Early Childhood

The Waldorf Early Childhood program is based on the conviction that the young child learns best by imitation of what is beautiful and meaningful. Each child’s innate capacity for wonder and reverence is valued and nurtured in a carefully planned program and environment. Learning is joyous because children are guided to healthy, creative self-expression.

Imaginative play, inside and outside the classroom, puppet plays and storytelling, watercolor painting, crafts, eurythmy, and snack preparation form a rhythm to the day and throughout the week that is enhanced by seasonal celebrations and festivals. Healthy movement and creative play in the early childhood years are key to laying the foundation for later academic work.

The Early Childhood Program at SMWS consists of our Bluebell Prekindergarten and two kindergarten classes, the Red Rose Kindergarten and White Dove Kindergarten, that meet five days a week with full and half day options. All classes are fully licensed.

Children entering the Bluebell Prekindergarten must be 2.5 years old and on their way to being toilet independent (they may still be in a pull up or diaper, as long as they have begun toilet training).

"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 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 an extreme old age."

– Henry David Thoreau

EARLY CHILDHOOD

– Henry David Thoreau​

– Henry David Thoreau