Early Childhood Curriculum

Young children are supported in their natural development by an emphasis on imaginative play, purposeful activity, movement, social life, artistic sensibility and a rich oral language tradition. At Three Cedars each preschool and kindergarten classroom provides a warm, secure and lovely place in which a child's imagination and sense of self will flourish. This is the foundation of teaching that the world is good and beautiful.

Real, enjoyable, and practical work is the foundation of faculties yet to come. Waldorf teachers work from the insight that children of the ages from birth to seven years learning through doing. The kind of playful work in which children engage in the Waldorf classroom is very different from the pre-packaged, media-saturated expectations generated by modern toy stores and electronic media. Indoor and outdoor work and play are arranged in a rhythmical schedule, optimizing engagement and learning with a well-timed cycle of inward-looking and outward-turning activities throughout the day and the year. For the young child, a consistent, dependable rhythm provides a critical sense of security.

The preschool and kindergarten rhythms typically include periods of free play (indoors and out) balanced with more focused artistic and practical activities (such as cooking, painting, cleaning, sewing, etc); circle time consisting of verses, nursery rhymes, songs and circle games; whole, organic foods snack time and lunch time; oral storytelling, and puppetry. Children are guided, particularly, to co-create a healthy social group.

The environment of our school plays a central role. Our rooms are designed with the intention of providing a beautiful, calm and purposeful area for living and working. Toys are open-ended and from natural materials: irregular wooden blocks and wooden toys; shells and stones; beeswax; broad paintbrushes with clear, bright, translucent watercolors and big sheets of wet paper; large, vivid beeswax crayons. Our playgrounds and grassy fields are complemented by the magical "back woods."

An important goal of the early childhood program is to protect each child's enthusiasm for school and help them each child to grow into readiness for the elementary years. Songs, stories and rhymes cultivate intimacy with language. Puppet shows and dramatic play strengthen the powers of memory and imagination. Counting games and rhythmic activities build a solid foundation for arithmetic and number skills. Painting and crafts help the children to develop fine motor skills, coordination and the ability to concentrate. Vigorous play develops their gross motor skills, proprioception, vitality, and further develops concentration. Seasonal activities and outdoor play deepen the children's awareness of the natural world, while colorful seasonal festivals foster connections to the cycle of the year and to the noblest qualities of the human soul. All of the children's work and play in the early childhood program is connected by the intention of fostering healthy and balanced physical, emotional, and intellectual development.