Why Waldorf Early Childhood?

My friend Sunny @northwoodsfolk asked me yesterday why our family has chosen the Waldorf approach to early childhood education over other potential pedagogies. I would like to answer this question by giving you a personal anecdote. I also want to make sure to emphasize that I am sharing my own experience and reasoning. I truly think that it is so important to recognize that each family has its own dynamics; what works for one family may not work for another. There is no one “right” choice and, as always, we each know our children and family dynamics best. I think that, for me, the reason behind choosing Waldorf is to be found in my hopelessly romantic sanguine soul. I have a few memories, in particular, that guided my towards curating a Waldorf inspired home. I have always been drawn to finding beauty and balance in this world and remember, for instance, Christmas Eve, 1995. While my mother was preparing our Christmas dinner, my father defrosted the windows of our VW golf, turned on the heater, and took me on a long drive across the countryside. Filled with anticipation, five year old me was watching the snowflakes as they were falling onto wooden fences and covering fields in their shiny, silvery glow. Sparkling lights were suspended from rooftops and covering bushes and trees in their golden light. We drove past snow covered fields and saw several smoldering Yule logs in people’s gardens. I was holding a little bag of Baumkuchenspitzen (a German treat) and took in the smell of vanilla, chocolate, and cinnamon. I remember that the beauty of the moment filled my heart with so much lightness that I never wanted to forget the magic I had felt in that very instance.Even today, simple things such in as the flickering of a small candle or the smell of a struck match can easily stir my soul. In the end, I believe that, to me, Waldorf provides me with a way of bottling up such precious and enchanting moments and allows me to revisit them time and time again; alongside my children and in a cyclical pattern. At home, I find magic in the rhythmical manifestation of small rituals as well as in the intentional celebration of festivals. Seeing my children’s eyes sparkle with excitement when lanterns are ignited in the dark fills me with the same kind of purpose and hope that I had felt at only five years old. To me, Waldorf has become meaningful in ways that are hard for me to put into words. I think that it is the reverence for childhood that is so obvious in Waldorf Early Childhood Education as well as the visible intend to encourage open, unstructured, and free play that so beautifully align with my own personal quest for beauty and magic in this world.