“The essential task of the early childhood educator is to create the proper physical environment around the children. ‘Physical environment’ must be understood in the widest sense imaginable. It includes not just what happens around the children in the material sense, but everything that occurs in their environment, everything that can be perceived by their senses, that can work on the inner powers of the children from the surrounding physical space.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Waldorf Pedagogy for the Young Child
Each day children are greeted by their teacher and welcomed into a beautiful classroom. They enjoy seasonal songs, movement, storytelling, puppetry, crafts, painting, soup and bread making, beeswax modelling, and creative play.
We strive to present our young students with a world of beauty to nurture their sense of ease, joy, and peace. Young children are very open to their environment, and their capacity to live deeply into all that surrounds them is at the root of their learning. We endeavour to provide an environment worthy of imitation. Children can play imaginatively and creatively, gradually developing a balanced feeling life, leading to a solid and creative capacity for thinking and lively intellectual life.
Young children benefit from a strong sense of routine and predictability, and we work with a very regular rhythm for our daily and weekly activities. Music and verses accompanied by movement; stories; practical activities including cooking, gardening, sewing; and artistic activities like painting, modelling and drawing; all contribute to the balanced, joyful, and healthy development of young children.
Parents of children in the Vancouver Waldorf School find themselves supported by a community of families who share and explore the challenges and experiences of bringing up children today.
Our early childhood center offers programs for young children from 18 months to 6½ years of age and is fully licensed. Our staff meet all licensing requirements and are experienced child-care providers with Waldorf training. We are full members of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN).
“Feelings are for the soul, what food is for the body.” ~ Rudolf Steiner
Head, Heart and Hands
Wet-on-wet watercolour painting, beeswax modelling and crayon drawing, finger knitting, soup making, and bread baking lay the groundwork for artistic techniques useful in later years.
Stories, singing seasonal songs, reciting nursery rhymes and playing circle games boost memory work which is the foundation for healthy brain development. Circle time includes rich, pictorial language, rhythmic movement to delight the imagination of the growing child. A child’s love of reading begins with the sharing of stories.
Play is the central activity of early childhood education. Children delight in simple activities like baking bread, games, gardening, painting, arts and crafts, and even tidying up. We consider imagination an essential foundation of creative and critical thinking in later life.
Participating in practical activities such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening, are a rewarding beginning of the organizational skills needed in life. Children are provided with a worthy environment to imitate in a healthy and meaningful way. Social responsibility starts with caring for our environment; we work together and with each other.
Our approach builds a foundation of literacy that supports deep comprehension and a lifelong joy of reading. Stories, songs, verse, and nursery rhymes build vocabulary, memory, and sentence structure. Teacher-led games and activities promote an understanding of value and interest in numeracy.
Children enjoy a hot snack and lunch every day and participate in baking bread and making soup for the group. Grains include rice, millet, oats and quinoa. Eating together with their teacher and expressing gratitude for the food supports healthy eating habits, digestion, and organ development.
Movement helps integrate the senses, develop motor skills, and build cooperation. Fine motor skills are developed through cooking, painting, circle time, and free play.
Children sing throughout the day. Music becomes a soothing influence, often used to transition children from one activity to another and foster musical appreciation.
Young children learn about nature through first-hand experiences and discovery. During daily outdoor play, children run, climb, build forts, and experience the seasons in all kinds of weather. Classes explore the gardens, chicken coop and beehives, and nearby Hunter Park.
“Play is serious business for children, as important for them as work is for adults.”
“Play is serious business for children, as important for them as work is for adults.”
Jack Petrash, Author and Educator
Early Childhood Programs
“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able, of themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives.”
“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able, of themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives.”
~Rudolf Steiner
