What is Waldorf Early Childhood Education?

 

​

Striving to be figures worthy of imitation, Waldorf early childhood educators nurture each child's flowering, providing gentle, yet sensory rich environments and play-based activities that encourage the young child to investigate the natural world, explore social relationships, and expand imaginative capacities.

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

 

 

What is Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Education?

 

The Reggio Emilia approach is an educational philosophy and pedagogy focused on preschool and primary education. This approach is a student-centered and constructivist self-guided curriculum that uses self-directed, experiential learning in relationship-driven environments.

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

What is Forest School Education?

 

Allowing children to explore, connect, and grow with nature!

 

Our learning pedagogy and rationale comes from the work of Jon Young and the Coyote's Guide to Mentoring based on Northwestern Native American deep nature connection practices, as well as that of Rudolph Steiner, 19th century new age thinker whose work created the Waldorf Schooling system, as well as 12 years of mindful spiritual summer camp programming originating at Unity Renaissance Church, where deep nature connection practices have been used and implemented since 2003.

 

Forest Schools have been created around the world in recent years to help young children to foster and nurture the natural connection to nature that we come here with. Our completely outdoor forest school program invites your child to nurture that deep connection, without electronics or the pressures of expectation and having to have it be perfect or for it to be perfect outside.

 

The weather situations that happen in an outdoor school setting are a great example of accepting the changing state of the world just as it is. Our motto for when planning how to dress for the school is,

 

 

"There is no wrong weather, only wrong clothing."



 

​

​

 

​

 

What does play-based mean?

 

Play-based educational movements and models are focused on the child being actively engaged in the experience of play. Play can be defined as a low stress, high excitement encounter where imagination and creativity are utilized to solve a problem or to accomplish a goal.

 

The goal is accomplished by allowing the child to do what they naturally do, play with the materials and ideas to discover the solution for themselves. All learning is self interpretation and integration of information being presented. This learning is ingested into our being with the framework we give it.

 

So what is the framework we are giving our kids to process new information?

 

Play-based learning is designed to give the child or family a sense of educational ownership in their directions and parameters for learning. They are organized to foster the use of imagination and creativity to problem-solve engaging every part of their awareness or focus. True learning comes from full engagement and integrating the knowledge and materials presented to create a solution that can be helpful and useful and the learning journeys in this section reflect those ideals.

 

Children spend a vast majority of their day in deep reflective thought immersed in an imaginative world where they distinguish the boundaries of their world each moment.

 

Play-based learning builds the ability to focus and use creativity as a framework for thinking and processing the world around us. The ability to adapt quickly to the changing world using what is around us for assistance is a very important skill to possess in our rapidly evolving world.

 

How does it work?

 

Play-based learning creates 3 general overall outcomes, it awakens problem solving, it fosters meaningful expansion in intelligence, and it enriches the ability to be more emotionally aware.

 

It awakens in the mind a capacity to be creative to solve problems presented with open ended solutions to accept or reject without judgement, letting the learning become organic.

 

It fosters the intelligence by growing the ability to become focused and trains the mind to be able to work on the whole picture without stress, using it as a framework or system to be played in with full engagement.

 

It also creates an inner sense of self and helps establish a child or a person's inner dialogue and sense of emotional self control. It grows this as well when engaging in group activities that assist the child in cooperative play in groups for a common goal thus building social and emotional awareness in the process.

 

So... As we grow our ability to use this play-based mental framework, we grow our ability to be more whole brained and compassionate!

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

What does nature-focused mean?

 

Nature is us. We live in her beauty, we exist from her gifts and magic! The natural world is filled with endless learning and exploration to grow curiosity and to make a deeper connection to our home, mother Earth. As society becomes more digital, we need our deep nature connection experiences more and more to understand our roots and help us feel grounded amidst all of the difficulties of the world.

 

How deeply are you connected to nature?

 

Nature-focused means that we attempt to invoke aspects of nature and the natural world in everything we do. It means we use as many natural materials for creation possible. We honor the sacred aspects of the natural world with observing and cherishing the moments of magic we see in it's plants and animals. As we see our connections to the natural world, we can see how it is us, affects us, and is affected by us.

 

Fostering this environmental stewardship and reverence for the Earth is a way to help our children and ourselves feel some peace and some power in giving back to where we come from. It teaches community engagement and involvement, whether from participating in our own acts or as a whole with everyone, in the world we are actively living in.

 

This goal is accomplished by allowing the child to do what they naturally do, play with the materials and ideas of nature introduced to them to discover the magic in their own environment. All learning is self interpretation and integration of information being presented. This learning is ingested into our being with the framework we give it.

 

So what is the framework we are giving our kids to process new information?

 

Nature-focused learning is designed to give the child a sense of educational ownership in their interconnection to the environment with engaged open ended activities. They are organized to foster the use of knowledge of the natural world to compassionately and creatively problem-solve engaging every part of their awareness or focus. True learning comes from full engagement and integrating the knowledge and materials presented to create a solution that can be helpful and useful and the learning experience reflects those ideals.

 

Children spend a vast majority of their day in deep reflective thought immersed in an imaginative world where they distinguish the boundaries of their world each moment. We want to foster that ability of our children to make deeper connections to the environment they are in to feel more grounded and secure.

 

How does it work?

 

Nature-focused experiences create 3 general overall outcomes, it awakens a deeper understanding of the natural world, it fosters meaningful expansion in intelligence through deeper connections across all subjects, and it enriches the ability to be more emotionally aware by fostering stewardship of our home.

 

It awakens in the mind a capacity to use this deep nature connection to solve problems presented with open ended solutions to accept or reject without judgement, letting the learning become organic.

 

It fosters the intelligence by growing the ability to become connected to place and trains the mind to be able to work on the whole picture including Earth and it's processes and movements in harmony with what they know in their personal lives, using it as a framework or system to be seen as a whole picture.

 

It also creates an inner sense of self and helps establish a child or a person's inner dialogue and sense of emotional self control by seeing themselves as participants in the whole picture of the environment, connecting to empathy for the flora and fauna as this connection is . It grows this as well when engaging in group activities that assist the child in cooperative play in groups for a common goal thus building social and emotional awareness in the process.

 

So... As we grow our ability to commune with nature, we grow our ability to be more connected, whole brained and compassionate!

 

 

 

​

​

 

What is exploration?

 

Exploration begins with the curiosity of the imagination and the drive to uncover the unknown. It is the ability of the mind to adopt bravery and allow the creative urge to push one to discover and bring awareness to that which before was thought impossible. It is the creative spark to explore and understand the world to know it more fully.

 

Our children are born with this gift of exploration, to yearn to understand and explore the world around them, but unfortunately this gift is threatened and diminished early on in our society in most people with limitations and restrictions. As adults many people have to rediscover their child-like innocence to regain that magic that we feel when engaging in the act of exploration.

 

The goal is accomplished by allowing the child to do what they naturally do, explore with the materials and ideas to discover the solution for themselves through offering the children and family encounters and experiences with new mediums and materials. All learning is self interpretation and integration of information being presented. This learning is ingested into our being with the framework we give it.

 

So what is the framework we are giving our kids to process new information?

 

Exploration learning is designed to give the child or family a sense of educational ownership in discovery and exploring new ideas and materials in their world with engaged open ended activities. They are organized to foster the use of exploration and creativity to problem-solve engaging every part of their awareness or focus. True learning comes from full engagement and integrating the knowledge and materials presented to create a solution that can be helpful and useful and the learning journeys in this section reflect those ideals.

 

Children spend a vast majority of their day in deep reflective thought immersed in an imaginative world where they distinguish the boundaries of their world each moment. We want to foster that ability of our children to blur the lines of their world just enough to spark their innate ability to explore without fear or doubt.

 

Exploration builds the ability to focus and use creativity as a framework for thinking and processing the world around us. The ability to adapt quickly to the changing world seeking novelty in what is around us for assistance is a very important skill to possess in our rapidly evolving world.

 

How does it work?

 

Fostering exploration creates 3 general overall outcomes, it awakens problem solving, it fosters meaningful expansion in intelligence, and it enriches the ability to be more emotionally aware and confident.

It awakens in the mind a capacity to use this spark of curiosity to solve problems presented with open ended solutions to accept or reject without judgement, letting the learning become organic.

 

It fosters the intelligence by growing the ability to become focused and trains the mind to be able to work on the whole picture without stress, trusting in the process with excitement, using it as a framework or system to be seen as a whole picture.

 

It also creates an inner sense of self confidence and helps establish a child or a person's inner dialogue and sense of emotional self control. Taking chances in exploration helps ground a person in their confidence, helping them learn to trust their risk taking and ability to be curious. It grows this as well when engaging in group activities that assist the child in cooperative play in groups for a common goal thus building social and emotional awareness in the process.

 

So... As we grow our ability to confidently take explorations, we grow our ability to be more visionary, whole brained and compassionate!

 

 

​

 

 

School Supplies:

 

 

All weather clothing needed and a change of clothes, which includes but is not limited to:

(during the season needed)

 

 

Rain boots

Rain coat

Snow coat

Snow boots

Hats for all weather

Gloves

Bug spray (pre-applied)

Sunscreen (pre-applied)

 

 

Schedule will remain in operation unless we are in an inclement weather or warning type weather situation.

 

We will not play in the lightning or tornadoes, but we will play and learn in the rain, mud and snow.



If inclement weather occurs, we will be inside the building in a classroom.