Early Childhood

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THAT UNDERSTANDS EARLY CHILDHOOD

Young children learn best through imaginative play, hands-on activities, and practical tasks that convey purposeful contributions to their classroom community.

Seacoast Waldorf School’s early childhood programs center on creative play. Children learn skills that form the foundation for later academic success. A school day routine creates comfort for the child through a familiar rhythm. There is time for drawing and painting, beeswax modeling, storytelling, and puppetry along with communal meal preparation and consumption.

Lighthouse Parent-Child Class

Our youngest children can first experience Seacoast Waldorf School through the Lighthouse program for children ages 23 months to 3 1/2 years with a parent. Offered in 5-8 week segments, this program meets one morning each week from 9-11 am.

Preschool: Nursery and Mixed Age Kindergarten

Children between 2.5 and 4 years of age can enroll in our nursery program. Our kindergarten classes serve children ages 4-6. Nursery and Kindergarten students have 4 or 5-day options, either just mornings (8:30 am - 12 pm) or full days (8:30 am -3 pm). Our second-year Kindergartners only have the option for full days (8:30 am -3 pm).

Classrooms are filled with natural materials such as shells, crystals, silk cloths, wooden blocks, and cloth dolls, which the children access during creative free play daily. Circle time includes singing and storytelling, fingerplay, and rhyme to develop gross and fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while building a love of language.

Teachers tell fairy tales and nature stories from memory through puppet shows. Children build listening skills, memory, and comprehension. Seasonal festivals bring the school community together and spark wonder and gratitude.

Our youngest students prepare a wholesome snack daily together and enjoy the flavors of fresh fruits and vegetables made into soup, just-baked bread, and other local, nutritious treats.

“I am struck by the fact that the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and the same is true of human beings. We do not wish for children precocious, making great strides in their early years like sprouts, providing soft and perishable timber; but better if they expand slowly at first, as if contending with difficulties, and so are solidified and perfected. Such trees continue to expand with nearly equal rapidity to an extreme age…” - Henry David Thoreau