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Waldorf News

I Don’t Want My Son To Read In Kindergarten

August 30, 2016

I remember few details from kindergarten: a giant slide in the middle of our classroom, a mid-year visit by Smokey the Bear, the gentle voice and red hair of my teacher. Kindergarten was its own little world within the school — a nurturing cocoon — with its own special playground, its own tiny buses, its own half-day schedule. This spring when my son’s wonderful teacher recommended an additional year of preschool for him, instead of advancing with the rest of his class to kindergarten, I didn’t panic. After all, the school he was attending was small and academically challenging, and I understood he might not be ready for its particular standards. The teacher’s concerns — that he had trouble writing his letters, didn’t focus all the time in class, didn’t answer questions about literature with enough detail — didn’t worry me much. He was four. Just a little boy who liked garbage trucks and Sesame Street. We were moving to the suburbs anyway, and I figured my son would do just fine at our local public school, where he would spend his days listening to stories, playing in sandboxes, making friends, and learning the basic routines of classroom life. More »

The Gift of Nature: Reflections of a Forest Kindergarten Parent

August 20, 2016

It was this quest for natural and authentic outdoor experiences for my kids that led me to being a Forest Kindergarten parent. After seeing the value of simple moments in nature for my older two kids, my husband and I jumped at the chance to take it a step further for our youngest, Cara. When it came time for her to go to school five days a week, we enrolled her in the Forest Kindergarten that had recently launched at the Waldorf school where our two older children attended. Established in 2009, The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs’ Forest Kindergarten was inspired by Nokken, the oft-touted forest kindergarten in Denmark. At our Forest Kindergarten, children spend most of the day outside year-round, exploring 300-plus-acres of state park land on the southern edge of our small city. More »

The decline of play in preschoolers — and the rise in sensory issues How play preschool can cure sensory issues

August 5, 2016

I still recall the days of preschool for my oldest daughter. I remember wanting to desperately enrich her life in any way possible – to give her an edge before she even got to formal schooling. I put her in a preschool that was academic in nature – the focus on pre-reading, writing, and math skills. At home, I bought her special puzzles, set up organized play dates with children her age, read to her every night, signed her up for music lessons, put her in dance, and drove her to local museums. My friends and I even did “enrichment classes” with our kids to practice sorting, coloring, counting, numbers, letters, and yes….even to practice sitting! We thought this would help prepare them for kindergarten. More »

Waldorf alumna Adriane Ohanesian wins Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award

June 27, 2016

Ohanesian's "tenacious dedication" to telling the story of Sudan was recognized by the judges Sudan is a country at the center of several ongoing conflicts — both internally and beyond its borders. In the country’s Western region, Darfur, at least 300,000 people are said to have been killed after the government cracked down on an insurgency more than 13 years ago. For the past six years, the New York-born, Nairobi-based photographer Adriane Ohanesian has held a place in her heart for the troubled nation — and now her “tenacious dedication” to the story has earned her the 2016 Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award, a prize launched by the International Women’s Media Foundation in memory of the Associated Press photographer murdered in Afghanistan in April 2014. “[Ohanesian’s] perceptive, compassionate eye offers an extraordinarily personal glimpse into places the global community may not otherwise see,” the judges said as they awarded her a $20,000 cash prize to support her ongoing work. More »

Could Steiner schools have a point on children, tablets and tech? Studies have yet to show much benefit from technology in schools, leading some to wonder whether the offline life is better for children

June 20, 2016

It’s late morning and the children in Maria Woolley’s class at the Iona school in Nottingham are busy kneading dough. The dough is made from flour they saw ground at the local windmill using grains harvested from a nearby farm they had visited. During the morning lesson the children have sung songs, recited poetry and done rhythmic clapping and stomping. There is no uniform here, and no headteacher – the school is run by staff and friends – and, unlike the vast majority of primary schools these days, here the students don’t work on tablets or computers. At the front of the class is an old-fashioned blackboard. The methods at the school, which are based on the controversial teachings of Austrian 19th century philosopher Rudolf Steiner, may be different from those employed in mainstream state schools, but the Iona was recently declared outstanding by the School Inspection Service – the independent equivalent of Ofsted. The report noted that “pupils do not use computers or the internet when in school but staff have ensured that they have learned about internet safety”. It went on: “Teaching is inspirational and highly effective … teachers are very well trained and highly skilled.” More »

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