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PARENT-TODDLER CLASS
Waldorf Kindergarten and Crayon Drawing
Crayon drawing is a key part of the Waldorf Kindergarten experience, allowing young children to express themselves creatively and develop fine motor skills through color and form.
Nature Art in Waldorf Kindergarten
Waldorf Kindergarten emphasizes the beauty and wonder of the natural world, inspiring children to create art that reflects their connection to nature and the changing seasons.
Nature Play in Waldorf Kindergarten
Encouraging children to engage in imaginative play with natural materials, fostering a connection to the natural world and promoting creativity and resourcefulness.
Waldorf Kindergarten and Crayon Drawing
Crayon drawing is a key part of the Waldorf Kindergarten experience, allowing young children to express themselves creatively and develop fine motor skills through color and form.
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Nurturing the Whole Child: Education for the Mind and Soul
Before Kinderhale
Our Parent-Toddler program offers families a unique opportunity to engage with and experience the Waldorf Early Childhood curriculum before starting our school.
We conduct these programs in cycles lasting 5-6 weeks. Each week, our group gathers on Fridays for a well-prepared combination of activities and playtime delivered by an experienced Waldorf teacher.
Please note that active parent participation is an essential component of these sessions.
"I am struck by the fact that the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think that the same is true of human beings. We do not wish to see children precocious, making great strides in their early years like sprouts, producing a soft and perishable timber, but better if they expand slowly at first as if contending with difficulties, and so are solidified and perfected. Such trees continue to expand with nearly equal rapidity to extreme old age." - Henry David Thoreau
Details:
For children 18-36 months old;
Potty training is not required.
Cycle Dates:
January
“Participating in work enables the children to learn important lessons early on, lessons that are necessary for life. They learn to do their fair share and to help others.”
― Jack Petrash
“I really love being human. But some days I really wish I could be fairy.” ~ Greta, age 4
Activities that help children develop capacities such as focus, concentration, intellectual flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and small-muscle skills are essential to their later academic work. We support uniquely delivered academic learning in the early years to safeguard imagination, the importance of play, and well-rounded, three-dimensional development - engaging children emotionally, mentally, and actively. We lay a strong foundation for later academic-focused learning.
Storytelling, verse, and song nourish the imagination and stimulate memory. Group activities and free play allow children direct interaction with their world and other people.
Playthings of natural materials, wet-on-wet painting, handwork, cooking, baking, creative movement, foreign language, and gardening support further exploration and creativity.
The focus is on the social, emotional, and physical development of the child. Each child's creative and imaginative capacities are allowed to flourish as they discover and learn about their world through their experiences and interactions with the world around them. In keeping with the Waldorf tradition, the Early Childhood values and protects the sanctity of childhood.
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~Rer
“A child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world, there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.” ~ Pablo Casals
Join Our Community: What We Look for in Kinderhale Applicants
Kinderhale is more than just a kindergarten - it's a community of families and educators who share a commitment to holistic education. Kinderhale seeks families who are aligned with their values and mission, its philosophy of a play-based, nature-oriented curriculum, and who are committed to being active participants in their child's education.
“You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen.” ~ Vince Gowmon
A Day of Wonder
Children are carried along by the rhythms of the world in which they live, from the cadence of breathing in their bodies to the daily patterns of sleeping and waking. The yearly cycle of the seasons and the rhythmic procession of stars across the heavens are part of life’s experience for adults and children. Children flourish when their daily activities are arranged rhythmically to reflect the natural order of life. Thus the Kinderhale activities flow with a sense of “breathing in” and “breathing out,” from the quiet moments of fairy tales to the active moments of work and play.
Typically, the children are involved in creative play during the early part of the morning. Each day of the week has its own special activity, such as watercolor painting, bread baking, beeswax modeling, handwork, and nature walks.
Children play outdoors rain or shine. Whether in the sandbox, balancing on the teeter-totter or exploring the garden, good, healthy physical activity is an important part of daily life in the KinderhaleCircle activities require concentration and group participation. Stories and fairy tales are told from memory with an emphasis on tone and pronunciation of words, engaging each child’s full imagination in the magic of the tale.
"Rhythm is the bearer of life, and there with the bearer of health."
~Rudolf Steiner
"If you want your children to be brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be very brilliant,
tell them even more fairy tales."
~Albert Einstein
Daily Schedule Example (times are approximate):
8:00 Arrival & morning chores
8:20 Play and activities including baking, veggie/fruit cutting & handcrafts, watercolor painting
9:45 Circle time
10:00 Wash hands & snack
10:45 Outdoor play and activities (includes gardening, woodworking, nature walks & games)
11:45 Storytime/puppet show/beeswax & wash hands
12:10 Lunch
12:40 Lunch clean-up
1:00 Rest time
2:00-2:15 Goodbye circle & Pick up
Together we are thankful for our meal, our teachers our friends and our school.
Nourishing Little Bodies and Minds:
The Kinderhale Lunch Program
We strive to provide wholesome foods that nurture growing bodies. The Kinderhale provides organic whole foods whenever possible. The Kinderhale program offers home-cooked vegetarian snacks and lunches daily, including in aftercare which follows USDA nutritional guidelines. Lunch is prepared by our staff in the school's certified kitchen using high-quality ingredients. Children are encouraged to take part in the preparation of certain meals such as bread baking and chopping vegetables for soup.
We believe that healthy eating happens when good food is prepared and served in a loving way. Children enjoy meals while sitting together at a family table set with cloth napkins, silverware, glass drinking cups, and porcelain bowls. Our program works with parents to be able to accommodate different allergies and food preferences.
*Malamalama Waldorf School participates in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, providing free and reduced-priced meals for low-income families. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
"R."
~Runer
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