Traditionally 5 morning sessions per week are offered, each lasting approximately 4 ½ hours.

Cognitive, social, emotional and physical skills are accorded equal value in the Kindergarten and may different competencies are developed.

Teaching is by example rather than by direct instruction and is integrated rather than subject based. In recognition of its vital role in early education, children are given time to play. Emphasis is given to regular patterns of activities both within the day and over each week.

The early years

The child presents a particular set of physical, emotional and intellectual characteristics which require a particular (empathetic) educational response in return. The first seven years is seen as the period of greatest physical growth and development. At this time the young child’s primary mode of learning is through doing and experiencing – he or she “thinks”  with the entire physical being.

The nature of this learning should be self-motivated, allowing the child to come to know the world in the way most appropriate to his or her age – through active feeling, touching, exploring and imitating, in other words, through doing. Children are encouraged to master physical skills before abstract intellectual ones.

Aims and objectives

Providing opportunities for children to be active in meaningful imitation

Imitation is acknowledged as the prime Waldorf means of children’s learning – hence adults in Kindergartens teach by imitation and most of what children learn at this stage is by example. The child learns life from life and children model behaviour on what happens around them.

The Kindergarten is a community of “doers” supported by meaningful work, e.g. by baking bread, cooking, cleaning etc. The children are welcome, but not required to help. Teachers are conscious of their own moral influence upon the child and the development of good habits through imitation. Around the 6^th / 7^th year (at the time of the change of teeth) the forces of imitation diminish and give way to a new phase of development in which the child is ready for the more formal instruction of school.

Working with rhythm and repetition

Steiner Waldorf Kindergartens  identify rhythm as an important educational principle. Children need the reassurance of continuity and regular events mark the Kindergarten year, week and day. Seasonal activities celebrate the cycles of the year and a seasonal area in the room reflects the changing natural world, as do the themes of stories, songs and poems.

Everyday has its own smaller rhythms that support the day’s activities. The day is structured so that there is a varied pace – with a balance between periods of activity and times of rest (e.g. energetic outdoor activity by a quiet story). There is rhythmic alteration between the “child’s time” (creative play, outside time) and the teacher’s time (songs in ring-time, story time) – the teachers time being comparatively short.

Attention to rhythm promotes healthy development and leads to a balanced life later.

Children’s memories are strengthened by recurring experiences; and daily, weekly and yearly events in Kindergarten are often eagerly anticipated a second time round. Stories are told not just once but many times.

Encouraging personal, social and moral development

Children learn, through their creative play and through their daily social activities, to interact with each other. In Kindergarten they learn to share, to work together, and to co-operate. Teachers and children care for and respect each other.

Much emphasis is placed on caring for the environment, both inside and out. Wooden toys, for instance, can be polished and mended, unlike their plastic counterparts.

There are moments of reverence each day, and teachers lovingly create opportunities for children to experience joy, awe and wonder. Kindness is practiced by teachers and encouraged in the children. Traditional fairy tales and nature stories address the feeling realm and gradually awaken a fine moral sense for knowing right from wrong.

Providing an integrated learning experience

The learning experience of the child under seven is integrated and not compartmentalised.  Learning is not subject based but rather e.g. Mathematics and the use of mathematical language might take place at the cooking table and concepts such as addition and subtraction (or more or less), weight, measure, quantity and shape are grasped in a practical manner as part of daily life. Natural objects such as acorns, pine cones and conkers and shells are sorted, ordered and counted, as part of spontaneous play. Good speech and the development of aural skills are promoted. Concentration is on the oral tradition and the children listen to many wonderful stories. Children leave the Kindergarten with a rich and varied repertoire of songs, stories and poems. Much of this learning will have taken place in the integrated way as described.

Children engage in many activities such as sewing, drawing and puppet shows. Children experience the musicality of language and its social aspects through playing ring games and the telling of stories.

Encouraging learning through creative play and supporting physical development.

Children are able to exercise and consolidate their ability to understand and to think through their play. Play encourages the child to become inventive and adaptable, and to work with investigaton, exploration and discovery. Good players show more empathy toward others, less aggression and in general more social and emotional adjustment.

Time and space is given to creative play and a selection of objects such as cloths, shells logs and domestic toys and doll, is provided.

Encouraging children to know and love the world

Children are encouraged to develop a good relationship to the natural world. They learn to value its gifts and to understand its processes and patterns of change. Children makes toys from sheep’s wool, felt, cotton and other natural materials. Many items are made as gifts for family members.

Providing a safe, child friendly environment

The Kindergarten should be a warm and welcoming place, an artistically shaped free space which serves as the setting for what the day’s impulses bring. There are few “finished” toys which demand to be used in a predetermined way. Furniture is small scale and child friendly and made of natural materials. Groups are usually a mixed age range; and older children, who are familiar with the rhythm of the particular Kindergarten, are able to help younger members of the group feel secure.