Waldorf 101

Invoke a sense of the sacred on a child’s birth and are performed with the teacher reading, the child acting and the parent watching. Once upon a time there was a little child named____________ who was still with the angles in heaven and he/she was very happy there. He looked at the beautiful colors and listened to […]

One of the celebrations we celebrate during the Waldorf Earthschooling year is Advent. However, contrary to popular belief, the Advent spiral done at Waldorf schools is not inherently Christian. It can be celebrated to honor a number of religious or spiritual traditions – depending on your family or students participating. What are the origins of […]

The Waldorf Curriculum for children actually does not teach Anthroposophy. However, Waldorf School’s in general are either Christian, Jewish, Muslim or very broadly spiritually based. Each day begins with a prayer and ends with a parting prayer. Each meal begins with a prayer and the notion of “God” is prevalent in the Waldorf school. The […]

Central to Waldorf principles is the need to surround children with beauty. Watercolors and beeswax crayons (when used with teacher guidance and purpose) naturally create very beautiful works without technical talent. You will notice that the teachers use care not to allow the children to muddle their colors into a brown mess. At home our […]

“Parents frequently express concern about violent, even bloody incidents that occur in Grimm’s fairy tales. Today, we often see these tales edited to remove or soften these aspects. This results in a kind of deprivation of our children’s sense of life that is similar to the effects of painkillers and can dull that sense. At a Waldorf School, […]

This article is from an old Waldorf school newsletter. If anyone knows the source please let me know 🙂 Anyone well acquainted with our school will have had their attention drawn at some time to the fact that when its a matter of cloth being put to use – in the kindergarten toys, in the […]

This is a sample class schedule that incorporates the principles of “Breathing in and Breathing Out”. I have also explained some of the wisdom behind the baking of the bread below. Shaping Bread: “Breathing In”. This is the beginning of EVERY Waldorf day. The children are allowed to slowly ease into the day and focus their energies on […]

Here is a sample of some Earthschooling activities I scheduled over the year based on seasonal, holiday and other themes. Earthschooling includes holiday and seasonal themes but is not dependent on those themes and includes many other themes each month as well. This makes Earthschooling suitable for parents and teachers around the world. The themes […]

When Rudolf Steiner started the first Waldorf school, he established the “main lesson”—a two-hour class during which all academic subjects except for foreign languages would be taught.The subjects taught in the main lesson were studied for block of time lasting from three weeks to three months. There are many activities that would fall outside of […]

Every month we had a rhythm as well as a weekly and daily rhythm. As you look over my lesson plan guides and the vast amount of material I have provided or that you have yourself, you can use a monthly rhythm block to help you focus each week. Some things you will want to focus onor […]

This is one sample of a weekly rhythm. As well as having a different activity assigned to each day, I also had a different theme I would meditate on as a teacher each day. Sometimes I would share this theme with the children and sometimes I would just focus on finding ways to enrich that theme through […]

This is one sample of a preschool rhythm. The Daily Rhythm for Preschool/KG This was my schedule for the classes I ran as a teacher. My schedule with my own children varies and yours might too. But this gives you a good idea of the thought I put into the rhythm of the day. It helps […]