Early Years
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This program provides social interaction in a nurturing environment for caregivers and their children of up to three years of age. A variety of activities will gently enliven children’s senses, help them to explore their world and to meet new friends. Parents benefit from meeting new people too! Join conversations around parenting topics and interact with your child in new ways.
Miss Judi will share about Waldorf education and child development, and about ways that you as a parent can weave the experience at school into your life at home as a parent of young children.
What to Bring: Your indoor slippers/shoes, for you and your child and a vegetable to contribute to our soup. For our outdoor play around 10:30am, please wear appropriate outdoor gear for the weather.
Our morning together begins at 9:00am, but you are never late for Parent and Child. Whenever you can arrive is fine. While the children play freely inside, the adults can take time to observe their children in play, enjoy a warm cup of coffee or tea, visit with each other and perhaps help make our daily soup, or work on a craft project that you bring from home.
Choose a morning that works best for you:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
This program is offered September through June
9:00 am to 11:00 am
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Parent & Child
To guarantee your placement, please bring your completed registration form along with payment to Halton Waldorf School. For more information please contact our Admissions Manager, Samantha Peris
or call us at 905-331-4387 ex. 18
Children and parents make an immediate connection to the warm and nurturing environment of the early childhood classrooms. The teacher and her assistant work at providing an environment that enhances the deep sense of wonder, joy and imagination of young children.
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Our programs encourage the development of social skills through creative play, enriching stories and time outdoors together. At this age children engage the world entirely through their senses, so your child will have natural toys and materials at hand and have plenty of time outdoors for free play. He or she will accomplish practical tasks such as kneading bread, and by creating art, experience “hands-on” how colours come to be. Imaginative play, the focus of the early childhood classroom and the true “work” of the child, encourages problem-solving and creative thinking. It is the most effective way to cultivate a love of learning and set a foundation for academic excellence.
Activities include:
- Seasonal festivals
- Storytelling, drama, puppetry, marionettes, verses, poetry, fairy tales
- Measuring for cooking and baking, counting games
- Gardening, nature walks, climbing, balance
- Singing, movement, musical instruments, dancing games
- Watercolour painting, crafts, crayon drawing
- Carding wool, sewing, woodwork, textiles, needlework, modelling
Preschool
Preschool is for children aged 3 and 4 years old and is offered as five mornings or five full days per week.
Our preschool is licensed by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
Children and parents make an immediate connection to the warm and nurturing environment of the early childhood classrooms. The teacher and her assistant work at providing an environment that enhances the deep sense of wonder, joy and imagination of young children.
​
Our programs encourage the development of social skills through creative play, enriching stories and time outdoors together. At this age children engage the world entirely through their senses, so your child will have natural toys and materials at hand and have plenty of time outdoors for free play. He or she will accomplish practical tasks such as kneading bread, and by creating art, experience “hands-on” how colours come to be. Imaginative play, the focus of the early childhood classroom and the true “work” of the child, encourages problem-solving and creative thinking. It is the most effective way to cultivate a love of learning and set a foundation for academic excellence.
Activities include:
- Seasonal festivals
- Storytelling, drama, puppetry, marionettes, verses, poetry, fairy tales
- Measuring for cooking and baking, counting games
- Gardening, nature walks, climbing, balance
- Singing, movement, musical instruments, dancing games
- Watercolour painting, crafts, crayon drawing
- Carding wool, sewing, woodwork, textiles, needlework, modelling
Kindergarten
The Kindergarten program includes children aged 4, 5, and 6 years of age and is offered as five mornings or five full days per week. New kindergarten students are placed in the appropriate classroom based on their age and an interview.
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Please click here to download our Kindergarten Parent Handbook
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For more information please contact our Admissions Manager, Samantha Peris
or call us at 905-331-4387.
Nature Kindergarten
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Our Nature Kindergarten provides young children with longer periods of time in natural outdoor settings where they can play, explore and experience natural systems and materials found in nature. The class will be a mixed age nature based kindergarten for children turning 4 by December 31 to 6 years of age. Engaged outside in all types of weather, children and educators observe natural phenomenon and learn about the place in which they live. There have been forest kindergartens for almost fifty years in northern Europe for children three to six years of age. Research shows that children in outdoor programs go on to do well in school. There are many forest kindergartens in Canada and around the world.
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More of the daily or weekly rhythm is devoted to time outside in nature. Traditional Waldorf kindergarten activities such as painting, drawing and craft activities are done in blocks, rather than year-round, when the weather is fair.
Benefits of more time in nature:
- Children will have opportunities for a fuller range and variety of movements.
- Many children feel more “at home” in their bodies when they spend more time outside.
- Children are more attuned to the seasons and their awareness of subtle changes is heightened.
- Outdoor settings evoke a special kind of imaginative play with minimal natural materials.
- Children can “breathe out” more expansively in an outdoor environment.
- Nature forces are a balm, and balance overstimulation.
- Children experience fewer social difficulties and are able to play more harmoniously with others.
For more information please contact our Admissions Manager, Samantha Peris
or call us at 905-331-4387 ex. 18