This craft activity is one that I have been putting together since last year, but with Spring upon us again, it felt like the right time to share it. This felt butterfly pairs beautifully with a transformation story about a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. The process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly is a story that children love. The transformation story is an important one for them to experience, as it will have parallels to their own life; it signifies the changes th

This post is one part of a series on how to incorporate 5 aspects of the Steiner kindergarten program into your Waldorf home. Today we will focus on self-directed play. For an overview of the 5 aspects, click here . Self-directed play or free play forms a key pillar of the Waldorf kindergarten program. Steiner often spoke of the importance of free play in encouraging healthy childhood development. As academics are pushed on increasingly younger children there is a danger of p

A child absorbed in play is truly a wonderful thing. To see them transported into their own imaginative world and become oblivious to the world will never cease to amaze me. There are no rules, they can change character as they please and a ball which was rolling along the ground a moment ago, has now become an egg to eat for dinner! This kind of undirected free play is a vital component of the Waldorf curriculum in the early years. Play is the work of childhood and Steiner

You may have heard of open-ended and close-ended toys, but what do these names actually mean? What are the benefits of open-ended toys? What are the differences between open-ended and close ended toys? Should you have only one type or both? Let’s find out! What are Open-Ended Toys? Open-ended toys have the ability to be anything. They can change purpose multiple times and are only limited by your imagination. For example: a building block can be used to build a tower, it can