What do you think about Waldorf Parent and Child program?

[moss]

I need to decide if we're going to participate in the parent and child program. i'm sure that ds would enjoy it, but i'm not sure that it's really necessary at this point in time. He's almost 3. It's only 2 hours a week. I can find the money for tuition somewhere, but it's really pretty expensive for us. I think the program would be a good way to ease into waldorf--i still have some misgivings about anthroposophy, but there are aspects about waldorf that i really like.

I'd really love to hear some feedback from someone who's participated in the parent and child thing...

[Ragana]

We went to the program with my daughter. Overall we liked it. She did not have any siblings or neighborhood friends at the time, and she was/is very social, so we wanted a regular group of kids to hang out with. We were very interested in Waldorf at the time, too.

However, in the end we just decided it was too expensive for what it was, and we decided against Waldorf for various reasons. Personally, I think it's a "nice to have", but not worth scraping to get the tuition for. Maybe you can arrange a free playgroup that would use a similar "Waldorf-inspired" approach.

[Rhonwyn]

What Parent Tot Classes can be good for:

Learning more about Waldorf and seeing if it is right for your family, meeting other like minded families, helping you get into Waldorf pre-school if that is what you want.

It can be expensive and it isn't absolutely necessary. Our school recently added a parent tot class because so many families had requested it. It can be a good introduction to Waldorf. It is, however; very teacher dependent and a mismatched teacher can skew a family's whole view of Waldorf and turn them off from it. We have had to evaluate Waldorf at each step of the process because it is so teacher dependent.

Good luck! I would also take the advice of seeing about starting an informal play group. You could advertise for like minded families at the natural food store, the local Waldorf school's newspaper or anywhere families congregate.

[moss]

i love the idea of a free waldorf inspired playgroup! i'm not prepared to take on something like that though. now, if someone else around here organized something like that, i'd sign up in a second.

[Deborah]

Why don't you put up some notices just saying that you are interested in a waldorf inspired play group and want to see if there are any other mamas who want the same thing. There may be somebody who has been thinking about starting one and just needed a nudge. Or someone who would take it on if the interest is there. Stir the pot a little!

Nana

[*solsticemama*]

Thanks for this thread, moss. I am in a similar situation with my ds. Everyone's responses have been helpful and helped me see that what I really want is more of a playgroup situation, slightly structured but in tune with the waldorf ideal of immersing a child in nature, doing tasks like breadmaking etc. I had previously come to the conclusion that I needed to take this on myself and put some notices up a the HFS etc and this thread has convinced me. Good luck on finding what you need.

[polka hop]

*

[Mommy&Will]

First, excuse my ignorance, but what is the RIE method?

Also, just wanted to add that we attend the Parent Toddler Waldorf program and we love it. We all go - mommy, daddy, Will (2.5) and Jack (9 months). I love that it is something that we can do as a family and we look forward to it (its on Saturday mornings). We've done it for 2 sessions now.

This summer the class will be during the week (which means no Daddy) but we still plan to go. I agree it depends on the teacher. We've fallen in love with our teacher and would miss her if she wasn't in our life.

[mama_kass]

I love it! My ds loves it. I'm learning at least as much as my ds. Our teacher is great. It is expensive, but worth every penny and then some.