Waldorf Curriculum
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Assalamu alaykum,
basically, Waldorf education consists of these three principles (as explained by Amanda Bell, co-director of the London Waldorf Seminar):
1) an understanding of the human development in its stages (7-year cycles)
2) an ability to observe (the children) and to make conscious what you observe
3) an awareness of how the content you display to the children in your teaching affects them
Accordingly, there is a great deal of flexibility in the Waldorf curriculum compared with mainstream school settings. For a Waldorf teacher curriculum design is a creative task, aiming to meet each child's physical, emotional, intellectual, cultural and spiritual needs.
During the first seven-year cycle, learning happens in a different way - through play, as we know from our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Rhythm, repetition and reverence are key aspects especially during this time: the rhythm of contraction and expansion, breathing in and breathing out, is reflected in the alternating of free play with adult-led activities such as storytelling and singing.
You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy
Waldorf in the home: http://www.informedfamilylife.org/
One of the beautiful features of Waldorf education are, beginning with grade 1, the main lesson books. The children create their own main lesson books from the material presented by the class teacher.
Main lessons take place during the first two hours of each school day, and each subject is taught in blocks of three or four weeks ("epochs"), which makes it possible for the children to really immerse themselves in the topic and study it with much greater focus and intensity. The other subjects such as art, craft, music, foreign languages, physical education and gardening are taught after the main lessons, by respective subject teachers.
The class teacher stays with the children for eight years, which allows him/her to get to know each child really well, as is necessary to live up to the task as described above.
All the core subjects such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, are studied in block periods of 3-4 weeks in the Main Lesson, which form the first lesson on every school day.
The Main Lessons are the corner stone. Lessons during the rest of the school day include regular practice lessons in English, Maths, eurythmy (a form of movement which is unique to Steiner schools) and modern languages, as well as lessons in games, painting, drawing, landwork, woodwork, clay modelling, handwork and music.
Music and Drama play an important part in school life and classes regularly perform plays. Singing and recorder playing form an integral part of the Main Lesson in the younger classes, leading to the formation of class orchestras.
