How to Raise Your Babies - Waldorf-Steiner Educational Method

By Leonor Collins

If you are reading this description, I bet you want to discover the world of parenting but you don't know where to start. True?

I have 2 good news for you:

 

- Getting started in this wonderful adventure is an amazing experience
- You are going to buy the right book

 

In this SERIES you will find a lot of useful information regarding parenting, the fears that can pervade a parent's mind, what problems can arise in the proper education of their children and an overview of particular educational systems, based on a progression of activities of learning and practices, such as the Montessori method and the Waldorf-Steiner method.

The macro topics covered are the following:

 

- BOOK 1 Parenting in the third millennium
- BOOK 2 Raise a happy child
- BOOK 3 Montessori educational method
- BOOK 4 Waldorf-Steiner educational method

 

You will also find useful tips on what to do and what not to do to make your child proud of himself and prevent him from feeling uncomfortable in small everyday situations.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leonor Collins
• Release date: Sep 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201147631

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Waldorf Education is a worldwide independent school system founded by Austrian philosopher, social reformer, and visionary Rudolf Steiner approximately 100 years ago in Europe. Waldorf Education is now present in over 60 countries, with around 1000 schools and nearly 2000 early childhood programs. The learning process in Waldorf Education is essentially threefold, involving the mind, heart, and hands—or thinking, feeling, and doing. This is the foundation on which Waldorf instructors build a curriculum and approach that incorporates academics, the arts, and practical skills to nurture and engage each child.

Even though Waldorf Education has been offered in the United States since 1928, it has never been particularly well-known when the Rudolf Steiner School opened in New York City. A growing awareness of the many benefits a child gains from exposure to art, movement, and nature is accompanied by concern over the increasing use of technology by students of all ages. News that high-tech industry leaders are touting the lifelong benefits of low-tech is also accompanied by concern.

Early childhood (birth to age seven), middle childhood (ages seven to fourteen), and adolescence (ages fourteen to twenty-one) are all periods of childhood in Waldorf Education (adolescence). Intellectually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, each stage impacts how children feel about and approach the world, shaping how they learn. According to Waldorf educators, curricula and teaching techniques should be appropriately suited to these developmental phases, evolving as childhood continues.

Children learn best by imitation and live mostly through their senses from infancy to seven years old. Waldorf early childhood educators support each child's blossoming by providing gentle yet sensory-rich environments and play-based activities that encourage young children to investigate the natural world, explore social relationships, and expand imaginative capacities, all while striving to be role models worthy of imitation. These activities lay the foundation for a child's cognitive, emotional, and physical development.

Children learn best between the ages of seven and fourteen if exposed to lessons that appeal to their emotions and stimulate their creative faculties. In the Waldorf lower school curriculum, fairy tales and fables, mythological sagas, and inspiring biographies of historical figures abound. Waldorf elementary (or class) instructors weave a tapestry of experience that brings each subject to life in the child's thinking, feeling, and willingness through storytelling, drama, rhythmic movement, visual arts, and music. Teachers in Waldorf grades 1–8 are entrusted with the vital task of accompanying their students on a multi-year journey, guiding their formal academic learning while also stimulating moral growth and increasing their sense of their place in the world.

The independent mind and the ability to examine the world abstractly and utilize discernment, judgment, and critical thinking develop between the ages of 14 and 21. Students in Waldorf high schools receive increased power over their studies under teachers who are specialists in their fields.

Observe the students at play in a Waldorf school. You'll encounter kids who love being free to live in the moment, to explore nature, and to wander wherever their wide-eyed sense of wonder and imagination takes them. In our fast-paced culture, when being told to hurry up or fall behind has been the norm, Waldorf Education believes that childhood should be treasured. Waldorf-educated children have complete and rich childhoods because they are free to develop according to their natural rhythms, receiving the experiences they need to become healthy, self-actualized adults.

You won't see young children crowded around a computer, preceding a walk in the woods, or a trip to the farm to sit and cram for a standardized test in a Waldorf school classroom. Learning is an experiential activity in Waldorf Education. It's not an issue of avoiding some experiences; it's a matter of exposing children to each one at the appropriate developmental stage. Waldorf school teachers are the ones that teach about the benefits, applications, and hows of technology. And the information, self-awareness, and problem-solving abilities that children get through years of hands-on inquiry are far more valuable to them as learners and human beings than anything they could acquire via a screen.

Block learning has long been regarded as beneficial in Waldorf education. Waldorf students in grades one through twelve spend up to two hours each morning (or major) session focusing on one subject that rotates every three to four weeks among the academic disciplines. Students can study each subject in-depth and from various viewpoints, which increases their appreciation for — and knowledge of — the subject matter.

Through eighth-graders and high schoolers, kindergartners create their textbooks, beautifully designed notebooks full of stories and math computations. Rather than relying on pre-digested knowledge presented in standard textbooks, children can absorb the teachings brought to them by their teachers and make learning their own by creating their own primary lesson books.

Waldorf educators strive to bring forth the best in each student while not favoring one trait or skill. Every student studies math, science, and foreign languages; every student sing in the chorus and plays an instrument; every student learns handwork and participates in movement classes. Everyone in the class plays. The goal of Waldorf education is to expose children to a wide range of experiences and interests. As a result, well-rounded young people develop, with high levels of confidence in their ability to transfer skills obtained in one discipline to another and believe that they can master anything. Education is not judged by competition or exam scores at a Waldorf school; rather, it is considered a lifelong journey. And an educational strategy that effectively reacts to a child's inherent curiosity about the world will inevitably lead to an intrinsic drive to learn more.

Because of the complexity of the fine, practical, and performing arts curriculum found here, woven in an interdisciplinary fashion throughout all courses, Waldorf schools are frequently mistakenly referred to as art schools. Surprisingly, many Waldorf school graduates pursue careers in the sciences, a passion they developed through years of experimentation, creation, and discovery.

While Waldorf Education places children at the center of its pedagogy, the educational process in Waldorf schools is centered on the teacher. A person who decides to teach in a Waldorf school devotes their entire self to the growth of others,