Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner Preschool Willoughby

Essentials of Steiner Early Childhood Philosophy

Love and Warmth

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Love and emotional warmth create the basis for the child’s healthy development. These qualities are expressed in what lives between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behaviour toward one another, and among the early childhood educators, parents the surrounding community.
 
An Environment that Nourishes the Senses and a Secure Rhythm
 
Early learning is profoundly connected to the children’s own physical and sensory experience.
Everything the young child sees, hears, and touches has an effect. Thus a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential. The physical environment, should provide varied and nourishing opportunities for self-education—experiences in touch, balance, lively and joyful movement, and also inward  listening. The care, love, and intention expressed through the outer materials and furnishings of the environment are experienced unconsciously by the child. The child experiences the immediate environment as ensouled and nurturing.
The educator shapes the temporal environment as well as the spatial. Through a rhythmic schedule, in which something happens at the same time but with different creative nuances, the child gains a sense of security and confidence in the world. The different activities of the day take place in a
comfortable flow with smooth musical or spoken creative transition verses and songs. 

 
Creative and Artistic Experience
 
In early childhood, the art of education is the art of living. The teachers are artists in how they perceive and relate to the children and to the activities of daily life. They orchestrate and choreograph the rhythms of each day, each week, and each season in such a way that the children can breathe freely in a living structure. In addition, the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences in singing and music, in movement and gesture—through movement and rhythmic games—and in creative speech and language—through verses, poetry, and stories. The children model with  beeswax, draw, and do watercolour painting. Puppet and marionette shows put on by the teacher are an important element in the life of the kindergarten.
 
Meaningful Adult Activity to be Imitated
“The task of the early childhood educator is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child’s imitation through play. . . . The activities of children, must be derived directly from life itself rather than being “thought out” by the intellectualized culture of adults. ….

— Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness

Real, meaningful work with a purpose, adjusted to the needs of the child, is in accordance with the child’s natural and inborn need for activity, and is an enormously significant part of the education. The teacher focuses on the meaningful activities that nurture, such as cooking and baking, gardening, doing laundry and cleaning, creating and caring for the materials in the immediate environment, and taking care of the bodily needs of the children. This directed attention of the teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom in which the individuality of each child can be active. It is not intended just that the children copy the outer movements and actions of the adult, but that they experience also the inner attitude—the devotion, care, sense of purpose, focus, and creative spirit of the adult.
 
Self-Initiated Free, Imaginative Play
“In the child’s play activity, we can only provide the conditions for education. What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child, the real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theory, and allow the child free rein.” 

— Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Anthroposophy

Little children learn through play. They approach play out of their entirely individual ways, out of their unique configuration of soul and spirit, and out of their unique experiences of the world in which they live. The manner in which a child plays may offer a picture of how they will take up their destiny as an adult. The task of the teacher is to create an environment that supports the possibility of healthy play. This environment includes the physical surroundings, furnishings, and play materials; the social environment of activities and social interactions; and the inner/spiritual environment of thoughts, intentions, and imaginations held by the adults.
 
Protection of the Forces of Childhood

The lively, waking dream of the little child’s consciousness must be allowed to thrive in the early childhood group. This means that the educator refrains as much as possible from verbal instruction. Instead, her gestures and actions provide a model for the child’s imitation. Familiar daily rhythms
and activities provide a context where the need for verbal instruction is reduced. Simple, archetypal imagery in stories, songs, and games provides experiences that the children can internalise but that do not require intellectual or critical reflection or explanation. 

 
Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder
“An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel and express as they receive what is freely given by others.. If a child says ‘thank you’ very naturally—not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating— something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life. Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop toward the whole world. Out of these early, all-pervading experiences of gratitude, the first tender capacity for love, which is deeply embedded in each and every child, begins to blossom.. .

—Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness This is the basis for what will become a capacity for deep, intimate love and commitment in later life, for dedication and loyalty, for true admiration of others, for spiritual devotion, and for placing oneself wholeheartedly in the service of the  world.
 
Joy, Humour, and Happiness

The teacher’s earnestness about her work and her serious striving must be balanced with humour and a demeanour that radiates happiness. There must be moments of humour and delight in the preschool every day. The children need many moments of laughter and joy.
 
Early Childhood Educators on a Path of Inner Development
 
We foster an ethical soul-spiritual environment in our early childhood setting: the thoughts, attitudes, and imaginations living in the adults who care for the children are important. This invisible realm that lies behind the outer actions of the teacher has a profound influence on the child’s development. The spiritual environment includes recognition of the child as a threefold being—of body, soul, and spirit. Through this we recognised their uniqueness and the wisdom in their being. Ultimately, the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings—and who we
are becoming and how. The child experiences the ideal we strive towards.