What is a Waldorf Kindergarten?, 2nd Edition

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WALDORF KINDERGARTEN: 

“Baking, washing, sweeping, mending, singing, painting! Imagine the scent of bread baking, the warm sudsy water for washing the dishes, the muscle power of sweeping, the fine eye-hand coordination of mending and sewing. Imagine the visual education in the dancing watercolors. And if you have had the great pleasure of sitting in the midst of children’s creative, imaginative play, you will know the happy sound at the heart of this beehive of activity. 

“All this beauty given to the children is 'nutritional.' Their senses are stimulated, and through free movement and imitation of the adult the experience is digested. It then becomes their own, nourishing their growth toward freedom.” —Sharifa Oppenheimer

"What we wish to achieve," said Rudolf Steiner to the teachers about the begin the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, "will be fully attained only when someday...parents understand that the first years of education pose a special task for humankind today." (The Foundations of Human Experience).

Research shows that three essentials are necessary for the young child's learning: a broad palette of sensory experience, vigorous and fine movement in response to sensory input, and the opportunity to imitate what the child sees modeled in the environment. These activities are the backbone of the academic foundation that parents look for in an early childhood program. 

What Is a Waldorf Kindergarten? includes chapters on the typical day in a kindergarten, handwork, human development through art, circle time, fairy tales, seasons and festivals, and much more. This collection of insightful articles by experienced early-childhood educators brings both an overview and a deeper understanding of these essentials at work in the daily life of the Waldorf kindergarten. 

Written by Sharifa Oppenheimer and Joan Almon

Foreword by Joan Almon

Afterword by Cynthia Aldinger

Selected and Introduced by Sharifa Oppenheimer 

112 Pages

7.5" x 9"

Published 2015

Paperback