A comprehensive overview of Steiner education from the Anthroposophical Society of America in recognition of the 100 year anniversary .
Susan Howard
Is there a Waldorf early childhood “curriculum?” Are there specific activities – perhaps puppet plays or watercolor painting, for example – that are required in a Waldorf program? Are there certain materials and furnishings – lazured, soft-colored walls, handmade playthings, natural materials, beeswax crayons – that are essential ingredients of a Waldorf setting? What is it that makes Waldorf early childhood education “Waldorf?”
Rudolf Steiner spoke on a number of occasions about experiences essential for healthy early childhood education, including the following:
• Love and warmth• Care for the environment and nourishment for the senses• Creative, artistic experience• Meaningful adult activity as an example for the child’s imitation• Free, imaginative play• Protection for the forces of childhood• Gratitude, reverence, and wonder• Joy, humor, and happiness• Adult caregivers on a path of inner development
The Heart Spaces course is a year-long, part-time program that takes place on Saturday afternoons from 2 – 5 pm. There are eight sessions per term for four terms. People can enrol for a year at the beginning of terms 1, 2 or 3. We use a combination of online and face to face sessions (a rhythm of three online followed by a dual session). The program is run by Carol Liknaitzky, who has been an adult educator for the past 40 years.
The Early Childhood Teacher Training students from SIF - 'Stepping Into the Future’ in Perth undertook to connect with their local landscape and seasonal changes through the elements, the festivals, their craft story and circles.
They entered the movements in nature by listening.
Through their listening the students created haikus to express the essence of their experience imaginatively. They built up a deep sense of the six Noongar seasons out of which they can create their own work for the kindergarten.
Photographs and work from
‘Stepping into the Future’ : Steiner Teacher Training - Early Childhood
Rudolf Steiner College Perth
Jenny Hill, Paddy Frere, Vivienne Howson, Anna Scott and Jo Blundell