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 The
San Francisco Waldorf School’s After-School Program serves
the families of our school community by offering a home-like environment
for kindergarten through fifth-grade children. The program runs
daily from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Children enjoy playing house or store behind the pink curtains
of the play stands. A dollhouse family with a neighboring tree house
is well provided with beeswax food and other handmade treasures.
Two full-time, Waldorf-trained faculty members, one of whom serves
as the After-School Program Coordinator, as well as five part-time
staff members make up the program. The children are cared for by
warm and striving individuals with intuitive good sense. In fact,
a number of After-School Program staff members have trained to become
Waldorf teachers.
The After-School Program is based on the same nurturing, pedagogical
impulses that guide the child's morning at school. The child's experience
should be of one, harmonious day. Therefore, the After-School Program
provides a restful contrast to the busy school day -time to unwind,
to digest school subjects, and time to breathe out socially. The
focus of the afternoon is rest, healthy play and good food. The
intent is not to structure this time with a whirlwind of activities,
but rather to provide a secure daily rhythm within which the child
is free to explore options.
Rudolf Steiner gave few indications about after-school programs,
but he did stress that different activities be offered, that the
staff must take an interest in the children, become like children
themselves, and make them laugh. To let children "get things
off their chest" is good for their health. He also suggested
games, acting, pottery or homework. (Rudolf Steiner's Conferences
with the Teachers of the Waldorf School in Stuttgart 1919-1920,Volume
I, p. 65, December 22, 1919.)
At our school, we offer afternoon programs for both kindergarten
and grade-school children. The kindergartners spend most of the
afternoon in the kindergarten room. As in the kindergarten itself,
reverence and care for one another and for the surroundings are
encouraged as the children are guided through a gentle afternoon
rhythm of indoor play, drawing, nap-time, snack and outdoor play.
A warm snack follows, and finally, quiet indoor play and stories
continue until 5:30 p.m.
At 2:30 p.m. grades one through three are dismissed from school
and arrive at the After-School Program room. Older children (grades
four and up) trickle in during the next hour. They usually rest
and do homework in the library. Afterwards they choose free play
outside, games in the gym, crafts or reading on the library's bean
bag chairs. On warm, sunny days the hammock is a favorite place
to swing. On rainy days special activities and games are organized
in the gym. The huge, colorful parachute might come out of storage,
as well as a tunnel and a giant jelly-bean ball. The tumbling mats
are spread out, and an enormous space is cleared for the rope swing.
Week-long February and Spring Day Camps are offered to families
when school is closed. The children enjoy special outings and adventures
together in the city. A separate six-week camp with a similar format
is offered in summer. We also offer a limited Summer
Programs for ages 3 through 9.
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