Everyone who loves Waldorf education and culture has a Waldorf story. Mine began when I was a small child. I took a long pause (though Waldorf lived on inside me) and my story continued a few years ago when I found a Waldorf playgroup for my daughter.
My experience of Waldorf culture as a child
I went to a Waldorf kindergarten between the ages of 4 and 6. That seems like a very short time, but it left a huge mark on me and I have the most vivid memories of that time. My parents were heavily involved in the local Waldorf community and our whole social network at the time revolved around it. It was a natural, slow and simple life. I don’t know if I’m glorifying “the good old days” or if life in the early 80s in rural Austria was actually a lot simpler.
My mother (right) selling her Waldorf dolls at the Christmas Bazaar
I remember my mother, dressed in long flowing dresses, milling whole grains to turn them into home made bread, and knitting and sewing our clothes and toys; my father would often be found woodworking in his workshop to make our furniture and toys.
I remember the main room of our kindergarten with its soft, natural pastel colours, our teacher lighting a candle and playing a simple tune on her lyre harp before telling us a story, and every day, one of us children had the privilege of extinguishing the candle with a snuffer. The smell of a smoking wick still reminds me of this. I also remember her pouring oil into wholemeal flour to make the dough that we shaped into rolls for our lunch, and I can still taste that dough (although I’m sure she told us that eating it would give us tummy aches).
Recalling all of these details now makes me think how wholesome and magical it all was.
Rediscovering Waldorf as a mother
Now I am a mother too and when my daughter was 2, I discovered a Waldorf school not too far from us which ran a weekly play group. When I walked into the room for the first time, I felt as if I was transported back to the Waldorf kindergarten of my childhood. My eyes welled up.
The soft coloured fabrics hanging from the ceiling to create cosy nooks, small wooden chairs for the children to sit on, small shelves with wooden bowls containing sea shells and pine cones, carved wooden animals, a lovingly arranged nature table – and a dolls’ corner with a wicker basket full of simple Waldorf dolls.
The room was flooded with warmth and light, and the woman who ran the playgroup was softly spoken and gentle. In fact, everything about the playgroup was quiet, warm and gentle, which played exactly to my true nature, and I believe that of my daughter. Sadly, the playgroup didn’t survive as the school was closed, so the experience was short lived, but it helped me to re-connected with the Waldorf-child in me, and I became determined to pass some of this magic on to my daughter. There are many ways in which you can inject a touch of Waldorf into your home if, for whatever reason, your children can’t go to a Waldorf kindergarten.
Waldorf dolls and handwork
My mother made my first Waldorf doll, and she taught me all her skills over the years. I knew when I was pregnant that I would make dolls for my child, and it has been one of the most fun parts of being a mother to make Emmy’s toys. I love all crafts – knitting, crochet, sewing, embroidery, the list is endless – and the great thing about doll making is that it combines so many of them.
With my mother and sister, having just unwrapped our dolls, made by my mother for Christmas
How Waldorf lives on…
Our childhood shapes us in the most profound way, and people who are exposed to Waldorf education at a young age will carry it with them throughout their lives. Not just in their memories but in their identity.
And so, as Waldorf has lived on in me despite my long break of direct exposure to it, the Waldorf ethos will also live on in my daughter and she, in turn, will pass it on one day.
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