Gateways

Download the article: Wawa Munakuy Nursery Kindergarten

In early May of 2009 we had the good fortune to be present at the inauguration of Wawa Munakuy Nursery-Kindergarten (pronounced Wa' wa Moo nah ' koo wee, meaningfor the love of the children in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru). As we crossed the beautifully decorated threshold that sun-drenched afternoon, the delicate aroma of calla lilies and native roses wafted in the air.

We gathered together in verse, song, and dance with parents, children, and friends to give thanks for the completion of the new building which would house Wawa Munakuy. The moment of dedication had arrived and the tones of indigenous instruments invited the procession of teachers and niños to enter the school. Adorned with flower crowns and dressed in native costume, the children were led by their teachers, heads dappled with flowers. Acknowledgements were made of the many friends worldwide without whose support this dream could not have come true. The Foundation Stone Meditation was read and we did the Hallelujah in eurythmy before the foundation stone was laid near the flower-bedecked arch of the portal to the kindergarten.

Download the article: Clean-up time: Chaos or Co-operation?

When I began teaching I dreaded clean-up time with my mixed-age kindergarten class of twenty-four children. It was definitely a time of chaos as I tried to pretend it was a smooth continuation of play. I had the sense I was trying to impose my ideas on top of the children's play, with very limited success. I was giving out directions on the fly to whoever was close by and then moving on to another area and trying to direct the flow towards cleaning up. When I had an experienced teacher come to evaluate me, I was given some direction. She sensed the chaos at this time, and suggested bringing them out of play and then starting to clean up. I was very open to trying this.

Download the article: The Importance of Touch

In my work as a Waldorf kindergarten teacher, I have tried to conscientiously strengthen and enhance the four foundational senses for the children in my care. In many of the classroom activities I try to make sure to incorporate movement, balance, and provide warmth and security for a sense of well-being. I have begun to question whether I have given the children enough opportunities in the sense of touch. The children knead dough, and they touch and play with various natural materials inside and outside, but is this enough? Are the children touched in an authentic, loving way each day by the teachers? I have tried to review the morning and find appropriate times where I could be affectionate in an authentic way, which can be very different for each child considering the needs and sensitivities that they bring. For one child it is enough to hold her hand when coming inside from play, while another child might need me to hold him on my lap with my arms around him in a gentle but firm touch.

Download the article: Awakening to Child Health

by Raoul Goldberg, MD (Hawthorn Press, 2009).

Awakening to Child Health articulates Dr. Goldberg's research into the sources of children's well-being. In this thoughtful approach to children Goldberg begins by connecting the reader with the wonder of childhood by hearkening back to one's own experience as a child, while examples from Dr. Goldberg's years of experience are found throughout the book. (Dr. Goldberg has been a Waldorf school doctor in South Africa for many years. He has a pediatric clinic and directs the Syringa Health Centre in Capetown, a holistic health clinic with a wide range of complementary therapies.)

Download the article: Letters From the Editors

In the early 1980s when I entered the Waldorf kindergarten as a (dare I admit) untrained, wide-eyed teacher with the best of intentions and "a good sense for kids," the Waldorf Kindergarten Association Newsletter was a godsend. The few volumes available were treasures, and I collected them all. The rich body of published resources we now have was then only a dream. The newsletter was the primary source of songs, stories, circle activities, festival celebrations, and practical activities. Additional articles with insights into early childhood development and Waldorf pedagogy enlightened me: "so-that's-why-we-do-what-we-do!" The newsletter offered a collective opportunity for professional development of its readership and was a first link in creating a teaching community.

Download the article: The Senses as Doorway of Relating

This is a chapter from Steve's as yet unpublished book on relating and speaking with young children, tentatively entitled How To Listen So The Young Child Can Speak.

Now, this means that the first three years of life are those which prepare the child to become a member of humanity. Man is born out of the isolation in which he existed in the maternal womb, because there he was nothing else but an isolated, developing being; a being given up to cosmic powers; a being spun into its own karma. This however is a germ which unfolds and grows into walking, into speaking and communicating, and into thinking and imparting, thereby developing the prerequisites for a social life. . . We also know that something else develops out of walking, speaking and thinking. The sense of word develops out of walking and thereby speaking comes into being; the sense of thought develops out of speaking and thereby thinking emerges, while the sense of Ego develops out of thinking and thereby the knowledge, the immediate sensory experience arises that the other person is an individual. You see, walking, speaking and thinking are the prerequisites for a social organism (König, 38-39).

Download the article: Math and Science in the Kindergarten

Steiner-based, early childhood settings abound with rich opportunities for the development of math and science concepts. This may be surprising to some who can easily see the beauty, coziness, and language-rich environment of the Waldorf kindergarten, but not necessarily the mathematical or scientific side. A primary focus of Waldorf early childhood education is on the care and development of the physical body of the child, and that of the child's environment. Considering the "physical" basis of the early years, it then becomes possible to glimpse the natural mathematical relationships. In reality, all activities of Steiner-based early childhood education are math-and science-based, including activities of language acquisition and pre-literacy, such as listening and word recognition, patterning, and story sequencing.

Download the article: The Dignity of the Small Child

Introduction
Eighteen years ago the question of the care of the small child emerged as a topic distinct from the work of Waldorf kindergartens. Now we find ourselves at a re-birthing of the birth-to-three movement, a challenging task because it must take into account varied ideas and views, scientific findings, current practices, and public and private regulation.

The Dignity of the Small Child conferences began in 1999. The fourth conference was held at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland in June, 2010. About 700 participants attended from over thirty countries. Eight educators came from North America. Pedagogues from around the world offered twenty-six workshops on all aspects of the care of the young child. The next Dignity of the Small Child conference will be held at the Goetheanum in 2013.

Download the article: Educating the Movement Body and A Drum

Steve Spitalny's article on the twelve senses, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, describes the individual senses and their importance for human development. Our work in early childhood particularly focuses upon supporting the senses of touch (tactile), life, self-movement (proprioceptive), and balance (vestibular). While sometimes also called the "lower senses: they are in no way inferior to or less important than the better-known senses of smell, taste, sight, and hearing. To the contrary, they are literally the foundation upon which other sensory—not to mention academic and emotional—development depends.

The completeness and maturity of each of these sensory systems heralds how fully other skills related to these domains may unfold. For example, the sense of self-movement/proprioception gives the child her first "map" through the experience of body geography. Which are my shoulders, my elbows, my hands? What is their order in my body? Do I know them so well that I do not need to see where hands and arms are to put on my jacket? Can I sense how hard to pull to zip it up?

Download the article: Childhood as an Impulse for Integrated Human Development

The International Early Childhood Conference took place on July 4-8, 2010, in the Escola Rudolf Steiner in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The theme of the conference was Childhood as an Impulse for Integrated Human Development. The Escola Rudolf Steiner is one of forty Waldorf Schools in the Sao Paulo area; it is hard for us to imagine so many schools in one area, but Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of 20 million people.

Waldorf education first came to Brazil in 1957, but as with so many other anthroposophic endeavors in Brazil, it has spread rapidly. There are now 73 Waldorf Schools in Brazil, twelve of them with high schools. Fifteen teacher training seminars exist, training 450 new teachers at present, and there are 2,050 Waldorf teachers throughout Brazil. In 2008, Brazil became a member of IASWECE (The International Association of Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education), making it the first country in South America to have representation on the Council. Sylvia Jensen, from Florianapolis, is the representative to the Council from Brazil.

Download the article: The Lakota Waldorf School

The Mid-States Shared Gifting Group awarded AWSNA a grant that would provide two visits to the Lakota Waldorf School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota. The visits to this school were to determine the status and the level of sustainability of this school and to find helpful supports for its future development. Tom and Laurie Clark, long-time grades and kindergarten teachers at the Denver Waldorf School, received a call from Patrice Maynard, the Outreach and Development leader of AWSNA, to see if they would be interested in participating with her in such a project. They were in the midst of planning a half-year sabbatical and were honored to add this to the list of plans they had in place already, including Mexico and China. Theirs was not to be a restful sabbatical but a busy one full of lively adventures.

The first visit was in October of 2009 for three days. When they walked into the classroom, they met Verola Spider, the Lakota teacher. Verola spent these days working with Laurie Clark to make the room more inviting, and discussing the needs of the young child. Verola has many years of teaching experience and was taking the Lifeways training in Boulder, Colorado. Laurie and Verola were quick friends, comfortable with one another immediately; and they found commonality in their love of being with small children. Both shared humor and flexibility. These days of mentoring and coaching Verola in the classroom had Laurie demonstrating circle, cooking and baking, coloring, beeswax modeling, and story time. The children are given a hot breakfast, lunch and a snack each day before they go home at three pm, so there is a lot of cooking to be done! After the children left on the school bus, these two teachers would review the day together and plan for the following. They marveled at the strength and energy that the children had despite the destitution, the disruption, and the want that are part of all the children's lives at Pine Ridge. They are unusually beautiful children—open, and unburdened by material possessions.

Download the article: Book Review

by Renate Long-Breipohl (WECAN, 2010).

In August, 2008 at the international conference in Wilton, a colleague from Australia took me aside to share the collection of photographs that she had brought with her. We spread the photos out all around us and I could not tear myself away from them. Here were children indoors and out, playing in ways that Pauline described as illustrating the whole history of humanity, in ways that I could never recall having seen.

I was filled with joy to see the fruits of her years of teaching in this artistic outpouring, but all I could think was that others as well as myself deserved the opportunity to experience these wonderful pictures. It's a book, I kept telling her, you must make them into a book!

Download the article: Young Children Today

(Many of these ideas were presented in a lecture at the International Waldorf Teachers' Conference in Dornach, Switzerland, in April 1996. The conference focused on karma and reincarnation and their implications for education today. The theme of this talk is especially relevant to this summer's International Kindergarten Conference and is included here as an introduction to that conference.)

For the past 20 or more years we have watched a decline in the health and well-being of children in North America. We have been concerned and, at times, preoccupied with the growing problems the children present. Now it seems we have overlooked something that is just as strong as the problems: this is a remarkable generation of children and young adults who have brought new levels of awareness to the earth with them. They need our protection and help, but they also need our recognition of the gifts they have brought.

When we look at this younger generation, those ranging from birth into the upper twenties, we see a group that is quite different from those in their thirties, forties, or fifties. We first became aware of this in Waldorf circles in the following way. When the Waldorf training programs began in the United States twenty years ago, the students were largely the young people who had been activists in the 1960's. Born during and after World War II, it was a generation that had been involved in the Civil Rights movement, the anti-war movement and the uproar on college campuses in the late 1960's. In the 1970's they grew quieter, turning toward meditation and spiritual growth, and, in many cases, toward Waldorf education and Anthroposophy.

Download the article: Caring for the Life-Forces of the Young Child

What are "life forces"?
One may be inclined to connect the concept of life forces with the amount of energy, of liveliness, of physical activity displayed by a person. Certainly life forces may manifest somehow within these phenomena. Yet one can get to a more precise description by considering life forces in nature first and then look at the human being again. Nature in its mineral content has been investigated thoroughly through natural science. Nature as far as the plant world is concerned embraces water, air, light and the warmth of the sun. These elements make life on earth possible and are the necessary conditions for plants, animals and humans. Scientific research has not been able to explain the phenomenon of life. Yet we may get an inkling of it by observing plant growth: the unfolding from seed to flower, the balance of forces which pull downward and push upward. Many secrets are hidden in the growing child. Let us call "life forces" all that works behind the scene in sustaining a living organism, making it grow and preventing it from falling into the condition of the mineral world which is the condition of death.

Download the article: Laying the Physical Foundation of the Consciousness Soul

(From a talk given at the International Kindergarten Conference, England, September 1995. This report is a combination of notes taken by Gill Taplin and Lynne Oldfield.)

How can we support child development between birth and seven so that the Consciousness Soul can develop fully between the ages 35-42? This is a matter of present development working for the future. We can consider three important principles.

1. The state of the child and his relationship to his own higher members.
At birth the physical body is born but immature and not yet mastered. The other bodies are in embryonic form. The child lives in a created world - things just &. This is the world of the Father God, or greater God, 'Thou shalt not'. The child and the world are one. Gradually independence comes about, but within our physical body the world of childhood is written. This world encompasses also the people in our world, together with their inner qualities.

2. The relationship of body and soul between 0-7.
The soul is embryo-like within the child. It perceives physical bodily processes and incorporates them into itself. Later these are transformed into soul processes. We must look carefully at them. The soul is "watching" now in order to act later. We must be responsible for what is observed.

The physical body is a temple, reflecting the macrocosm both generally and individually. We need to have reverence and tremendous care for it. The wisdom of the human body is far greater than that of individual wisdom.

Download the article: Waldorf Day Care Conference

This report appeared in the Kindergarten Newsletter of Great Britain, Spring 1996.

The purpose of this weekend was to discuss Waldorf day care for children under three, arising out of an Anthroposophical understanding of the child's true nature and its development in the first three years in the context of present social conditions.

A few such centers already exist, notably in Denmark, which traditionally has had a long history of daycare for the children of working mothers. In East Germany, early day care has been the tradition since World War II, and in Holland it has been growing in the past five years.

There were representatives from Denmark, Holland, Germany, and England. The core group has been set up as a working-party for the International Vereinigung (IV) in order to explore the many issues that arise from this theme (the statutes of the IV include the child from birth to seven years).

Download the article: Day Care

At our last Kindergarten Association Board Meeting, a brief discussion arose around the questions and issues of day care. Realizing that this is an area of work that our movement needs to address, we chose to study the young child from birth to three in this coming year.

In the meantime, following up on an inspired conversation I had in England while attending the 1995 International Kindergarten Conference, I began considering the possibility of helping others bring to birth a new approach to day care that could support the full spectrum from home day care to corporate day care. This would involve establishing a training program, creating a pilot/lab program and, eventually, helping others establish centers.

Download the article: Letters Home Day Care

(In the last issue of the Newsletter we published a letter from Joyce on home day care and after care programs. To give a fuller picture, she has written the following for us.)

It is important that home day care and after care teachers have a collegial relationship with the kindergarten teachers of their local Waldorf School, as well as with other home care teachers in their area who are working out of Anthroposophy. One can feel rather isolated at home if this relationship does not exist. It can be developed and fostered through a weekly meeting where a study of one of Rudolf Steiner's lectures is taken up, and a time could also be allotted for child study, discussions and support around a difficult child, or a sharing of ideas on celebrating festivals, sharing seasonal songs, puppet shows and stories.

Download the article: Ringtime as Pedagogical Opportunity

Ringtime (circletime) is a powerful pedagogical tool for supporting the young child's development. With it, the kindergarten teacher has an opportunity for concentrated work in a variety of developmental areas.

To begin with, ringtime needs to be defined in general terms as a starting point. Ringtime is a thematic description in song, poem, and prose accompanied by gesture and movement that paints a picture of what is going on in the life of the child. It is not necessarily a story with a plot, but it would not do to have a hodgepodge of assorted songs and poems without a connecting theme. The children need a thread to tie it all together in their imagination. It is essential to include the appropriate work of human beings within the given season. Ringtime provides a physical experience and exercises the imagination in creating inner pictures of the activities as well. The children are not instructed how to do the movements, or even to do them. The teacher's example is simply imitated out of the children's will. At the beginning of the school year, my ringtimes last perhaps 10 minutes. As the weeks and months progress, I sometimes stretch out to 30 minutes. As with all aspects of kindergarten work, we must look to the needs of the children in a particular group to know what is appropriate and needed.

Download the article: The Bear

The winter now is cold and deep
In cave, the bear lies fast asleep.
His empty stomach rumbles and groans.
He wakes from sleep and stretches and yawns.
The hungry bear, no longer asleep,
Goes out looking for something to eat.
On front paws and hind feet
He wants to eat and go back to sleep.
Here is a forest, tall trees all around,
The tree tops are far from the ground.
The trees of the forest stand side-by-side,
The branches stretch out far and wide.
The bear looks and what does he see?
Some leaves still cling near the top of one tree.
The bear climbs and climbs and climbs so high
Up and up and up to the sky.
Out on the branch he carefully creeps
He eats the leaves, they taste quite sweet.
Back he creeps, no more leaves around,
Down the trunk, down to the ground.
On front paws and hind feet
The bear trudges through forest deep
Now in his cave, he curls up tight,
Cozy he slumbers. Goodnight, goodnight.

Download the article: National TV-Turnoff Week

An organization called TV-Free America has sponsored National TV-Turnoff Week for the last two years. This past April 24-30, thousands of schools, libraries and community groups nationwide joined in a coordinated effort to encourage millions of families and individuals to turn off their TV sets for seven days. Perhaps some of your schools also participated. If not, the information is listed below so you can write the organization and plan to participate in the future.

Our school offered a weekend of activities called "Tune Out The TV And Tune In To Life" to kick off the Turnoff week. Friday night we had a lecture for adults only that was geared toward looking at the phenomenon of television and its effects on people. The evening began by playing Simon Says, a game requiring very little mental alertness. It was then pointed out that, even in this very simple game, a person's brain activity and stimulation were far beyond that of the brain activity of a person watching television.

Download the article: Mobile for Spring or Summer

From Star Weavings, the publication of the Australian Waldoif Kindergarten Association, Spring 1995.

The birds could be made with spring colors for Easter, white for Whitsun, or fiery summery colors for the end of the year or St. John's Day. It is a simple activity that can be shared even with little children.

You will need:
- One 8 inch diameter wooden ring or piece of wire; can be covered with twisted tissue paper.
- A piece of white card about 7" x 9" (or of the color you choose to make your birds).
- One sheet of tissue paper (the color of your choice for wings).
- Some white, colored or gold thread.

Download the article: A Conversation on Color

Two girls were playing together in my Waldorf early childhood class. Amy, who was 5 years old, was fair skinned; Sarah was dark skinned - a lovely six year old soon to go to first grade. They had been together in the class the previous year so knew each other well. Suddenly Amy looked at Sarah and said, "Your skin is black!" as if she had seen the color of Sarah's skin for the first time. Hearing this comment from my work table, I was immediately concerned for Sarah. How could I protect her from being hurt? But Sarah replied in a matter of fact way, "Your skin is white." Then Amy said to Sarah, "You have a red dress on." Sarah replied, "You have a red blouse on." Two boys were playing nearby and had heard the conversation. One boy said, "Black isn't in the rainbow." The other boy said, "Neither is white." Then the play resumed without further ado.

Download the article: From the Children

Helping children face death has been a recurring theme in conversations with kindergarten teachers in recent years. A number of schools have experienced deaths in their school communities, the deaths of children and of parents. Such moments bring grief and sadness, but in such times one also finds inner strength and the richness of community life. When Alison Sanders, a first grader at the Washington Waldorf School, died last fall in a car accident, it also became a time when many of her friends came to the realization that death was not an end, but a continuation of the life they know and love here.

Alison and my daughter, Puanani, were first acquainted as three year olds in Acorn Hill's two-day class. Alison went to the Waldorf School kindergarten for a couple of years. They were reacquainted again in September in the first grade. A few days into the school year, Alison was in a fatal car accident. She was on life support for a day or so, and after she crossed the threshold she was brought home to lie in her bedroom for three days. The children had so many questions, which were finally answered, it seemed, by Alison herself as she lay in her bedroom, surrounded by family, friends, food and a lot of children running around and playing. Although it was so very sad, the experience was so beautiful.

Download the article: An Overview of Waldorf Early Childhood Education Today

So much has been developing in the world of Waldorf early childhood education that it is difficult to even compile a Newsletter these days. We had a remarkable conference this past summer in Wilton, N.H., some aspects of which are reported here. Most have to be left out, simply because the event was so rich and full that it does not lend itself well to the usual form of reporting. Instead we have focused on one of the missing parts - the presence of Helmut von Kügelgen whose health did not permit him to attend. He was to speak on the inner life of the teacher and its relationship to the life of the child. We know that he would have shared great inner riches with us, as he always has done, and we have decided to include in this issue a wonderful interview held with him several years ago on the subject of angels. We are especially grateful to be able to share this with you at this time, for December 14 marks his 80th birthday. We will convey the good wishes of our kindergarten movement to Dr. von Kügelgen, but those who would like to send individual thoughts may do so by sending him cards at the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association, 11 Heubergstr., D70188 Stuttgart, Germany. FAX 011-49-721925-747. Although this Newsletter is arriving late, feel free to send belated good wishes.