The focus each morning is the two-hour main lesson where the academic subjects are taught in three or four-week blocks. Sujbects are brought alive by the class teachers' skill in oral story-telling and presentation, and by integrating the arts into each subject to deepen and enliven the students' understanding.
Through plenty of outdoor play and experimentation in nature, the young child is exposed to the foundation of science in a practical way. In grades three through five, plants and animal facts are connected to human activites through storytelling. Formal lab science begins in grade six and continues to explain the physical world we live in.
Our teaching method demonstates the phenomena and asks the student to explain the cause through observation and by drawing conclusions. This recapitulates the process of discovery that scientists through the ages have experienced in exploring and explaining the natural processes around us.
Mathematics are taught, in part, through movement of the body. Clapping the multiplication tables, finding Pythagora’s theorem with lentils, or walking the addition of negative and positive numbers strengthen the students’ number sense and confident computation. In addition, daily mental and written practice problems support the ability to think and prepare the student for a variety of challenges, such as algebra, geometry and business math in middle school, and the higher math undertaken in high school.
The knowledge of and love for the English language are cultivated through storytelling, from early childhood through the upper grades. Writing what one knows and reading what one wrote are exciting steps for the student on the path to complex expression of moods in poetry and short story plots. The study of grammar as the skeleton of language supports the skill of expository writing, scientific summaries and creative works. Drama and oral recitation deepen the child’s speaking and acting skills as well as his understanding of myths and classics.
Our geography curriculum starts in the school yard and expands through the course of the years to include the people and places of the whole world, gaining depth and complexity appropriate to the child’s developmental stage. Mapmaking begins in grade four, and gains complexity over the years.
Waldorf learning fosters the uniqueness of each child as he or she passes through developmental stages. The pattern which unfolds in the individual child in many ways relects the pattern which has unfolded throughout human history. Since these stages are in harmony with the development of civilization itself, the great stories of all time — from fairy tales and fables to Nordic and Greek myths to medeival, Roman, Renaissance, and modern history— are the cornerstone of the curriculum. The class teacher brings the material to life through the art of oral storytelling, engaging each student deeply. Written and artistic work follows, further deepening the student’s understanding.
Speech and drama, singing, recorder, drawing, painting, handwriting, and sculpting are woven throughout the core main lesson curriculum daily, engaging the student with enthusiasm and energy in each topic. Some art forms, such as strings, band, choir and eurythmy, and practical arts such as handwork, gardening and woodworking are taught by specialists, usually in twice-weekly lessons.
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