Dear Waldorf early childhood colleagues,
I hope that the children, families and teachers in your school community are all healthy, and that you are finding ways to bring simplicity, trust, confidence and goodness to the children in these stressful times.
Many of you are making plans for supporting children and families if and when your school or program needs to close for a week or two or longer. Several Waldorf schools have announced closings this week, and it is likely that many others will close in the coming days and weeks. We would like to share resources and suggestions with you that we hope you will find helpful for parents and educators.
Resources for Families of Young Children in Difficult Times
WECAN has posted a number of helpful articles on the Parents and Families page of the WECAN website that you may want to share with parents. The address is http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/family.php. The resources include the following:
Resources from the Waldorf Community:
How Do I Find and Create Goodness for My Children
Communicating with Children and Supporting Them in Difficult Times
Support for Working through Flu (treatments which should help with coronavirus, too)
Suggestions for Parents for When the Kindergarten Needs to Close (Letter from Norwegian kindergartens)
Other Resources for Families:
How to Talk to Kids about Coronavirus
How to Stay Sane When Working from Home with Young Children
Why the Coronavirus (Mostly) Spares Children
School is Closing. Now What?
Resources for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators in Difficult Times
We plan to post a number of suggestions and links on our WECAN Resources for Educators page soon at http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/resources.php In the meantime, we would like to pass along some suggestions for you to consider as you make your plans.
If your school closes: It is important to remind ourselves that the most profound influence on children comes through the attitudes of the adults around them, and therefore our main focus is the support we can offer to parents. Here are some suggestions gathered from recent conversations:
o Most schools are deciding that the early childhood teachers will contact each family to support the parents in creating the best possible situation to meet the needs of their child at home.
o Some schools plan to have one-on-one parent/teacher phone calls or video calls each week for this purpose.
o In addition, some early childhood classes are planning to host weekly Zoom “parent evenings” so that parents can share ideas with one another, with the teacher present as a participant.
o One school is planning to offer weekly Simplicity Parenting classes for parents during the time when school is closed.
o A few schools are using “Google Classroom”, a password protected site, so that parents can share recipes, stories and suggestions for activities with one another.
o One school is sending parents lists of recommended books – children’s storybooks and resources for activities, such as those available through WECAN Books at http://store.waldorfearlychildhood.org. Parents who purchase these activity books receive a credit from the school.
o Early childhood teachers at a school that closed this week are creating little packets for parents to pick up at the school at the beginning of each week that the school is closed. In the packets for this first week were some poems, a story for parents to tell their children, supplies for making a beanbag together and directions for a beanbag game. Such packets could contain songs, beeswax, or crayons and paper, a bread baking recipe. Because they have mixed-age kindergartens, they are tailoring the craft activities to the ages of the particular children, with different projects for six-year-olds than for the younger ones.
o It is important to avoid asking parents to try to replicate the Waldorf early childhood program at home. Instead, focusing on activities that can be integrated into the family setting is important. Several schools have developed helpful and interesting ideas for continuing to hold classes electronically for high school, middle school and possibly lower school children, but this is obviously not appropriate for early childhood.
o It is not a matter of “delivering” a Waldorf early childhood “curriculum” for the children. Instead, the best thing for children is to have a happy and active time at home with their family. Life is the curriculum! Sending audio or visual recordings of the early childhood teacher singing or doing a morning circle or engaging or “teaching” the children through screens is not in the spirit of Waldorf early childhood education. This special Corona-virus situation is not a reason to go against what we know is healthy for children.
o Instead, we want to offer families support for keeping things simple and rhythmical at home, offering experiences that support the development of the lower senses.
o The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has many excellent suggestions as we approach Screen-Free Week, in which many Waldorf schools participate. For more information, visit their web page at https://commercialfreechildhood.org/social-distancing/
Here is a collection of comments and advice from a recent early childhood conversation hosted by AWSNA:
*Do not overpromise! Do not offer more than what the early childhood teachers or the school as a whole can actually manage to deliver. Take things a week or two at a time.
*Allow for individual classes to have individual approaches, but make sure that there is some consistency within the department, to avoid confusion in the parent body, especially in families with multiple children at the school. It is helpful to have a school-wide overview.
*Keep special needs of particular families in mind - children with ADA needs or families where there are equity considerations, etc. to make sure that diverse needs are also being considered. If families have no internet connection, arrangements could be made to print out resources that can be picked up at the school.
The next scheduled AWSNA early childhood networking conversation is scheduled for Friday, April 3 at 11:00 HI, 2:00 PT, 3:00 MT, 4:00 CT, 5:00 ET. Here is the link to the call: https://zoom.us/j/4578851173. If you are not in an AWSNA Member school and would like to participate, please contact me at [email protected].
WECAN will continue to offer support and resources. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to share suggestions. In challenging times such as these, we can experience gratitude for the tremendous strength, warmth, and resilience of our communities.
Steadfast I stand in the world
With certainty I tread the path of life
Love I cherish in the core of my being
Hope I carry into every deed
Confidence I imprint upon my thinking.
These five lead me to my goal
These five give me my existence.
-Rudolf Steiner
With best wishes to you and your children, families and colleagues,
Susan Howard
WECAN Coordinator
More ...
I hope that the children, families and teachers in your school community are all healthy, and that you are finding ways to bring simplicity, trust, confidence and goodness to the children in these stressful times.
Many of you are making plans for supporting children and families if and when your school or program needs to close for a week or two or longer. Several Waldorf schools have announced closings this week, and it is likely that many others will close in the coming days and weeks. We would like to share resources and suggestions with you that we hope you will find helpful for parents and educators.
Resources for Families of Young Children in Difficult Times
WECAN has posted a number of helpful articles on the Parents and Families page of the WECAN website that you may want to share with parents. The address is http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/family.php. The resources include the following:
Resources from the Waldorf Community:
How Do I Find and Create Goodness for My Children
Communicating with Children and Supporting Them in Difficult Times
Support for Working through Flu (treatments which should help with coronavirus, too)
Suggestions for Parents for When the Kindergarten Needs to Close (Letter from Norwegian kindergartens)
Other Resources for Families:
How to Talk to Kids about Coronavirus
How to Stay Sane When Working from Home with Young Children
Why the Coronavirus (Mostly) Spares Children
School is Closing. Now What?
Resources for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators in Difficult Times
We plan to post a number of suggestions and links on our WECAN Resources for Educators page soon at http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/resources.php In the meantime, we would like to pass along some suggestions for you to consider as you make your plans.
If your school closes: It is important to remind ourselves that the most profound influence on children comes through the attitudes of the adults around them, and therefore our main focus is the support we can offer to parents. Here are some suggestions gathered from recent conversations:
o Most schools are deciding that the early childhood teachers will contact each family to support the parents in creating the best possible situation to meet the needs of their child at home.
o Some schools plan to have one-on-one parent/teacher phone calls or video calls each week for this purpose.
o In addition, some early childhood classes are planning to host weekly Zoom “parent evenings” so that parents can share ideas with one another, with the teacher present as a participant.
o One school is planning to offer weekly Simplicity Parenting classes for parents during the time when school is closed.
o A few schools are using “Google Classroom”, a password protected site, so that parents can share recipes, stories and suggestions for activities with one another.
o One school is sending parents lists of recommended books – children’s storybooks and resources for activities, such as those available through WECAN Books at http://store.waldorfearlychildhood.org. Parents who purchase these activity books receive a credit from the school.
o Early childhood teachers at a school that closed this week are creating little packets for parents to pick up at the school at the beginning of each week that the school is closed. In the packets for this first week were some poems, a story for parents to tell their children, supplies for making a beanbag together and directions for a beanbag game. Such packets could contain songs, beeswax, or crayons and paper, a bread baking recipe. Because they have mixed-age kindergartens, they are tailoring the craft activities to the ages of the particular children, with different projects for six-year-olds than for the younger ones.
o It is important to avoid asking parents to try to replicate the Waldorf early childhood program at home. Instead, focusing on activities that can be integrated into the family setting is important. Several schools have developed helpful and interesting ideas for continuing to hold classes electronically for high school, middle school and possibly lower school children, but this is obviously not appropriate for early childhood.
o It is not a matter of “delivering” a Waldorf early childhood “curriculum” for the children. Instead, the best thing for children is to have a happy and active time at home with their family. Life is the curriculum! Sending audio or visual recordings of the early childhood teacher singing or doing a morning circle or engaging or “teaching” the children through screens is not in the spirit of Waldorf early childhood education. This special Corona-virus situation is not a reason to go against what we know is healthy for children.
o Instead, we want to offer families support for keeping things simple and rhythmical at home, offering experiences that support the development of the lower senses.
o The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has many excellent suggestions as we approach Screen-Free Week, in which many Waldorf schools participate. For more information, visit their web page at https://commercialfreechildhood.org/social-distancing/
Here is a collection of comments and advice from a recent early childhood conversation hosted by AWSNA:
*Do not overpromise! Do not offer more than what the early childhood teachers or the school as a whole can actually manage to deliver. Take things a week or two at a time.
*Allow for individual classes to have individual approaches, but make sure that there is some consistency within the department, to avoid confusion in the parent body, especially in families with multiple children at the school. It is helpful to have a school-wide overview.
*Keep special needs of particular families in mind - children with ADA needs or families where there are equity considerations, etc. to make sure that diverse needs are also being considered. If families have no internet connection, arrangements could be made to print out resources that can be picked up at the school.
The next scheduled AWSNA early childhood networking conversation is scheduled for Friday, April 3 at 11:00 HI, 2:00 PT, 3:00 MT, 4:00 CT, 5:00 ET. Here is the link to the call: https://zoom.us/j/4578851173. If you are not in an AWSNA Member school and would like to participate, please contact me at [email protected].
WECAN will continue to offer support and resources. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to share suggestions. In challenging times such as these, we can experience gratitude for the tremendous strength, warmth, and resilience of our communities.
Steadfast I stand in the world
With certainty I tread the path of life
Love I cherish in the core of my being
Hope I carry into every deed
Confidence I imprint upon my thinking.
These five lead me to my goal
These five give me my existence.
-Rudolf Steiner
With best wishes to you and your children, families and colleagues,
Susan Howard
WECAN Coordinator
More ...