S1 EP1 - Early Childhood
On this week’s episode of Anthroposophy Today, Scott and Sarita talk about the Waldorf Early Childhood classroom.
The Waldorf classroom at each stage of a child’s development is designed to be a microcosm of the rhythms of life. This is why the Early Childhood class is designed to look and feel like a home, creating a space where the child can be cared for, nurtured, and feel safe. Everything, from the environment to the daily “rhythms” (we explain later why we use this word instead of “curriculum” or “schedule”) are intended to:
create a feeling of warmth and safety, as though it were an extension of the mother’s womb
inspire the imagination
foster creative play
THE CLASSROOM
When you enter the class, you will first notice the soft, rosy light spilling into the classroom, often diffused by thin curtains hanging from the windows. The furnishings are made of wood and have soft, rounded edges, and the carpets and simple decorations are generally made of natural fibers like wool, cotton, linen, and silk. Everything from the handmade toys to the peach blossom colored walls gives off a sense of being in harmony with nature, made as they are out of natural fibers, using natural dyes to create earthy or pastel colors, and illuminated purely by natural light. At this age, there is very little in the classroom that would not be found in nature. Nearly all Early Childhood classrooms also have a small kitchen, which is used to prepare that day’s warm snack, and where the children help with the serving of the meal and with the washing up.
AGE RANGE
The children in the Early Childhood class range from three to six years old, and the way they are divided up into groups varies from school to school. Larger schools commonly have three- and four-year-olds in one group, while the five- and six-year olds learn in their own kindergarten class; smaller schools usually have a single group with a greater age range learning and playing together. Each classroom will generally have one main teacher and one teacher’s assistant.
While three years age difference is a lot at this age, and it is challenging to have a group of mixed ages (which is why the teacher generally has an assistant), Sarita compares her experience of these mixed age groups with the fact that her own grandmother had eight children and came from a family of thirteen. Sarita describes how the Waldorf Early Childhood classroom works similarly to the way a large household does. The older children enjoy nurturing the little ones, which Sarita says is very helpful for only children.
Single children are increasingly prevalent in modern society, compared to their historical rarity, and these mixed age groups create a sense of family amongst the children, who develop close, sibling-like bonds to their fellow classmates. Sarita and Scott share how their son, who was a student at a Waldorf school from a young age, came to relate to many of his classmates as though they were his own brothers and sisters, and that this bond began at this early stage.
The Waldorf school traditionally began at the time when the child got his or her first adult teeth, around the age of seven. Sarita and Scott discuss some of the reasons why Waldorf schools now have programs for children younger than seven, and some of the many ways that a Waldorf Early Childhood classroom differs from the average preschool and kindergarten.
One of the reasons behind the creation of the Early Childhood programs was the changes that began to occur in our society, where more and more parents needed a place for their children to be looked after while they were at work. Waldorf education as a whole felt it was necessary to step in to “preserve” childhood, and this manifested itself in the creation of these wholesome, home-like environments for small children to play and learn.
At this age, there is nothing more natural for a child than for him or her to engage in imaginative play. The goal of the teacher, or the parent, should be to create a safe environment that fosters and encourages creative play, giving the child just enough to spark their creativity, without overwhelming them or stifling the natural creativity which is so lively at this age.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY
There are certain things that are not present in a Waldorf Early Childhood classroom, apart from fluorescent lights and plastic. Some of the things you will not find in the class are:
special drills to practice reading, writing, or spelling
math drills or games
worksheets or quizzes
The reason for this is not because academics are not stressed in Waldorf education—which is a common misconception—but because the main element of the Early Childhood classroom is play.
These studies would seem to support the indications made a century ago by Dr. Rudolf Steiner regarding the Early Childhood classroom. Rather than push academics onto the child before first grade, Dr. Steiner stressed the importance of play and other creative and artistic activities, which form in the young children certain forces which prepare them to receive academics when the time comes.
EARLY READERS
Many children have an innate inclination to read. Scott and Sarita talk about their daughter, who taught herself to read by the time she was four, not because she was given any special drills or practice sheets, but simply by her parents reading to her before bed.
There are many children who prove to be precocious like this in one academic area or another, and this impulse should not be crushed, but allowed to blossom.
The important distinction is that the parents and the teachers should not force academics upon the child out of a fear that he or she will get “left behind”.
In connection to this, Sarita and Scott discuss their son, who was quite late in learning to read, which led many people to believe he had a learning disability. However, around fourth grade, when he was ready, he started reading and never looked back. Today, he is a voracious reader—ironically, better than their early-reader daughter.
“FORCING” ACADEMICS AND LEARNING ANXIETY
Sarita comments that, by forcing reading, or any other academic subject, at too young an age, we can create anxiety and other blocks toward learning in general, which often lay dormant and then emerge later on in grade school. This is something we want to avoid at all costs, she says, which is why in the Early Childhood classroom we focus on other activities.
For example, instead of drilling writing before first grade, the children do a lot of drawing, especially with block-shaped crayons designed for small children to develop the nerves of their fingers and hands. This prepares not just the hands, but also the brain, to write. This is just one example of the gentle, indirect, and holistic way that Waldorf education approaches effectively preparing the child to begin academics.
WAYS TO ENCOURAGE PLAY
Some ways to encourage open-ended, creative play are:
ensure the child’s environment is safe, peaceful, and warm
free the space from external distractions, such as technology, noise, or too much stimuli (even soft music can prove distracting)
find simple objects in your natural environment; even such things as small sticks, pebbles, leaves, a small bucket of water, and a little patch of dirt can provide a child with hours of magical fun
Scott shares how he grew up in the woods with a pond in his backyard, and how he and his brothers and sisters would spend all day making rafts, and building little houses and forts. They had no hammer or nails, they just used whatever they could find around them. Sarita says that she and her siblings would play in exactly the same way, but that she grew up in Ecuador right near the beach, and so naturally she played with sand and sea and shells instead of dirt, a pond, and trees. Use whatever you have around you and your own imagination and resourcefulness, and encourage your child to do the same. By providing such an environment for open-ended and creative play, you provide countless hours of magic and joy for your child.
SUPERVISION
An important thing to note is that one must always supervise the child or children as they play. However, rather than standing over them constantly, which makes them self-conscious and unable to lose themselves in their imagination, it can be helpful to engage in ones own activity near the child.
In the Early Childhood classroom, the teacher and his or her assistant always keep an eye on the little knots of playing children about the class or in the garden, and are usually doing an activity with their own hands while they supervise. One such activity is whittling wood. Another is knitting, or finger-knitting. In fact, these three activities are all taught in the Early Childhood class, but not in a formal “class” type setting. The child may begin by expressing interest in an activity he or she sees the teacher doing; then the child may be invited to mirror the teacher’s actions while the teacher leads; finally, the child will be allowed to do the activity on his or her own, with the teacher’s supervision. In this way, each child is taught an activity or craft when they are ready and interested in learning it, and those who prefer to play with pebbles and leaves and build fairy houses for their twig-people may continue to do so without feeling pressured to abandon their play for a lesson.
These crafts are taught throughout the grade school in a more traditional “class” setting, and each child will learn to knit, carve, whittle, and much more, which is why there is no need to force these skills on any child who is not yet drawn to learn them in the Early Childhood classroom.
Depending on the child and on the day, it can sometimes be quite easy for him or her to slip into creative play, and sometimes it can prove more challenging. One of the ways that Waldorf teachers inspire the imaginations of their students is through storytelling.
STORYTELLING TO ENCOURAGE PLAY
Storytelling is a useful tool which parents can use at home with their children, whether they are homeschooling their children or merely wish to encourage them to play creatively on their own. Many times a teacher will tell the children a story or put on a small puppet show based on a fable or fairy tale before allowing them to go off and play on their own, as this awakens the creative forces in the child and feeds their imagination. If the teacher uses puppets, they are typically very soft, made of wool and natural fibers, and don’t have distinct faces or expressions. They are otherwise fairly realistic, complete with a body and clothes and a head furnished with lovely wool hair. The significance of a doll with no face, which is very typical of Waldorf style dolls, is that the child can use their imagination every day in a new way. The doll can be sad, then happy, and then anything else the child chooses. The important thing is that the doll is open-ended and allows the child to use their imagination in a way they would not be able to if their toy had a bright smile or gloomy scowl permanently painted on its face.
It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the adult’s own imagination to see how beneficial these open-ended doll games might be in helping a young child learn to recognize and process his or her emotions in a healthy way, without ever bringing it to the child’s attention that this is one of the many wonderful things we learn from play.
STORYTELLING WITH LIVING COLORS — PAINTING
Another use for storytelling is in painting.
In the Early Childhood class, painting is not taught didactically with “lessons”, but introduced as a full experience. Watercolor, and in particular wet-on-wet watercolor, is the primary medium taught in Early Childhood. The teacher engages the children in the preparation process, teaching them how to prepare the supplies and space to make art with proper reverence and respect for the materials.
The teacher will usually choose a limited color palette to begin with and give the paints to the children in small pots, like rinsed baby food jars, which are easy to find and use at home to paint with children.
To begin the activity, the teacher might say something like “today we are going to use blue, and blue wants to play on his own”. The teacher (or parent guiding the painting) does not have to go into explanations, rather, he or she will say something simple like this, always in the spirit of story time, such as: “blue is thinking”, “blue is being quiet”, “blue is reading in a corner here”. each color has their own character and unique qualities, and the teacher or parent can use this as part of the experience to awaken the imagination of the child.
Here’s an example Sarita gives of a simple story that can be used:
“Blue and yellow went to play. Blue said to yellow, ‘Do you want to play with me?’, and Yellow said, ‘Yes, I want to play with you!’. Blue was in one corner and Yellow was in the other corner, and then they met in the middle and…they made Green!”
Sarita says that at this age it should be very simple to ignite the imagination with these kinds of whimsical little stories, which contain millions of variations. She comments that the three and four-year olds are generally more interested in experiencing the paint and the magic of the color on the page, while the slightly older children become more interested in form. The five and six-year old may begin seeing little shapes in their painting, calling out that they’ve got a whale on their page! an angel! a pumpkin I made when my red pooled with my yellow on the page!
Some children may be more analytical and express interest in creating forms earlier on, while others may be dreamier and prefer to play with the abstract shapes and colors for longer. The benefit of wet-on-wet watercolor is that it bleeds all over the paper, flowing and blending beautifully with other colors, which creates a real sense of wonder and excitement in children.
There are children who get frustrated by the way the color moves on the wet paper, who don’t want the colors to move this way or that way. The teacher will step in and help the frustrated child with a gentle story. The teacher never silences or stifles the child, rather, he or she redirects the frustration and helps ease the child back into the activity.
The most important part of painting at this age is for it to be an imagination-guided, meditative experience. Sarita comments that color is very much alive for children, that it has a life of its own, and that small children experience it in different ways from adults. By using simple storytelling techniques in this way, we can awaken the young child’s imagination and encourage them to lose themselves in the magic of painting.
BREATHING IN AND BREATHING OUT — THE RHYTHMS OF WALDORF
One of the unique aspects of the Waldorf experience, from Early Childhood through the high school, is the implementation of a concept known as “in-breathing and out-breathing”. This concept is key in understanding the Waldorf daily “rhythms”, which is how we talk about the different activities and elements of the day, rather than referring to them as a fixed schedule or set curriculum.
Breathing in (or in-breathing) activities are generally activities which occur in a state of introspection. Some examples of these are:
eating
reading
storytelling (both telling and listening)
imaginary playtime
While children don’t experience introspection in the same way adults do, they do introspect when they have creative imaginary playtime. This is why you’ll often hear small children talking to themselves as they play make believe, transforming their little sticks and stones into knights and dragons—they are alone with their thoughts, introspecting and exploring their inner worlds.
Breathing out (or out-breathing) activities include:
circle time
clapping games
any games or activities involving movement or gesture
Breathing out activities do not need to be loud, even whispering can be incorporated in out-breathing (e.g. the popular circle game of Telephone—where one child whispers a word into their classmates ear and that classmate repeats what they heard in a whisper into the ear of the child next in line, and so on until it gets back to the child originating the “telephone call” and they tell the group what (usually different from the original!) message made its way back to them—is a great example of a very quiet activity which still clearly belongs to the realm of breathing out).
The best way to tell whether an activity reflects breathing in or breathing out is to simply try taking a few breaths for oneself and feel what it feels like to inhale and exhale. Then ponder whether the activity in question feels more like an introspective, gathering of the forces in, or a letting go and releasing of this energy out in the world around oneself. Knitting while listening to the teacher tell a story or read a book aloud? Breathing in. Putting away ones knitting after the story is over to go play a game outside in the garden? Breathing out.
As with human respiration—where an inhale is followed by an exhale and then repeats—a day in a Waldorf school is built upon these rhythms of breathing in activities and breathing out activities.
Each age group has its own activities for in breathing and out breathing. High schoolers don’t go out into the garden to build fairy houses any more than Early Childhood children finish a soapstone carving class to begin a roundtable discussion of the United States’ Constitution’s First Amendment. The activities themselves change and evolve over the years in keeping with the development of the child, but the concept and the feeling of breathing in or breathing out remains the same, and the rhythmic heart of the Waldorf day beats on.
This concept of breathing in and breathing out and of living and working with rhythm is one of the most important things children learn in the Waldorf school, and take with them into their adult lives.
Scott and Sarita discuss what it looks like when an adult has not learned this concept and does not know how to apply it in their life and work. As an example, they discuss how the modern workplace phenomenon of working at a desk in front of a computer for hours on end, without variation or shifts in focus, often leads to chronic anxiety, and even burnout. While modern lifestyles and work often seem to require a person to do just this, an understanding of proper in-breathing and out-breathing will lead a person intuitively to pause after a period of intense in-breathing and engage in even five minutes of out-breathing—a stroll about the office, pausing work to do some dynamic stretching or pushups, a trip to the break room for a chat and a laugh with coworkers.
What about the opposite, say, a salesperson who spends eight hours a day talking with potential customers, smiling broadly and turning on the charm? It’s equally important for them to find moments to go “in” throughout their day, whether it’s five minutes spent reading during a quick break, or a quiet lunch hour enjoying a nourishing meal.
In learning to be observant of yourself, your child, and the environment, you can then implement a variety of different activities that foster this healthy sense of rhythm for all ages. At the end of the day, it can be useful to take some time to reflect back on what worked and what was less successful, and then adapt and change activities or rhythms going forward. When the concept of this kind of healthy rhythm is understood, the intuition opens up countless possibilities for incorporating it into daily life—both for your child and for yourself.
THE YOUNG CHILD’S CONCEPT OF TIME
In speaking about the ways this concept of “rhythm” is used in the Waldorf classroom, Sarita says it’s important for both parents and teachers to remember that the young children in the Early Childhood classroom do not understand the concept of time in the way older children and adults do. This is another reason for the use of these daily rhythms.
A child may be able to parrot the teacher or parent in saying, “today is Tuesday” or “now it is eight o’clock”, but they don’t really have a firm grasp on time yet. Consequently, in the Waldorf Early Childhood class, strict schedules and timetables are eschewed in favor of helping to create structure using activities that the child learns to associate with the time of day or day of the week.
As an example, the Early Childhood teacher or parent of the young child might make oatmeal for snack on Mondays, serve a simple vegetable soup on Tuesdays, and make rice and beans every Wednesday, and so on. The child will then enter the classroom, smell the noodles and veg cooking in the broth, and she might exclaim, “Oh, yay, it’s Tuesday-Vegetable-Soup-Day!”.
The same can be done with chores and activities, such as painting on Mondays or doing laundry on Fridays so everything is tidy before the weekend.
REPETITION IS IMPORTANT
One thing to note is the importance of repetition, both in this kind of daily and weekly rhythm, but also in things like storytelling. During story time each day, the teacher may and often does choose to tell the same story several times. They may even tell the same story every day for a whole week.
This type of rhythm and this act of repetition in the day and in the week, where the child knows what to expect on any given day, creates a soothing rhythm for them. Too much variety or change makes it so the child is uncertain about what comes next, and this creates nervousness in small children. Sarita emphasizes that repeating the same story several times with small variations does not bore the child; on the contrary, it creates a sense of calm in the child and comforts them with its familiarity.
“FINDING YOUR LITTLE PERSON IN THE WOODS”
Learning to draw with a block crayon in order to prepare the hand and mind for writing is one of the many rituals or traditions of Waldorf education which contain layers of significance and meaning for the child and the class as a whole. It is in these activities that the foundation is built for a happy, healthy, intellectually curious and enthusiastic human being who is in harmony with his or her world and community.
Another one of the beloved, whimsical traditions of the Waldorf Early Childhood experience which is rich in meaning is “finding your little person in the woods”. It’s called by many different names and the exact details vary from school to school, but the essence remains the same and is cherished by former Waldorf students around the world.
The teacher creates little dolls, one for each child in the class and each vaguely resembling the child for which it was made (a doll with a similar color and length of hair, similar skin tone, etc.). On a special day of the year, often the child’s birthday or another day chosen by the teacher, the child goes out into the garden and finds their “little person” doll. The rest of the children don’t get anything on that day, but it doesn’t matter—they see the joy experienced by the child who has been given their little doll that day and this only makes them look forward even more to the day when they get their doll.
Scott comments that this ritual has always struck him as very deep and quite moving. As an adult, he says, he looks at the ritual and sees it as a reflection of the concept of “looking for yourself” throughout your life. It’s as though this ritual inspires hope in the young child that “you are going to find yourself” and who you are. The joy of seeking, the anticipation, and the elation upon finding the little person is matched only by the collective joy of the group of children who are watching the child “find themselves”, find their gift.
Sarita agrees, and adds that this whimsical little activity has many levels of spiritual importance. The teacher never brings this directly to the attention of the child, she says, but it has deep significance for the child in their subconscious mind and in their spirit.
Sarita also adds that one of the most important parts of this beautiful tradition is the participation and joy of the rest of the children as they watch the child who is getting his or her doll. This fosters a sense of community and love amongst all the children, and teaches them to be supportive of their peers.
BEGINNING THE DAY
Let us end this discussion of the Waldorf Early Childhood classroom by describing the way a typical day in the Early Childhood class might begin.
The parents arrive to drop off their children beginning about fifteen minutes before class starts, which allows the parents to linger and chat for a while while the children play outdoors. This time allows the parent to get to know one another, building a sense of community with the parents of their child’s classmates, many of which will become close friends with their child and journey with them through the Waldorf school for years to come.
When the bell rings, the parents leave, and in many schools the children will begin the day with a short nature walk with the teacher. The reason for the walk is because of the increasing use of electronic devices at home, and also because many children travel a long time to get to school. The act of walking through the neighborhood or nature around them before the day begins has the effect of bringing the child back into harmony, centering them, and also provides opportunities for adventure.
Often the children will spend up to an hour playing outdoors and walking in the area the teacher has chosen. It is always a safe space with clearly designated boundaries, so the children can wander freely within a supervised space, aware of where they can and can’t go. They often return time and again to their favorite little places to play, working on building tiny houses in the hollow trunk of a tree over the course of weeks, or making rafts for twig people in the brook, or playacting as characters from their favorite stories, or whatever else they choose to do.
The teacher’s assistant will bring water for everyone and activities such as finger knitting, for the children who don’t feel like playing that day but would prefer to do a craft.
Movement, such as walking and running and splashing in puddles, grounds the child and brings them back into focus after what might have been a hectic morning, and it wakes them up after what could have been a drowsy car ride to school.
Rain or shine, the children go for their morning walk, and every child comes prepared with their rain gear and an extra set of warm clothes at school, just in case.
When they return from their walk, rosy-cheeked, laughing, chatting, and a little out of breath, they may do circle time or story time, followed by indoor playtime, and then a mid-morning snack. Throughout the rest of the day, the teacher and the assistant guide the children through activities, chores, and crafts in keeping with the gentle structure of breathing in and breathing out.
The Early Childhood class is a warm, nurturing home which encourages the young child to awaken their imagination and inspires them to play.
It is a safe haven in which to experience art, music, movement, and words, and provides the child with a healthy, strong foundation, upon which they will build and with which they will live for the rest of their lives.
Thank you for listening and we look forward to joining you next week for a discussion about the Waldorf First Grade!
A MORNING VERSE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD
Good morning dear earth
Good morning dear sun
Good morning dear flowers
And the fairies, every one
Good morning dear beasts
And the birds in the tree
Good morning to you and
Good morning to me