Baking Bread with Children

Baking bread is one of the many joys of a Waldorf kindergarten. The delicious smell, taste, and experience fills the room with joy and anticipation. It is this anticipation that I love to work with when planning an experience for the young child. Baking bread from start to finish is an activity that can take many hours and lends itself toward a patient waiting for the final incredible experience of eating it.

Kindergarten Bread

Prep time

20 minutes

Bake time

35-40 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves or about 2 dozen small dinner rolls

Use any combination of flours you might have. Oat flour, gluten free...they all work great! Adjust amounts based on consistency.

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water

• 1 tablespoon of active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of honey
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon/other herbs to taste

Dry Ingredients

• 3 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups bread flour (add cup by cup)
• 1 tablespoon of salt

Instructions

1. Combine water and yeast in a big bowl and mix until bubbly. 
2. Add oil, honey, and seasoning. Mix until combined.
3. Add 3 cups of any type of flour. Mix well.
4. Add 3 more cups of flour and continue to mix until a dough is formed.
5. Assess the consistency of the dough and determine if it needs more flour.  Add more flour cup by cup.
6. When dough is thick enough, remove spoon and begin to knead the dough.
7. Knead the dough until it becomes spongy and smooth. Test to see if it springs back when poked.
8. Allow dough to rise for at least 30 minutes.
9. Separate into pieces that are smaller than tennis balls but bigger than golf balls for dinner rolls. Allow to rise in a well oiled loaf pan if making loaves.
10. Shape and knead the dough into desired shapes and place on oiled baking pan.
11. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees F.
12. Enjoy!

Taking a Look at Screen Time and Media Exposure

When I look back at my childhood, I have fond memories of watching movies and television with my family members. We would gather in the kitchen, popping popcorn, and queuing up the DVD player. I’d ask each family member what they’d like to drink and then we’d take our places snuggled up on the couch. I don’t remember half of the movies that we watched together, I remember the feeling of being together as one family.

Before I became a Waldorf teacher, I studied and received a degree in Electronic Media. I learned the ins and outs of video production and all that goes into the technical work, planning, writing, and editing. I feel that this background has given me an even stronger understanding of how powerful media is and how important it is that we are cautious in the ways young children are exposed to it.

In Waldorf pedagogy, children are discouraged from media influence until they are much older. I often get questions about why these activities are discouraged and meet many families who view the exposure to media as insignificant or just a natural part of parenthood today.

The young child is a do-er. Everything in the world for the young child is to be explored through all the senses. They want to touch, taste, feel, smell, see, and hear everything. Their bodies are growing and becoming acquainted with gravity and space. They need to move, jump, dance, flip, slide, hang, swing, skip, run, crawl and so much more to test their bodies, learn their boundaries, and feel comfortable in their skin. If the young child is spending time in front of a screen, they are missing out on these crucial experiences for healthy development. When they are using a screen, they are missing out on more diverse learning experiences. They may be learning abstract facts if it’s educational, but they aren’t experiencing it for themselves and thus are not making lasting connections.

Screen time can interrupt healthy social development. When the adults in a child’s life are looking at their cell phones as they wait in line, sit in the corner during family gatherings, and at restaurants, the child is learning that screen time is appropriate in these situations. Children imitate the actions of adults in their environment and learn what it is to be human from them. Because of such, they want to use devices, too. When a child is using a device, they are not interacting socially with the world around them. They do not need to answer questions, order food, talk to relatives, or practice interpersonal skills.  Instead, they are sitting in awe of the device with their heads in their laps.

These days, parents are particular about the types of food children eat, friends they play with, and experiences they have. We want our children to sleep well and feel safe. Despite this call for safety, the content of media is often neglected.  Media is created by people who are interested in making money. The virtues, values, and intentions of these producers are not always clear. I find it striking that many will allow their child to consume media without deeply considering its content or message. Some popular children’s programs seem innocent on the surface but are often geared toward tacit adult humor and promote unhealthy relationships through sarcastic dialogue and mean-spirited plots.

The last time I went to dinner, I observed a family of five sitting together at a table. Two young boys, under the age of 6 were glued to devices, while the older sister sat staring and waiting for her turn. Mom and dad sat at the table in silence, looking at their own devices. An elderly couple sitting next to the family, greeted the father and attempted to begin a conversation. It soon fizzled out as the children continued to stare into their screens. The waitress came over for the order, the children stayed glued. Mom ordered the food for the whole table and then went back to looking at her device. The food was brought to the table and the children stayed glued. The one boy reached out to grab a French fry without breaking his gaze. If this family had put away their devices, what learning opportunities might the children have had? Would they have had the chance to practice social skills, introductions, conversation, and ordering skills? This scene is becoming increasingly common.

Yet, I’m not advocating for a media free life. Many television programs, movies, and video games are beautiful pieces of art that can be deeply moving and offer new experiences and ways of thinking. The young child needs to grow into his body and be involved in his environment before he is ready to process the overwhelming stimuli offered by contemporary screen media.

The Importance of Self-Directed Play

A group of children are gathering blocks, silks, and long strands of knitted fabric. It’s February, and today, in the Kindergarten, children are celebrating Christmas. They’ve adorned a small table with garlands of yarn for the Christmas tree and have created presents by wrapping wooden blocks in silk and tying the knitted strands in a bow. The presents are placed carefully by the foot of the tree while other children cook the Christmas breakfast. After having their meal, they take turns exchanging presents and expressing gratitude and joy for what they’ve received from their friends. This is what self-directed play looks like.

In early childhood, self-directed play is imperative. An opportunity for indoor and outdoor play is offered each day in a Waldorf kindergarten and allows children to explore their bodies, environments, and imaginations.

The young child is constantly taking in new sensory experiences. Play is an activity that allows them to process these experiences. By allowing the child to freely enter their own space for imagination and creativity, we are allowing them to make sense of the world and to explore new ideas and concepts.

Self-directed play is essential. This means that the child is creating their own play experience without the direct influence, interference, or suggestion from adults. Children benefit from this form of play because they can synthesize their own ideas, thoughts, and feelings with their observations of the world around them. Adults help to facilitate self-directed play through seasonal songs and verses, open-ended play materials offered, and purposeful work such as cooking, sewing, and cleaning. This allows the child to expand their repertoire of play and thus their understanding of the world.

Open-ended toys allow children to deeply engage in this type of play. Board games or toys that have clear rules, explanations, and expectations hinder the child’s ability to create from within. A child can use a single block to be infinite things but can only use a firetruck to be a firetruck. Using couch cushions to build forts and houses, however, offers endless opportunities for learning.

I often hear parents talk about how their child loves the box the toy came in more than the toy itself. Such open-ended objects offer children freedom to create masterpieces and explore the mysteries of the world.

Further Reading:
Supporting Self-directed Play in Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education
On the Play of the Child
What Do Early-Learners Need Most? Play!

The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development
Health benefits from free play confirmed by research
Playing Around in Science: How Self-Directed Inquiry Benefits the Whole Child

Learning through Purposeful Work

A Waldorf kindergarten is a busy place where children and adults are chopping, cooking, baking, sweeping, sewing, cleaning, ironing, and more. It takes a lot of time and effort to care for the classroom, and everyone takes part. Purposeful work—the chores and life arts that contribute to the classroom community—is done in the classroom to provide a positive example of hard work to imitate, to offer opportunities to help the community, and to create deeper play opportunities.

The young child learns through imitation . One of the best experiences we as adults can offer the children in our care is our deep attention to a task. By doing this, adults model concentration, hard work, and dedication. The young child imitates the inner attitude as well as the outer activity and can thus learn how to work on everyday tasks with focused, joyful intent. 

The work of the adult also can offer opportunities for the children to participate in real work that benefits the community. Examples of such work include chopping vegetables, stirring soup, cleaning tables, sweeping the floor, or folding laundry. Young children are highly capable of doing these everyday tasks that help them improve their environment, work together to serve the community, and learn skills that will carry them through life. These life tasks are essential to us as human beings and the young child loves to be a part of it all. 

When tasks are cohesive, children experience joy and satisfaction. To a child offered a holistic process, something like ‘bread’ has a deeper meaning that just food that comes from the store. The children see how the bread is made when they grind the grain to flour, make the bread dough, wait for it to rise, knead the dough, shape the loaves, bake it, and finally eat it. The child is cradled in the comfort of knowing that there is a clear order to things and that they will all be completed in their own time.

Play is deepened by this feeling of comfort. The children might not always volunteer to help, but they usually will imitate the work of the adult in the environment in their play. Some of my fondest memories as a child involve playing the day away, caring for my dolls, while my mother worked to clean the house, sew a project, or fold the laundry. There was such a deep feeling that all was being cared for which helped me play longer, and more intently . The adults’ intentions in their own work allows the children the chance to deepen their own work, which is play.

Housework and chores are perfect opportunities for young children to learn responsibility, dedication, perseverance, and appreciation. Adults can provide these experiences by offering children the chance to take ownership of activities like cleaning, cooking, washing, folding, and sewing. The modeling of the adult offers a deep appreciation for the work and care that is required to live and thrive in everyday life.

Further reading:

Practical Activities with the Young Child

The Role of Purposeful Work in a Waldorf Kindergarten

Focus, Practical Work in the Kindergarten, "A Kitchen, Not a Parlor"

Is this "Waldorf"?

Parents and teachers often ask “is this Waldorf?” This question always catches me by surprise and makes me wonder. Studying Waldorf early childhood reveals countless materials and activities that can all seem essential. These possibilities are certainly exciting, but they are also daunting. Although Waldorf early childhood pedagogy offers substantial freedom, there are essential principles that inform our work and can help you answer the question for yourself.

It seems that most people who come to Waldorf education are attracted to its beauty. The ethereal fairy dolls made of wool roving, the natural materials, and the whimsical décor imbue classrooms with a feeling of security, love, and wellness. These feelings, of course, are essential in Waldorf education, but teachers and parents can create an environment that has all the essentials of Waldorf early childhood without a prescribed set of toys, silks, and watercolor paints.

Susan Howard’s article Essentials of Waldorf Early Childhood Education presents suggestions that can help us answer the question “is this Waldorf?” She outlines nine essential principles of Waldorf early childhood:

• Love and warmth
• Care for the environment and nourishment for the senses
• Creative, artistic experience
• Meaningful adult activity as an example for the child’s imitation
• Free, imaginative play
• Protection for the forces of childhood
• Gratitude, reverence, and wonder
• Joy, humor, and happiness
• Adult caregivers on a path of inner development

Love and Warmth

Love and warmth emerges from strong relationships. Howard asks us as care-giving adults to build relationships with children, parents, and members of our community. Relationships help to build trust, security, and confidence. Of course, we all know that love, warmth, trust, security and confidence are essential for a healthy life.

Love and warmth lives in happy moments, but it must live in challenging moments, too. It is important to offer warmth and love even in moments of struggle, inappropriate behavior, and frustration. Children, observing this response to stress in their teachers, parents, and other caregivers, are more likely to repeat these more positive behaviors when challenging emotional situations arise in their own lives.

Care for the Environment

Creating a loving environment and offering nourishment for the senses allows children to feel confident and proud of their places. It is important to keep things simple and beautiful. Elements of nature and open-ended play things or items created by the children themselves give a steady and personalized feeling. In this realm, what is most important is the intention behind the materials and the environment. What is the use/purpose of this toy in the child’s environment? What experience can it offer them?

An orderly, dependable space creates the opportunity for children to be confident. When a child knows where things are, what is expected of them, and how to care for the things in their environment, a deep feeling of belonging blossoms. From this belonging, a sense of responsibility is born. Washing the dishes, drying the dishes, placing them back in the cupboard, and taking them out again creates a feeling of cohesion which builds confidence. When the child feels connected to the space, they are more likely to care for it and maintain it. This is especially enhanced when the adult’s inner attitude is the same.  

A Waldorf environment also provides meaningful and real sensory experiences. Sensory materials can range anywhere from silks to soft materials to herbs from the garden. Children take in the world through their senses and are affected so strongly by all that they experience that way. They learn about the world largely through its smells, sounds, and tastes. Intentional sensory opportunities within a carefully planned and maintained environment provide the child with a healthy environment to learn and grow.

Creative, Artistic Expression

Another essential element of Waldorf early Childhood is the opportunity for creative, artistic expression. These are the beautiful aesthetics of Waldorf early childhood that draw so many in. The literal artistic opportunities including modeling, watercolor painting, drawing, poetry, and music. Yet Howard reminds us that an artistic posture should inform all activities in the classroom from play interactions to work activities like folding laundry. I like to use the image of putting the “horses” in the barn when telling a child to put away their boots. Adopting an artistic approach to even mundane tasks, no matter the caregiver's artistic skill, deepens the opportunities for children to learn.

Adult Activity Worthy of Imitation

The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, speaks of the importance of imitation in a child’s early life. Children learn through imitating what the adults in their environment do and say. This does not always manifest itself as a direct mirroring but more of a slow digestion over time. It is not only the outer actions of the adult that the child imitates but also the inner attitude. Adults must therefore model activities and behaviors that they want the children to adopt over time.

Using the children’s instinct for imitation allows us as adults to affect children on a deeper level than simply explaining how to do something. Putting devotion, care, and focus into everyday activities like baking, cooking, cleaning, and gardening gives the child something real and beneficial to imitate. Children are naturally drawn to this work and incorporate “baking” or “sweeping” into their play. By practicing adult work in their self-directed play, children prepare themselves for the real tasks of life. Explicit explanation is therefore not always necessary since children will naturally imitate complex activities with a fair amount of accuracy.

Free, Imaginative Play

The next essential that Howard discusses is free, imaginative play—the primary work of childhood. Through imaginative play, children process and understand what it is to be alive. The play must be diverse and plentiful, both indoors and outdoors. The adults can create a space that offers freedom surrounded by form and boundaries by carefully selecting materials and holding clear expectations for behavior.

Children process information through self-directed play, which can only flourish in a safe, steady, and predictable environment that offers opportunities to create and explore with open ended materials. It is one thing to offer a child a firetruck. They will then play “firetruck” or maybe “town”, but the possibilities are finite. If you offer that same child a set of blocks, they can create anything, from a cell phone to a lollipop. For children, play is serious.

The Protection of Childhood Forces

Next on Howard’s list is the protection of childhood forces. This is an element that can be tricky to understand at first. It is becoming common in our culture to constantly ask children questions and offer them direct instruction about everything. Of course, verbal instruction is important to teaching children, especially in the case of safety, but an overemphasis on questioning and answering can create excessive stress for the young child. 

Yet if we create an environment around the children with clear expectations, procedures, rhythms, and a slow pace, they can thrive without constant reminders about the rules.  This consistency allows the children to stay in their dreamy consciousness. If they aren’t worried about what will happen next, the children can float from one activity to the next and enjoy all the joys it brings. 

Howard also reminds us that we can protect children from worrying about the bigger issues that they will reckon with when they become adults. In Kindergarten and before the age of 7, the world should be presented as wholly good. We make this true through the way we treat others, the way we answer questions, and the way we create an atmosphere that is consistent and trustworthy. There will be plenty of time for them to learn about the realities of the world and face its trials. Early childhood is a time for wonder, and the children’s natural forces thrive when allowed to wonder and imagine.

Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder

Gratitude and reverence, in addition to wonder, are essential to child development and Waldorf education. Simple activities created by the adult, like saying a verse before eating snack, lighting a candle from Father Sun’s light, thanking the plants for our food, watching in awe as seeds begin to sprout, model reverence, gratitude, and wonder. When we as the caregivers feel truly grateful, a seed is planted in the child.  This seed will sprout and grow as they age and have experiences in life that bring forth the fruits of this cultivation. This is how gratitude grows. We help to foster the feeling of appreciation, reverence, and awe in the children by feeling it ourselves.

Joy, Humor, and Happiness

Gratitude, reverence, and wonder are quiet feelings, balanced by outward expressions of joy, humor, and happiness. Young children are full of such delight and joy in their everyday experiences that caregivers should sometimes follow their lead. When we remember the pure joy of discovery, we offer the children chances to feel a nice expansion and loosening in their environment. All the other essentials were the main ingredients of the recipe: the carrots, and onions, and celery, and broth. I find humor, joy, and happiness to be the delightful seasoning that makes a meal satisfying and leaves us wanting more.

Caregivers on a Path of Personal Development

The final essential on the list is woven through all the others. We as the adults in the lives of children have an important responsibility. We must always strive to be the best versions of ourselves. If we model this earnest striving, they too will strive. Bettering ourselves involves getting to know our own sympathies, antipathies, and tendencies and working with them to improve the lives of others.

Is It Waldorf?

So, when we ask the question “is this Waldorf?” when considering the care of the young child, we might rather consider asking “is this the best example of being human that I can offer for the child to imitate?" and "will this enable the child to grow to be the best version of themselves in their physical, emotional, social, and spiritual lives?" If the answer is “yes” then you might be able to consider it “Waldorf.”

Further Reading:

What is Waldorf Early Childhood Education?

What is a Waldorf Kindergarten?

Waldorf Early Childhood Education: An Introductory Reader

Welcome to Gratitude Grows

Over the past five years, I have been exploring, researching, and diving into all that is Waldorf early childhood education. As an assistant teacher at a public Waldorf charter school, I have great opportunities for research and work with this subject.

I am very excited to embark on this journey of Gratitude Grows. On the blog, I hope to offer ideas to develop and deepen our understanding of the young child and how to best support development in a mindful and balanced way.

I will be exploring the basics of Waldorf early childhood education as well as some of the more intricate details from working day to day with young children.

Thanks for stopping by, and see you again soon!