The Waldorf early childhood program fosters the development of the whole child—physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually, and nurtures the beginning of a life-long love of learning. Early childhood is a period of magical discovery—learning movement, play, friendship and love. The child begins to flourish independently, developing rhythms and discovering the beauty of language.

Taught by teachers specifically trained in Waldorf and Lifeways early childhood education, our programs nurture and protect the young child’s sense of wonder and imagination. Our mixed-aged classrooms are made up of three through six year olds, rising first graders.

The program provides a healthy environment that nourishes the senses through imaginative play, artistic activity, simple crafts, language, verse, song, puppetry, and storytelling. The early childhood teacher’s goal is to create a harmonious environment that is nurturing, ordered, and beautiful and to provide a comfortable transition from home life to school life. Play is the work of childhood.

During this age, children’s powers of fantasy unfold naturally. In all of our classrooms the children have long periods of time for free play and access to a wide variety of natural materials and simple toys. The children can use these simple props to create their own stories, adventures, games, and anything they can dream up. Through play the child exercises their fantasy, social skills, fine and gross motor skills, and most importantly, experiences with the world directly.

While indoor play, that is filled with toys and a wide variety of natural materials, is emphasized in our program another crucial play experience for students in Early Childhood is outdoor play. Our Early Childhood children are taken outdoors in all different types of weather to experience the natural world in all of its different seasons, the only occasion you wouldn’t find them outside is in the most formidable weather. During outdoor play, one can find them running, climbing, sliding, swinging, and forming connections to the natural world. To young children, the outdoors, the seasons, the discoveries, and transformations in nature are a healing experience to develop healthy physical bodies.