Essentials of Waldorf Early Childhood Education

Dear Nursery and Parent & Child Families,

Over the past couple of months I have had several discussions with parents about traditions in Waldorf early childhood classrooms--specifically, that what you find in one Waldorf school you may not find in another, and that the point is not that the teachers are following a fixed schedule or list of activities, but that they are observing the children and working out of a picture of child development guided by the insights of Rudolf Steiner and creating a rhythm and environment that serves the children. We were also discussing that parents need not feel they have to do exactly "this" or "that" to be Waldorf parents (indeed, Eugene Schwartz makes fun of this concept that schools and teachers have unintentionally created, that there is only one way to parent to be a "Waldorf" parent), or to have exactly the same rules or approaches in every home--but rather that the parents, like the teachers, observe their children with presence and foster a loving environment that helps that child. In this light, it is OK if one home varies from another.

In the article below, Susan Howard--the chair of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America--describes the essentials of Waldorf Early Childhood Education.


http://www.iaswece.org/waldorf_education/what_is.aspx

Among the many aspects of the article I like is that Howard is able to bring the words of Waldorf education's founder, Rudolf Steiner, to light in description of various elements (love and warmth, free play, working out of imitation, adults on a path of inner development) important to Waldorf early childhood education. She also cautions us as teachers (and I would add as parents) against doing something just because every other teacher (or parent) before has done it; if in our observation and meditations it does not seem like the right activity (or if other activities fulfill the same role), we need not do it just because everyone else has.

I remember being in teacher training and hearing teachers share some of the best practices from teachers they were working with. A lot of wonderful ideas and inspirations came pouring into the room. I also sensed dread and anxiety mounting in the room as new teachers wondered how they would fit every best practice into their rhythm of the day. If they did, the day would be so stressful and hurried, no one would be nourished. At that boiling brew of ideas, I began to focus on descriptions of what experienced teachers were not doing, of what it was OK not to do. I thought of a quote I had read as I was entering public early childhood education a few years before--"The most important thing is to know when to keep your mouth shut"--and postulated for myself a Waldorf phrase, "The most important thing is to know that you don't have to try to fit everything in." Over the years, I marvel at the amount of activities I have allowed to slip away as I find my path toward what is essential in early childhood. I have a long way to go.

Howard also touches upon our ongoing discussion of the balance between form and freedom, of the benefit of working of out of imitation and not explanation in the first seven years.

Finally, Susan Howard also makes clear that Waldorf education is not anything goes; our manner toward the children grows out of observation, presence, research, and meditation.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Nursery Open when Kindergarten Closed

Dear Nursery Families,

I look forward to being with our nursery children tomorrow. Although Crispin remains will with his second round of recent illness, his mom is staying home with him tomorrow, and I'll be in class.

For the first time ever, the kindergartens will be closed for 3 days before spring break, April 11, 12, and 13, when the rest of the school, including the nursery, is open. This is to allow teachers and specialists to provide rising first grade assessments. Last year I polled potential nursery families, and parents expressed a desire for me to keep the nursery open, so that is what we are trying this year. Because I am the parent of a kindergartner who needs to be held close after all these illnesses, I will be using personal leave during those 3 days to be a dad, so Lynne will be joined by Carrie.

Please note that the kindergarten teachers changed the date of the kindergarten closures to the 3 days before Easter break. It was initially on the calendar for April 25, 26, and 27.

If you are a family with a kindergarten and nursery child, please let me or Lynne know if your child will be attending that week so she can plan appropriately. While some nursery children will be delighted to come to school when their big brother or sister is home (and parents may get a chance of alone time with the older child), others might resist coming to school vehemently with things being a bit off. I recommend looking ahead and picturing the situation without fear, but with openness so that you are not surprised on April 11.

Thanks,

William

Flowering Branches

Dear Nursery and Parent & Child Families,

As we transform the shelter in which Mother Earth will sit on Friday, it has occurred to both Lynne and me how nice it would be to decorate with some branches from a flowering tree.

If any of you have such a tree in blossom now and wouldn't mind pruning a branch or two to share, I would be very thankful. My ideal would be that this extra decoration would be a surprise to the children (I'll set it up Thursday afternoon), so if you are a nursery family and could drop off branches in the boiler room after dropping off your child Wednesday, that would be great. You could bring them directly to my classroom on Thursday, as well.

Thanks,

William

Eugene Schwartz Lecture

Dear Families,

The Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library has a number of cds of lectures by both Kim John Payne (of whom I make frequent reference) and by the very experienced Waldorf Class Teacher Eugene Schwartz. Schwartz does an excellent job of relating the ideas of Rudolf Steiner to the practice of Waldorf Education--and in some instances, parenting.

I recently listened to his lecture 116--"Freedom of Choice, or Freedom from Choice" and want to recommend it to you (I am returning it to the library tomorrow). When I listened, it seems Schwartz's topic helped a great deal to help us as parents find the middle ground between form and freedom--what we talked about and I wrote about in relationship to manners from our parent discussion several Tuesdays ago. He describes child development in light of Anthroposophy and world history--and exhorts us as parents to realize our children benefit from different forms of discipline in different developmental periods (though as a father of 4 himself, he knows it is not easy, and that sometimes we borrow from another phase of parenting). As much as possible, we work out of imitation in the first seven years. Even as we are working to establish healthy habits in the first seven years, Schwartz encourages us to try to do this by looking at ourselves as role models and in the environments we place our children in; ideally, according to Schwartz, we need not say "no" to our children in the first 7 years because we have structured ourselves and the environment to guide children naturally toward right behavior (Schwartz acknowledges that this is easier said than done).

For children in the grades, the teacher of parent guides the children not through imitation, but through authority. The adult is like a monarch (not a dictator or authoritarian). Like I speak of elsewhere, children want to know that the captain of the ship is confident and has a sense of where the ship is going, that the Queen will feels competent to govern her home.

In both developmental phases, children receive a great gift from us if we can limit the amount of choices we give them. Too many choices too soon can paralyze a child--and eventually wake up faculties (the astral body) that are better suited to serve adolescence (and ideally to be awakened at age 35). Children want to know that we adults understand what is right; they feel cheated if we hand over decision making powers to them too soon.

Schwartz is a compelling speaker, and I recommend you listen to his lecture yourself. Of particular note, again, is his ability to introduce us to concepts from Steiner that might seem obscure in other contexts.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Spring Festival, Friday March 25

Dear Families,

Please consider attending our Butterfly, Rosebud, and Dewdrop Spring Festival.  Please invite friends as well. This is open to the community.

Location:  Outside the Butterfly Classroom and in the woods nearby, Whidbey Island Waldorf School.
Invited Guests:  In addition to current Butterfly, Rosebud, and Dewdrop children and parents, friends, and grandparents, we invite all families with young children to attend.
This is mainly an outdoor festival.  Be prepared for the weather.


Brief Synopsis  This festival provides an imaginative picture of how seasons change.  Young children can experience the changing seasons as a vivid drama.   After a puppet show, we will walk to meet Mother Earth, Father Sun, Brother Wind, and Sister Rain. After the walk, we will return to the playground for snacks, play, and conversation. If weather permits, I will end our festival with fiddle tunes and dancing outside.

Why a Festival?  There are a number of good books about festivals in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library (in the lobby of our school). Here also is an article written by an experienced kindergarten teacher from Santa Cruz Steve Spitalny about festivals. Although Steve is writing for teachers in this article, he helps us as parents as well simplify and clarify our thinking about marking the seasons of the year to support our children.  Festivals can be seeds of renewal, to help children adults frame the year.


Music  While there may be more songs, here are lyrics to two songs we will sing often.

While the children often find the festival more magical and nourishing if they can have the experience without explanation beforehand, this more detailed description for adults will prepare to help if needed (please do not share with children).

9 to 9:30am  Children and parents come to the playground outside the Butterfly classroom.  Bread and butter, water, and herbal tea will be available in the shelter.  Children play and/or eat.

9:40am I will lead you into the Butterfly Classroom and will present a puppet show (children can keep shoes and coats on; we are going right back outside).

9:50am  William will lead us into the woods to the teepee (the walk is 200 yards at the most).  There, Mother Earth will silently greet us.  She will present William with a fiber pot and plant a seed into the pot.   Ideally, Mother Earth will present a pot and seeds to each child.  If there are many children, and the waiting seems too stressful, William (and other parents) will help.  It is nice, however, if things do not feel rushed.  Some children, of course, may be intimidated by Mother Earth, so a parent could receive the gift for the child.  Be prepared to help your child carry the pot.  We will have extra potting soil and seeds at the end of the walk if, as is possible, your child's pot spills.  We thank Mother Earth.

9:55am (or so) We walk out of the woods.  Father Sun greets us.

10am (or so)  We walk farther.  Sister rain greets us by the fountain and waters our pots.

10:05am (or so) Back at the playground, Brother Wind greets us and presents us with a large spring cloth for dancing.  We thank Brother Wind.  Unless it is bitterly cold, William will play the fiddle as parents and children dance with the large cloth from Brother Wind.

10:15am Children play some more, children and parents eat more snack.  Each child is welcome to take home a pot.  There will be extra in case one is misplaced or spilled

10:30am  Children and parents depart.  Beginning at 10:45am or sooner, elementary children come outside for recess, and it will be good to leave them space.

Please call 341-5686 or contact wdolde at gmail.com with any questions.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Next Year

Dear Nursery Families,

I know your reenrollment forms are due on Friday, and you may have questions about what next year will look like. As you may or may not know, last year the Sunflower and Golden Forest classrooms became nursery kindergartens, with children as young as 3 and half to as old as 6. This was our faculty's response to a visit from Helle Heckmann in which she promulgated the value of moving toward mixed age groupings, family style groupings. We are still in the process of seeing what is the ideal way to bring Waldorf early childhood education to our community.

That being said, our ostensible plan is to continue next year as we have this year, with most or all of our current nursery children moving along to the 4 or 5 day kindergarten next year (both classes who have children who attend 4 or 5 days). Last year, we opened the potential that a child or children might stay in the nursery, but when all parents considered it, they wanted to keep their nursery children together with the peers they had developed a bond with in the Butterfly Classroom. We offer the same this year. While we expect that our current nursery students will move on, there may be reasons to consider a child or two staying (with due consideration to and attention to the social bonds that are solidifying in the spring). Please do contact me with questions or comments or concerns.

I will try to collect from colleagues or archives some words from them to describe how kindergarten is similar to and different from nursery. Last year they invited nursery parents with concerns to sign up for kindergarten office hours to talk with the teachers. A few of my families from last year did so, and I encourage you to do the same this year. Kim and Dyanne both have sign-up sheets outside their door for meeting times.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Friday Gatherings

Dear Nursery Families,

I am going to hold off from Friday night Maxwelton Beach potlucks until I know for sure the bathrooms are open (and I have a month of Friday commitments).

In the meantime, I am hoping to offer some informal gathering times for us at other times. To this end, I invite any families who are interested to join me at Castle Park on Friday, March 18, from 11:30 to 1pm or so (I have to be back to teach 4th grade violin at 1:05). Let us not try a potluck; just bring a picnic for your family. If, of course, you have a lot of extra nettle salad or kale carpaccio (or something else) you want
to share with others, that is lovely, too.

I will invite parent & child families to this gathering as well.

On Friday, March 25, from 9 to 10:30am, all nursery and parent & child families and friends in the community and visitors are invited to our early childhood Spring Festival. I will post more details soon.

And, yes, as the days lengthen and bathrooms open, I will offer more gatherings that are easier to attend for folks who work 9 to 5 (or 6 to 2).

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Manners from last week's talk

In our open discussion after last Tuesday's talk, we talked a good deal about manners--about what seems the right amount of politeness to expect from our young children.  In hoping that parents would make decisions that would work for their families, I gave stories of Michaela Gloeckler and Helle Heckmann, two experienced and strong and wise lecturers about Waldorf education.  I have seen Dr. Gloeckler lecture many times, and I was fortunate to have Helle Heckmann observe my class and share her frank opinions with me (I am very proud of the one compliment she paid me) last year.

In a workshop with a number of experienced early childhood teachers, Dr. Gloeckler caused a stir by suggesting we refrain from correcting a child's speech in the first seven years.  Some of this we were already doing by course (not singling out a 3 year old to point out she or he is saying a word in a less traditional way--as the endearing version of my name--Wooleyman--that circulates among the nursery suggests), but many Waldorf early childhood teachers (me included, though I was not so experienced at that point; I had learned from experienced teachers) would routinely speak polite language for a child to model it.  If a child puts an empty bowl toward a teacher with no words or "More Soup!," the teacher might say, "May I have more soup, please?  Yes, you may have more soup."  (The teacher is speaking to herself or himself--or really, to the collective we that still obtains in groups of young children; the teacher avoids singling out the child).  Gloeckler seemed to create a stir by suggesting that even this practice interfered with a healthy development of a child's sense of speech--Gloeckler is rigorous and has high expectations for teachers, one of which is we work out of imitation and not explanation in the first 7 years.  She does not come across as someone who wants Waldorf graduates to be impolite slackers; she expects teachers to approach this work in an acutely aware age sensitive way (something I fall short of often by bringing explanation into my work).

I have distributed this article before on non-verbal education, but will do so again here in context of this discussion on manners.

In the article, you will notice Gloeckler chiding parents for correcting their children for presenting a left hand rather than a right hand to shake a doctor's hands in the first seven years--not because she does not want children to be polite, but because she has very high expectations of how we adults will work through imitation and not explanation to bring this about.  Note, also, that the child was being polite already by offering a hand.

When Helle Heckmann came to observe my nursery, she felt I could expect much better manners of 2 and 3 year olds, that they could sit at a snack table without wiggling or going on their knees or complaining about soup.  Her opinion was that if a child doesn't like soup and is fussing and fidgeting, we are feeding the child too much; she is used to seeing children getting hungry and tucking in to every meal they are served--a different perspective from a different country.  In this light, she seemed to imply that we could give all sorts of verbal redirection at the table, even with young children, to guide them towards politeness.

Now the one compliment Heckmann paid me was when two of my students were struggling over one of my Bissells and I allowed them to continue their struggle for a good long time without intervention (I knew the children really well and knew that if one struck another they would be able to bounce back quickly like the ducks Eckhart Tolle describes and move on with their relationship; I knew they were a really even match).  She lamented that she so rarely sees teachers in America really letting students struggle in their play.  I give this picture to make clear that Heckmann does not want us micromanaging our children's actions throughout the day.  She also told stories of being 2 and being allowed to ride her tricycle all over Denmark with a lot of freedom (different times, perhaps) and encouraging us to allow children to have this experience to.

Both Gloeckler and Heckmann are asking us, I think, to look for the right balance of form and freedom--for Heckmann, she feels freedom comes a great deal in creative play and working out conflicts without overly intellectual adult solutions; but when an activity is supposed to be formed (a meal, a story), we teachers and adults should have very high expectations for young children to be polite and part of that form.  For Gloeckler, I think, form comes from the adult being present and aware and truly worthy of imitation (which is intimidating).  If our child or children seem excessively rude or impolite, Gloeckler would--I believe--have us examine our own actions and attitude and see what we can alter in how we approach the world to make ourselves a more effective role model for our children.

As I said last Tuesday, I am always working to find the right balance.  If I have a 4 year old who loves school but feels too intimidated to speak to me or to speak in front of a large group, and she eats all the snacks, and tentatively pushes her bowl toward me for a second helping, I may well serve her with a smile (if she could bear that much direct attention) and no words.  I remember seeing a 5 year old boy throw a bag of organic popcorn at his mother's head so she would open it; in this case I would probably feel less reserved about saying something or setting a verbal limit.  In my classes, I sense that some children need me to be more direct (they are perhaps being silly in an attempt to gain attention as a clown) while other children benefit more from being allowed to be in a world of nonverbal education (and I give them their rice with as much care as I can, with possibly no words).

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Sleep from last Tuesday's talk

http://www.youandyourchildshealth.org/youandyourchildshealth/articles/sleep%20i.html

We had rich discussions during both the first and second hours of our nursery and parent & child talk last week. During our parent support discusssion, we talked about sleep, and I gave divegent perspectivess from various wise human beings. Here is an article from Susan Johnson, a doctor and a mom who took Waldorf training.

William Dolde.