A CHILD-CENTRED DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
The Steiner Waldorf Early Years Curriculum
Drawing in the ashes (Age 4)
The curriculum which we follow provides a sound base for the development of formal skills and indeed many of our kindergarten activities are precursors to numeracy and literacy. However, our educational approach is premised on a developmental view of the child which recognises an optimum time for teaching the ‘three Rs’. This 'readiness' to learn, to be formally instructed, correlates with the process of maturation which occurs around the second dentition i.e. when the adult teeth begin to appear, usually during the child’s sixth year.
A Steiner Waldorf kindergarten child will have experienced a rich variety of learning situations, all of which are related to the daily business of living. They will have had opportuities for the development of mathematics and linguistics, but through integrated rather than subject-based activities. We feel that learning gains meaning and relevance by being embedded in a social context. Children will have learnt many songs, poems and stories 'by heart not head'. We place great emphasis on the oral tradition of telling rather than reading stories and many of our children have good aural skills, excellent memories and extended vocabularies. Our five year olds will have gained a degree of manual dexterity through activities such as sewing, drawing and painting. They will also have had plenty of opportunity for social and imaginitive play which aids concentration and develops social skills. They will have learnt to care for their environment and for each other and will have experienced the importance of daily, weekly and yearly rhythms. Festivals, which deepen and enrich the experience of childhood, will have played an important part in their time at kindergarten.
Our curriculum aims and objectives for young children are as follows:
To recognise and support each stage of child development
Our view is that the areas of physiological, emotional and cognitive development are subtly and inextricably linked. This view underpins and informs our Early Years Curriculum. Our educational philosophy springs from a recognition of three seven year cycles of development, the first from birth to seven, the second from seven to fourteen and the third from fourteen to maturity at twenty-one. Our curriculum is tailored to meet the child's changing needs during each phase. At each stage, the child presents a particular set of physical, emotional and intellectual characteristics which require a particular (empathetic) educational response in return. This is the basis of our child-centred education. We recognise the first phase, the formative period before the second dentition, as the period of greatest physical growth and development. Structures in the brain are being refined and elaborated, a process which is not completed until after the change of teeth, and until that 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 early 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. Only when new capabilities appear, at around the seventh year, do we feel the child to be physically, emotionally and intellectually ready for formal instruction. Through experiential, self motivated physical activity the small child 'grasps' the world in order to understand it: an essential pre-requisite for the later activity of 'grasping' the world through concepts. We would expect our children to master physical skills before abstract intellectual ones.
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To provide opportunities for children to be active in meaningful imitation
To complement the maturational timetable we acknowledge imitation as the prime means of children's learning - hence adults in our kindergartens teach by example and most of what children learn at this stage is imparted through imitation. The child learns 'for life from life' (the acquisition of the mother tongue, for example, takes place largely through imitation and is 'caught' rather than 'taught') and children model their behaviour on what happens around them. Adult activities stimulate direct responses in the young child and teachers carry out their daily tasks in such a way as to be worthy models for imitation. Children perceive and register everything we do - it isn't only what we do before the young child but also how we do it.
Teachers are conscious of their own moral influence upon the child and of the development of good habits through imitation. Suitable activities for imitation take place in our kindergartens. These might include domestic tasks such as baking, cooking, cleaning, caring for the room etc. - all activities with a social, practical, moral and educational basis.
The forces of imitation, which are so important in helping the young child to know and understand the world in this first phase, naturally diminish and give way to a new kind of knowing which, as referred to earlier, appears at around the time of second dentition. This is the time when teaching 'by example' moves into more formal teaching by instruction. Our curriculum changes as one phase of child development comes to a close and another begins.
To work with rhythm and repetition
Steiner Waldorf kindergartens identify rhythm as an important educational principle. Children need the reassurance of continuity, and regular events punctuate the kindergarten year, week and day. Seasonal activities celebrate the cycles of the year - Autumn in kindergarten might be a time for threshing and grinding and Spring a time for planting. The seasonal area reflects the changing natural world throughout the year as do the themes of our songs, stories and poems. In addition, each week has its own regular rhythm of recurring activities, i.e. baking day, painting day, gardening day; and every day has its own smaller rhythms which support the day's activities. These daily rhythms help the child to feel secure and to know what to expect: a tidy up song, for example, might signal the end of one activity and the beginning of another. The day is structured so that there is a varied pace - with alternating periods - providing a balance between times of activity and times of rest. In practice, this might mean that creative play would be followed by a more concentrated circle time, or energetic outdoor activity by a quiet story. Working with rhythm helps children to live with change, to find their place in the world, and to begin to understand the past, present and future. It provides a very real foundation for the understanding of time - what has gone before and what will follow - and helps children to relate to the natural and human world. We feel that attention to rhythm promotes healthy development and leads to a balanced life later.
Repetition also plays a key role in establishing continuity and in the healthy development of memory. Children's memories are strengthened by recurring experiences and daily, weekly and yearly events in kindergarten are remembered and often eagerly anticipated a second time around. Stories are told not just once, but many times - repetition brings the opportunity for children to familiarise themselves with the material and to deepen their relationship to it.
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To encourage 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. They know and trust their teachers and are able to establish effective relationships with other children and adults. Teachers and children respect and care for each other. We place much emphasis on caring for the environment - both inside and out. Our wooden toys can be polished and mended, unlike their plastic counterparts, and (where possible) gardening and composting activities form an important part of the curriculum. There are moments of reverence each day and teachers lovingly create opportunities for children to experience joy, awe and wonder. Kindness is practised by the teachers and encouraged in the children. Festivals provide rich cultural and religious experiences for the child. Traditional fairy tales and nature stories address the feeling realm and gradually awaken a fine moral sense for knowing right from wrong. The teacher sets the example and has certain expectations of the children.
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To provide an integrated learning experience
We feel that the learning experience of children under seven should be integrated and not compartmentalised. Young children need to experience the relevance of their world before they separate themselves from it and begin to analyse it in a detached way. Consequently, learning in kindergarten is integrated rather than subject-based. Mathematics and the use of mathematical language, for example, might take place at the cooking table, where food is prepared (thinly sliced carrots make wonderful natural circles and have the added virtue of being able to be eaten later in soup!) 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. Mealtimes offer an opportunity for the moral, social and mathematical to work together as children engage in place-setting and the sharing of food which has been prepared earlier for everyone to eat. Through movement games, children recognise and recreate patterns - in, out, alternate, in front of, behind. Natural objects such as acorns, pine cones, 'conkers' and shells are sorted, ordered and counted, as part of spontaneous play. Our children are directly involved in mathematical experience and use mathematical language in a natural way which is usually embedded in a social and moral context. Learning experiences for the young child are not separated from the business of daily living: we feel that learning gains meaning by its relevance to life itself.
As indicated above, we take a similar approach to the teaching of Language and Literacy. Children develop competence in talking, listening and in the ability to use words with confidence; they speak freely and learn to listen to others. Good speech and the development of aural skills are promoted. We concentrate on the oral tradition and our children listen to many wonderful stories - which belong to the literary heritage of the culture of childhood. A well-told story creates an appreciation for the human voice and the beauty and rhythms of language. It also helps to extend vocabulary and to aid the development of a good memory. Children leave kindergarten with a rich and varied repertoire of songs, stories and poems (which might also include verses in other languages). Much of this learning will have taken place in the integrated way described - although story time is always a very special event.
Children engage in many activities such as sewing, which develops hand to eye co-ordination, manual dexterity and orientation (useful preparation for reading print from left to right). Children also discuss their own drawings and take great delight in telling stories by 'reading' their pictures. (This activity promotes the development of verbal skills and frees the narrative from the printed text, thus encouraging children to use their own words). Many children also act out or perform puppet shows and develop dramatic skills through working with narrative and dialogue. Painting and drawing help with balance and symmetry and most five year olds are able to write their own name. Children experience the musicality of language and its social aspects through playing ring games and 'Eurythmy' (a form of movement which works with language and music).
We feel that the combination of these activities cultivates a love of language, promotes fluency and allows children to become really familiar with the spoken word - the best preparation and foundation for the subsequent development of literacy. Use of language also affects cognitive development and well-chosen words and good syntax support clear thinking.
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To encourage learning through creative play and to support physical Development
Children are able to exercise and consolidate their ability to understand and to think through their play. Creative play supports physical, emotional and social development and allows children to learn through investigation, exploration and discovery. It also gives scope for the use of imagination - an essential aspect of human intelligence. Play encourages the child to become inventive and adaptable and to work with initiative and flair. In addition, it develops and strengthens concentration. Studies show that children who score highest in socio-dramatic play also demonstrate the greatest gains in a number of cognitive areas such as higher intellectual competence, longer attention span, and more innovation and using imagination. Good players also show more empathy towards others, less aggression, and in general more social and emotional adjustment. Time and space are given to creative play and a selection of suitable objects (e.g. cloths, shells, logs, domestic toys, dolls etc.) to be provided in order to support a variety of play situations.
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To encourage children to know and love the world
As mentioned in the section on rhythm and repetition, children develop a good relationship to the natural world. They learn to value its gifts and to understand its processes and patterns of change. Domestic tasks provide opportunities for elementary experiences in science and good use is made of the four elements. Children make toys from sheep's wool, wood, felt, cotton and other natural materials. Many items are made as gifts for family members. Family participation is encouraged and teachers, working with parents, create 'birthday stories' which are based on the child's personal biography and are told at special ceremonies to which families are invited. People in the community who practise a particular craft, or who have special skills, are sometimes invited to visit kindergarten.
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To provide a safe child-friendly environment
The kindergarten is a warm and welcoming place, an artistically shaped free space which serves as the settings for what the day’s impulse brings. This ‘impulse’ is a mixture of child-motivated play experiences and teacher-structured activities. There are few ‘finished’ toys which demand to be used in a pre-determined way. Furniture is small scale and child friendly and, as mentioned, the day is structured so as to provide the child with periods of activity and periods of rest. Groups are of a mixed age range and older children, who are familiar with the rhythm of the particular kindergarten, are able to help the younger members of the group to feel secure.
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To work with parents
We are commited to establishing good relationships with our parents and to the process of developing parenting skills. We recognise the importance of a happy, smooth transition from home to school and we work closely with our parents to achieve this end. The majority of Steiner kindergartens hold parent and child sessions and have a good rapport with the family before the child enters playgroup or kindergarten. Teachers promote and emphasise the importance of close partnerships with parents and provide a focus for parent to parent support. We also create links with our parents through a range of social and school-based events and activities. Close liaison between parent and teacher is encouraged.
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