[dharmama]

When I read the thread about the things in our lives for which we thank Waldorf at first I thought it was asking how we came to discover Waldorf and I got so excited to share my story that I decided to post a new thread!

Here's my story:

About 15 years ago when I was in high school my cousins were attending an in-home Waldorf-inspired nursery school and I went there with my aunt to pick them up. I remember the feeling of walking in the door and just being completely awestruck by the beauty and the feeling of peace.

Later in college, I took an education class and I did a project on Waldorf education so I went back to that little school to visit and learn more and again I was just overwhelmed with how good and right it felt.

For the next 10 or so years I read little bits about Waldorf here and there but didn't think of it much until my first child was born and I sought out a Waldorf parent-child class for us (she was 10 mos at the time) and I had that same beautiful deep peaceful sigh kind of feeling when I walked into the room (which only deepened as I got to know more about the philosophies and got to know other families and learned more about rhythms etc.).

My daughter, who is now almost five, now attends an in-home Waldorf-inspired nursery program, much like the one I visited 15 years ago, and my son will join her there next year. And my cousin, whose beautiful Waldorf nursery school I once visited, now babysits my children and picks my daughter up at her Waldorf school!!!

Anyone else care to share how you first discovered Waldorf????

 

[yukookoo]

at musictogether class another mom asked me what preschool waiting lists i as on - DD was about 6 mo and I said huh? She then explained to me that if DD was going to go to any "good" preschool i better go on tours and get on waitlists, her dd had been on them since prebirth .

SO i went home and googled preschool and my area. One of the local big waldorf schools came up and i thought wow no plasitc (no clue what waldorf was but I knew about pthalates

organic meals, nature! sounds perfect. SO i emailed, you know for a tour and to get on the waitlist haha THey informed of the parent/child class. I went to observe a class and was "converted" haha it was AMAZING beautiful and peaceful, well ok i have to admit at first i thought wow this is so boring, when are we going to sing songs or do some activity or something? it was mostly observation of play

I was just so amazed though by the calm and the blessings and snack and outdoor play areas. DD was a VERY fussy baby (Still fussy now) and she seemed so happy there and calm. THe whole week after that one class I kept saying I felt like i went on a meditating retreat or something!

So then i started reading about waldorf and changing our lifestyle slowly. It's just been a beautiful journey for our family.

 

[RollerCoasterMama]

This is totally dorky, but ...

We watched Signing Time a lot when DS was little. And when they're showing the sign "doll" they have this beautiful cloth doll that looks just like the little girl! I was curious, plus I wanted to see what was available for boys. My googling for custom doll, natural doll, natural toys, etc, kept running across the phrase "waldorf". What the heck was that? Well, I started reading...all the negative stuff I could find (I always play devil's advocate first), then some positive stuff, then this thread, some books, and here we are!

Even with all of the negative stuff I read, I kept coming back. It felt right. And even though we're not hard-core, simplifying our busy lives and our son's environment has been a wonderful experience that's been good for everyone in so many ways!

See...it really is about the toys!

 

[PabloHoneySF]

What is really funny to me is that I HATED Waldorf when I first heard of it! My sister in law and I were pregnant at the same time (our kids are 2 months apart) and she had been reading YAYCFT and her doula had sent her kids to Waldorf schools so all I ever heard about was "Waldorf this and Waldorf that"... now, you have to bear in mind that at the time I didn't really have the greatest relationship with my inlaws so I had a knee jerk reaction to hate it- especially when I had read about Steiner's more racist views. Once I had made an offhand comment to my SIL about how interesting it was to hear that primary colors were good for babies eye development and she almost instantly sent me 3 article links disproving that. I felt like my SIL was using Waldorf as another tool to show how much more holier/crunchier than thou she was... so for me it was more the messenger than the message.

My son turned out to be a very sensitive child and it just seemed natural to try to create an calm, soothing environment for him. I began by eliminating the battery operated toys and with the toys recalls a few years ago, I started researching toys more thoroughly which of course led me to find these gorgeous handmade wooden toys. Being a few years removed from my early exposure to Waldorf, I found it easier to read YAYCFT and it really resonated with me and made absolute sense for my son. We already had been eating good, natural foods and my husband and I are both crafty do-it-yourself-ers

. While we are not absolute Waldorf purists, I can't imagine raising my sons in the traditional mainstream manner with TV, overly processed foods and video games.

The irony now to me is that our family is probably much more Waldorf than my inlaws. I learned a valuable lesson from my experience in that when talking to people about Waldorf I really try to keep a non-judgemental tone- like "hey, this is what works for our family" so that they don't feel like I am judging them or get put off by it and miss out on a wonderful experience

 

[bethcw]

We attended Mayfairs & Christmas fairs at our local Waldorf school. I loved the atmosphere. When DD had a horrible time in PS, we toured & interviewed every private school in our area. Both DH & I feel in love with the Waldorf school for very different reasons. Neither of us are Waldorf experts. In fact this board can be very intimidating! It is still hard to know if we are doing the right thing "academically". But, I know we are doing the right thing for her "emotionally" and that is much more important than academics at the young age of 5! The kindy class is working BEAUTIFULLY for my DD, and we are taking things year-by-year.

Beth

 

[frogautumn]

I like this story...

When I was in 7th grade, my (public school) English teacher had us write poems as a homework assignment. The next week, she told the class that she had selected three poems from the grade and would enter them into "a poetry festival at this really artsy school where we've never, ever won." One of the poems was mine. Several months later, I got a phone call from a very nice adult saying that my "wonderful poem" had placed in their festival. No adult had ever spoken to me like that before. My parents and I drove to the school for the festival and I was immediately awestuck--where had this place been all my life?? Throughout my life, I tried to remain close to the school--I worked as a camp counselor at a day camp on their campus, I observed classes there when I was pursuing my own teacher training (not Waldorf), and I researched and wrote papers on Waldorf during this teacher training (which totally perplexed my professors).
Now this same school is the school where my son & I go to parent and child classes

:

 

[dharmama]

thank you so much for sharing these stories -- i am loving them!!!