My firstborn son, Master C, is 3 years old.  He is truly one of the most amazing little people you could ever meet in life, if I do say so myself.  I don’t take credit for this fact: he was just born awesome.  He is articulate, funny, gentle, brave, sweet as pie and incredibly smart.  Plus, like most kids his age, he is freaking adorable. Of course, he is still a toddler and he is therefore expert at pushing the boundaries, getting into things he “shouldn’t”, making mess and providing me with many parenting challenges daily.

Why Waldorf?

The decision to bring rhythm, ritual and direction to our homelife in the form of a Steiner inspired preschool ‘curriculum’ (for lack of a better word) was due in large part to my dissatisfaction with how we had been parenting our boys lately; a kind of parenting on auto-pilot, if you will.  While we had parenting ideals that mirrored the values and practices embodied in the Waldorf approach, my husband and I had very much gotten off track with things and were no longer walking the talk.   I realised that, despite my belief that media should be limited (if not withheld altogether) as much as possible in a child’s first years on this planet, a whole year and a half had passed in which Master C had become a TV/iPhone/iPad addict while I was busy gestating and nurturing our second son, Baby J. I pulled myself out of my (not so) newborn baby fog and made the ‘radical’ decision to ditch our TV completely and focus on re-connecting and welcoming Master C into the rhythms of the household instead of distracting him from them; to plan activities, crafts and tasks that would support his curiosity and help us engage with one another. 

To read more about us and our decision to begin a Waldorf inspired Preschool at home, click here.

Where to begin?

Once I set my mind to making changes at home and cutting out all media, the bigger question remained: what exactly does a Steiner inspired homebased preschool look like?  What elements should I include?  What should I exclude? What is developmentally appropriate, what is not?  Indeed, within Steiner schools themselves, no real curriculum exists at all with children of this young age, as play itself is all that is necessary.  I understand and respect this notion, and agree with it, too.  In our case, however, I knew that I needed some structure each week that included specific activities, crafts and/or tasks, but I wasn’t sure where to start.  I stumbled upon a website in the US called Christopherus Homeschool Resources, which was hugely helpful.  I purchased their Early Years package and it was this that helped me get my head around what I might do.  The truth is, for the most part, we don’t do much.  My children both engage in free play all day long, popping in and out of interaction with me and the household tasks that I am undertaking, and this is how it should be.  Imitation, at this age, is the key way a child interacts with his world, and because of this we have made efforts to provide Master C (and Baby J to a lesser extent) with every opportunity to take part in the daily jobs that are necessary to keep our home running.  The rhythm we established for our week includes a theme for each weekday, and one activity/craft or task for each of those days (this provides Master C with something quiet to engage in while Baby J is asleep).

Our Weekly Rhythm

Monday – Baking Day
Tuesday – Lovingkindness Day
Wednesday – Gardening Day
Thursday – School Day
Friday – Chore Day

Saturday and Sunday are family days and are less focussed thematically, but the same activities happen each week on each day.  Master C goes on a “mission” with Big Daddy every Saturday morning, and usually returns with a Babychino mustache that speaks of a sneaky cafe stop off en route home.  Saturday is also the day I sit down and plan out my week ahead: meal plans, adjusting our wall calendar, shop lists and, of course, our Waldorf curriculum.  Sunday is the day we do our shop, iron shirts, and restore the house to its previous grandeur (or not). Do you “do” Waldorf at home?  What does your rhythm look like? I’d love to hear from you.