A Letter to Parents in a Time of Unrest

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Beth Riungu

Su Rubinoff has been an Early Childhood educator at MWS for more than 25 years and has completed an in-depth training in Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation and Mediation at URI. With families already facing unprecedented challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Su used one of her regular parent letters to offer support in addressing tensions arising from the recent terrible events in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

Waldorf education was born in 1919 in response to the trauma and social upheaval of WWI. While teachers of older students might speak with their classes about difficult social issues, a different approach is needed with younger children. In this letter, Su uses her expertise in teaching children aged 3 – 6 years to share how parents can best support the continued healthy development of their child.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

~ Nelson Mandela

Dear Friends,

I am so shook up by what is occurring in our country. A lot is being asked of you these days; to be parents, teachers, and now you need to be present for your child in a way that you rarely have needed to before. How do we, as adults, process the events of this past week?

As with many things we are careful with what we say to the young child, because they are not little adults, but so often they pick up our inner mood. I have to believe the world is good and that is what I want to pass along to the children. I want to give them hope! I have seen and heard images of hope, even amidst the terrible scenes unfolding around the world, and those are what I am holding on to.

We work with kindness daily at Meadowbrook and certainly in our class. While we do not presently have a lot of racial diversity, we still plant the seeds, either overtly or through being a role model worthy of imitation. We end of our circle time every day by saying this verse together:

Kind hearts are the gardens

Kind thoughts are the roots

Kind words are the blossoms

Kind deeds are the fruits.

The values of understanding, cooperation, listening, being inclusive, and so much more are alive in Morning Glory. Even our very youngest children quickly learn our customs; if there is a problem, get help, (when another wants to join) ‘there is always room for one more’, and treat others the way you want to be treated. This is their foundation and I am hopeful it will grow with them through their lives.

But we all need to be doing better as humans, now! I want to change the world which is why I became a teacher, and it is so hard to do while I am at home and not with your wonderful children. I don’t know what your children are aware of, or what questions they are asking, but I am here to support you. To listen and try to figure this out. Together.

Take good care and remember to feed yourself, literally and figuratively!

Meadowbrook Summer Camp

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Chris Martuscello

Meadowbrook Waldorf School is opening its doors wider and launching a summer camp! Come experience the magic of summer at Meadowbrook Waldorf School. Our outdoor summer camp will be held for three weeks in July–the perfect time to be outside and exploring our forest and streams. Children ages 4-8 are welcome to attend this program designed to explore the natural world while having fun together. Hiking, baking, painting, singing, climbing–all the summer essentials!

MORE DETAILS
Children will arrive each morning greeted by teachers in our wooded play yard to settle in for the day. Hiking, cooking, playing, crafting, singing, and joy will fill the morning, working up an appetite for a healthy snack. Children will play with others their own age in thoughtful, creative ways. Lunch and rest will transition everyone into the afternoon hours. Staying cool with continuing creative endeavors will fill the afternoon and the end of the day will sneak up on the children.

Every day will consist of the same rhythm of events, with each event offering new fun. The week’s activities will reflect one of three themes: Magic of the Woods, Fairy Tales and Naturally Building-Homes of all kinds.

This summer camp is for CHILDREN AGES 4-8 and runs FROM JULY 11 – JULY 29 with one week sessions. CAMP HOURS are 9am to 3pm, Monday-Friday. Snack will be provided twice per day, while parents will pack a healthy lunch.

Pricing Information: The cost of summer camp is $225 per week, per child. Checks can be made payable to Meadowbrook Waldorf School. All payments are nonrefundable.

REGISTRATION

Click Here for Registration Forms

Registration Deadline: Forms and payment must be received by June 1, 2016.

To register for summer camp:
Email completed forms to camp@meadowbrookschool.com and submit payment by mail to: Meadowbrook Waldorf School, 300 Kingstown Road, West Kingston, RI 02892

Or drop completed forms and payment to the Meadowbrook Waldorf School front desk.

QUESTIONS: Email Jocelyn at camp@meadowbrookschool.com

We welcome Jocelyn Auld back to Meadowbrook Waldorf School as our Summer Camp Director. Jocelyn holds a BS in Elementary Education & Fine Arts from the University of Rhode Island, and has worked in Early Childhood and with Grades children. She feels a deep connection to the educational practices of Waldorf Education and has worked in summer camps every summer since she was a teen. From counselor to director, Jocelyn has tried it all and loves each new adventure!

Martinmas – A Path to our Inner Light

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Chris Martuscello

Sarah Wiberg (Meadowbrook Parent Child Teacher) and Nancy St. Vincent (Early Childhood Class Teacher) describe Martinmas and the introspection encouraged through the fall festivals of a Waldorf School.

Photo Credit: Seth Jacobson Photography

Autumn is a time to reflect on our inner selves

As the leaves change and the world puts on a beautiful autumnal cloak of orange, red, and yellow, we are reminded that winter is coming. There is much we do to prepare for winter. We may gather firewood, put our gardens to rest or finish canning the bounty of the harvest. But this time of year, with its shorter days and longer nights, not only prompts us to complete the familiar external preparations, but can also be a time of inner preparation.

Autumn is a time to reflect on our inner selves, to find the inner light that will carry us through this time of darkness. It can be a time to look forward to, with its opportunity to know ourselves in a deeper way. Waldorf schools mark this season of inner searching with three fall festivals to help guide us on this path of introspection. In September, we celebrate Michaelmas and St. Michael urges us to battle with courage to face and vanquish our “dragons”. In early November, we celebrate Martinmas and observe St. Martin’s compassion for others. In December, St. Nicholas brings the gifts of wisdom, reflection, and review upon the events of the year. These three figures model strength in the qualities of willing, feeling and thinking.

The festival of Martinmas asks us as striving adults to bring forth our inner light and share it with those around us.

At the festival of Martinmas we hear the story of St. Martin, a Roman soldier who lived in the fourth century. As St. Martin approached the city gates at Amiens, he came upon a poor beggar who was shivering with cold. St. Martin, who lived in the utmost of simplicity himself and had nothing to give the beggar, drew his sword and cut his own cloak in two and offered half to the beggar. The following night, Christ appeared to St. Martin in a dream wearing the half-cloak he had given and said, “Martin has covered me with this garment.”

With St. Martin’s example, Martinmas encourages us to meet each other with a compassionate, giving heart. It asks us as striving adults to bring forth our inner light and share it with those around us.

The Martinmas lantern walk lights this path.

At Meadowbrook Waldorf School, we celebrate this festival with the Martinmas Lantern Walk. We begin the week before with the children in Kindergarten, First, and Second Grades making lanterns in school. On the night of the Martinmas celebration, the children and parents arrive at school to see a marionette performance of Spindlewood, the story of a girl who has an encounter with Mother Earth as she is preparing for winter. This story depicts the outer world of earth going to sleep while the inner world is coming alive. Following the performance, the children and families walk with their class through the forest surrounding the school singing songs of light. Carrying the lanterns they have made, it is like witnessing many beautiful stars joyfully winding a the path through the woods. Afterward, the children and families leave in a mood of quiet reverence, carrying their light out into the world.

“I walk with my little lantern, my lantern, myself and I.

Up yonder bright little stars shine, down here were stars to the sky.

The new moon shines, the cat meows…

La bimmel, la bummel, la boom…”

Finding Balance: Honoring Childhood While Educating for the Future

Posted on September 30, 2015 by r.kent

Christine Martuscello, Admissions Coordinator of Meadowbrook Waldorf School

A Waldorf School Offers A Child-Centered Education

A healthy education is one that balances the current needs of the child with future educational goals. The child, not the goal, should always be at the center of the process.

Waldorf Education, founded in 1919 and based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, achieves a balanced education by offering a developmentally appropriate curriculum that both supports children where they are in the moment, and prepares them for their next phase of development. This curriculum unites academics with the arts, movement, practical work, and a deep respect for the natural world.

The Waldorf Preschool Program

For children in a Waldorf preschool program, this means their days are spent engaged in purposeful play, social activity and exploration, both indoors and out. Rich stories are experienced through puppetry, songs are combined with movement, and curiosity, observation, and collaboration are encouraged during forest adventures. Although these important activities are considered “pre-academic”, they all build skills critical for the academic journey that begins in first grade.

A Classical Elementary School Curriculum

Once students enter elementary school they are formally introduced to a classic, liberal arts curriculum that includes music, fine arts, foreign language, and practical arts to create deeper, more meaningful learning. Desk time is balanced with movement, academics are balanced with the arts, and time indoors is balanced with time spent in nature. Since children at this age learn best through strong, memorable experiences, the curriculum is often offered in an experiential manner. In the early elementary grades, this means math facts are paired with clapping games and rhythmical movement, language arts studied through dramatic presentation, and history is experienced firsthand with field trips and biography. These activities meet many styles of learning and reflect the complex world the children will inherit. The skills learned in these early years provide a strong foundation for the challenging learning and growth that is still to come.

Waldorf Curriculum Meets the Child’s Developmental Stage
Elementary (Grades 1-5)

The later elementary curriculum broadens the experience of the child. In the early elementary years, children are still in a dreamy world of imitation, content and secure in their family. Adults are seen as all knowing, and children do not yet question the world around them. This begins to change during the mid-elementary years as the children become more aware of themselves as individuals, and more awake to the world around them. This “nine year change” challenges their sense of confidence in the world, and their place in it. To reassure children that they will have what they need to meet the world as adults, the Waldorf curriculum turns to the practical. Units of measure and fractions are studied in math, with shelter building and farming as cornerstones of the curriculum at this age. The curriculum at this time is a conscious exploration of what directly surrounds the child: local ecology, government, animals, and plants.

It is this experience of the local and practical that helps children cross a threshold and see themselves as individuals capable of inhabiting a rich and complex world, and successfully meeting the future with knowledge, connection, and collaboration.

After this immersion in the local, the curriculum expands to include ancient cultures and creation stories including Judeo-Christian, Native American, Norse, Indian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman mythology. Presented during the later elementary grades, these stories describe how humans have been long striving to understand and explain the world around them.

As the curriculum broadens to include that which is outside of the child’s view, the fine and practical art curriculum also broadens. Fourth grade students add a string instrument to their recorder studies, and woodworking is added to the handwork curriculum begun in first grade. Both of these additions serve to not only improve fine motor skills, but to strengthen the will and demonstrate to the child that with practice and perseverance difficult tasks can be mastered to a beautiful end.

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Middle school is a time of great change: physical, emotional, and intellectual. The children begin to question what they previously accepted without issue when they were younger. This adolescent urge to question and test is the perfect time to introduce the rigorous science curriculum. Through deep observation, which has been encouraged since the early childhood years, the students explore the world sometimes hidden from view through chemistry, optics, physics, anatomy, physiology, and astronomy. Moving from the concrete calculations of decimals, geometry, and business math, to the more the abstract math of exponents, number bases, platonic solids, and algebra, challenges the middle schooler’s burgeoning ability to think in the abstract.

Mirroring their sometimes tumultuous internal changes, the students study tumultuous times of history. Roman law, the Dark Ages, the beauty of the Renaissance, and periods of revolution are explored through first hand experiences, drama, fine art, and biography. The students are now introduced to individuals, rather than the myths and legends of elementary school, who worked to make positive change in the world, sometimes at great personal cost. By the study and example of these pivotal individuals, the seed is planted that they too can be instruments of change in the world.

Waldorf Education Offers A Balanced, Thoughtful Approach

A Waldorf Education provides a balanced curriculum that honors childhood by meeting the child where they are developmentally. The nurturance of foundational skills and play in early childhood provides a strong basis for the academics of the elementary years.

The elementary grades offer a rich curriculum of language, math, foreign language, history, geography, music, fine, and practical arts. Time for outdoor play and projects allows the child to experience the natural world, encourages collaboration, and provides an opportunity to recharge. Once in middle school, the rigorous curriculum expands further to include more sciences and complex math to challenge the children’s new abilities.

It is the thoughtfulness of this intricate curriculum that encourages student’s growing capacities while maintaining the reverence of childhood.

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