You will find our Kindergarten subtly though aesthetically done up as an appropriate nourishment for their senses. They are also deeply (and unconsciously) absorbent of the mood of the adults and environment around. The teacher does not formally teach anything. Yet the children learn immensely from his or her calm demeanor which develops their ability to become attentive as against being scattered in receiving impressions around them.
An oft-neglected side of early childhood education is the fostering of human imagination. Imagination is a form of thinking - picture thinking. Picture thinking is foundational for conceptual thinking that will develop in the second cycle gradually.
Through stories, songs, gestures, poems and most importantly through play, children’s imagination is awakened. A simple wooden block is one day a bus, another day a mobile phone requesting their parents to come pick them up , yet another day an iron to press their colourful cloth. Imaginative possibilities are endless. Thus most of their toys and dolls are not finished products that can only be used in one particular manner and nothing else.
Another neglected area of education is the development of the faculty of ‘Will’. While many pedagogical ideas talk about learning by doing, Waldorf education views it as an important faculty of cognition that requires to be developed across the years. Our children imitate the busy teacher and work, putting away their toys after play, helping with clearing up, helping with laying the table for a meal or snack, washing,and cleaning their plates and cutlery, it is a busy life for them. The intelligence of the hands is thus awakened and nurtured.
At home, good sleep, nourishing food, and a media free growth will complement the work in the kindergarten for the health and nourishment of the growing child.