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“The First Three Years” offers parenting classes for pregnancy through a child’s third year. Parents and children attend together in a warm homelike atmosphere. This program presents practices for observing and interacting with infants and toddlers.
Striving to counteract the fast-paced mentality of today, our parent-child classes support parents in creating a nurturing, rhythmical environment for their children. Through quiet observation, parents deepen their own intuitive knowledge and discover new ways of being with and loving their children. The classes cover topics such as motor development, care and protection of the senses, rhythms and routines, sleep, health and nutrition.
Based on observing the children at play, these classes offer an introduction to the Waldorf principles of parenting. Classes are divided by age – Babies (including pregnant mothers), Toddler 1 and Toddler 2 – to address the ever changing needs of each new phase of development. The group sings simple songs together, and parents explore topics under the direction of a teacher while the children play freely. Toddler classes include shared snacks and singing games. The older toddler class includes more structured activities that children can join in with their parents: bread –making, painting, wool felting. Additional reading is provided where appropriate.
These classes are for parents who have already taken or are concurrently enrolled in an observation class. In Craft Classes parents can learn knitting, sewing and other soft crafts as they make seasonal decorations, useful objects, or simple toys. The children play with each other or “help mom or dad.” The class ends with a snack and clean-up. During Cooking Classes parents and children prepare a nutritious meal that will be shared during class. The children imitate the adults’ motions at work; the parents learn how to include and guide them. While the food is cooking the children play under the guidance of their own teacher; the parents enjoy their own conversation time. After clean-up, everyone gathers and shares seasonal songs and nursery rhymes before enjoying their meal together.
Toddler Walks offer parents and children an opportunity to take the time needed to explore as they walk and discover wonders along the way. A healthy snack, singing and conversation are included. Out of town trips, seasonal farm trips, fruit picking, foliage walks and more are among the inspiring settings for these adventures.
Nursery Program for ages 2 ¾ to 4 ½ offering a two day or three day option from 8:45am to 12:45pm.
As their horizons expand, young children find delight in each day’s new attractions. Daily and weekly routines, alternating between times of activity and rest, carry them joyfully through the day. Learning takes place in the Nursery Program through imitation and example rather than through instruction. Honoring the need of the preschool aged child to find security in the familiarity of the home setting, this program offers a social experience in the Waldorf tradition of a beautiful homelike environment. Going to nursery class becomes a joyful visit with little friends happily joining together in real domestic work activities like baking bread and preparing soup, or washing and ironing, as well as singing, painting and free imaginative play.
Because we recognize the importance of play for healthy development, our nursery classes provide gentle guidance to encourage the natural expression of the young child’s imagination. Trained teachers create a nursery room designed to be a safe, warm environment for the work of childhood, which is play. With simple materials, such as logs and stumps, stones and shells, cloths and play stands, the children build and explore. In the course of their play their growth in all areas is stimulated – physically, emotionally and socially, mentally and spiritually. Play is the way children practice being in the world, how they test ideas, solve problems, and find enjoyment. It lays a foundation for creative and lively thinking in the adolescent and adult and stimulates an interest for all aspects of life, which can then be cultivated through later academic studies.
Children need to move their whole bodies! The majority of toys and furnishings in the Nursery Program are those that encourage large scale activity and play. The young child’s desire to move as well as to help out is satisfied by having the children set the table or carry their own chairs. They begin to control their movements through accompanying gestures for songs and poems – a tree is not just a tree, it is arms outstretched above one’s head. The children also walk outdoors together every day, rain or shine; they move freely while enjoying the wonders of the world around them.
These classes give children a meaningful social experience, while giving their parents a needed and well-deserved break.
For more information about joining the Nursery Program please contact Lori Grey at lgrey@sfwaldorf.org
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