Our Waldorf Academy Childcare Centre offers two programs:

• Toddler: 18 mos. to 2 ½ yrs

• Preschool: 2 ½ to 4 yrs

Toddlers: 18 months – 2 ½ years

Your young child will be in a beautiful and natural and home-like environment with a nurturing caregiver. Through our daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms, your child experiences security and forms a close bond with their caregiver, who typically remains the same individual throughout your child’s toddler years. 

Emphasis is put on loving human interaction: warm speech, live singing, verses, and stories are the focus, rather than technology (there are no screens in our Childcare). The program is geared toward helping your child find their way to connect with others in a social setting and to have a gentle transition into the routines of the Preschool.

The movement curriculum emphasizes child-initiated activities, providing opportunities for spontaneous movement in a safe environment. This promotes healthy musculoskeletal development and supports gross motor skills. 

Traditional games and finger-plays provide opportunities for the children to imitate healthy movement, develop proprioception and increase both their small and large motor skills. The children go outside in all but the most inclement weather. This helps them become more robust and strengthens their bond with the environment in which they live.

Preschool 2 ½ – 4 years

Young children, filled with wonder and curiosity, see beauty and purpose in everything. The teacher’s role in this program is to foster this natural sense of meaning in the world by creating an environment that is beautiful and natural, and an atmosphere that permits exploration. Children will make independent discoveries through their experiences and use these discoveries in their creative play. 

The foundation for academic learning is laid through imitative play. Children learn from their parents, each other, their teachers, and the world around them by imitating what they see. It is necessary at this age to provide them with as many experiences as possible to build their imitative skills, such as singing, dancing, creating music, puppet shows, crafts, baking, gardening, painting, creative movement, and dramatic play. 

Time for free play, indoors and outdoors, is essential as children need time to assimilate and synthesize what they have observed around them. Our daily rhythm includes free play, time for snack preparation, outdoor time, group and story time with seasonal verses, and for full time a nutritious lunch, followed by rest time. The afternoon rhythm will continue with quiet free play time, the afternoon snack, and outdoor play

Our Preschool Program leads seamlessly into our Kindergarten Program, and all Childcare families are invited to apply for coveted Kindergarten spots before the admissions process is opened to external families.