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.
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