This year we will offer the Redwood Kindergarten at two levels.  A Junior Kindergarten and a Senior Kindergarten/Grade One.

Children make an immediate connection to the warm and nurturing Waldorf-inspired classroom and program.  The teacher provides an environment that enhances the deep sense of wonder, joy and imagination of young children.

Child development proceeds in stages. The child, until the age of seven, is developing their body and their will as a healthy foundation for their life. “A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what s/he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions s/he has acquired.”

A Waldorf kindergarten program supports the development of a healthy foundation for life and a readiness to learn that prepares them for Grade One.  The task of the early childhood educator is to model wholesome work in the context of home and nature that will imitated by the child in their free play and create in them a deep connection to their own creativity, life and their will.

The Kindergarten program includes activities such as:

• Life skills: cooking, baking, gardening, woodworking, nature walks, indoor & outdoor play
• Artistic skills: watercolour painting, crayon drawing and crafts
• Cultural activities: storytelling, drama, fairy tales, puppetry, singing, verses & poems, movement and seasonal festivals

The program is 4 days a week, Monday to Thursday from 8:45 to 3:15 at Redwood Park.  A 5th day option is at Tapiola Nature site with a Kindergarten teacher.  Parents may choose 2, 3, 4 or 5 full day options or half day options.  The children need to be 44 months to enter the program.  Entrance can be throughout the year.

For more information on the Nature Kindergarten program go to www.tapiolanature.ca