Here are answers to common questions as well as an illustration of our philosophy and our reasoning in choosing the principles of Waldorf education to inspire children. Please see our Reading List for so much more.
What is Waldorf Education? or to say it another way, Does Dragonfly follow a curriculum?
Dragonfly School’s curriculum follows the principles of the Waldorf Education philosophy. (We are not an endorsed nor official Waldorf School.) The founders of Dragonfly chose Waldorf to be the school’s guiding star for it’s special emphasis on protecting the Wonder and Imagination of Early Childhood (birth through seven years). Waldorf seeks to cultivate children’s imagination and creativity, founding a life-long love of learning. Childhood Development: Year by Year illustrates how the Waldorf approach to early childhood meets children where they are developmentally. Additionally, this is one of our favorite articles, from the Philadelphia Waldorf School: The True Purpose of Preschool. And lastly, this beautiful article called Letting the Children Be Children further illustrates our curriculum approach and why we do what we do at Dragonfly.
The following elements are key to our curriculum in all classrooms:
Rhythm: Our days are carefully crafted to incorporate a calm rhythmical structure so children experience a daily balance of outdoor and indoor activity, structured and unstructured movement, social and independent activities and the security to develop social, emotional, and cognitive skills each day.
Arts: Activities such as painting, beeswax modeling, and crafts develop creative thinking, artistic expression, and advanced motor skills. Wet on wet watercolour painting emphasises the sense experience of light, colour, and water (seen here below in the Kindergarten classroom).
Fairytales and Storytime: Children are told stories and fairy tales every day. Story enriches a child’s vocabulary, deepens concentration, and helps a child grow their attention span. Language and social skills are introduced in experiential ways as children listen to and engage in daily storytelling, songs, and imaginative play.
Outside time: Nature exploration, outdoor play, and gardening build resilience in children, and curiosity about the world. We witness Outside time as regulating and calming for children, and we try to spend as much time outside as possible, at minimum 2 hours a day.
Purposeful work: Our curriculum offers many opportunities to channel and challenge the natural vibrant and curious energies of growing children through what is known as “purposeful work.” Food preparation, tidying up after snack and play, sweeping, and other practical life skills give children a sense of purpose and belonging.
Free Play: Free play is the time for children to make their own worlds and build their imaginations. Teachers purposefully support the children as they play, explore, and practice meaningful tasks as a group, to shape social emotional intelligence and build empathy, respect and social cohesion.
Small class size: Teachers establish a warm and nurturing connection to each child, modeling a reverence for learning, nature, and life. We keep class sizes small.
Is a Waldorf Preschool and/or Kindergarten right for my child?
Very good question! We think so, but listen to this podcast (40 mins long) from Your Parenting Mojo that addresses this very question beautifully.
What Programs are offered At Dragonfly?
We are a new school growing and exploring who we are in this community. In 2019, we opened as a one room schoolhouse with just a small Preschool class. Each subsequent year we added a classroom/grade level—offering a Nursery, Preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade in 2023. We have scaled back as of 2023/24 with the vision of upholding quality versus quantity.
For the foreseeable future, we will only be an Early Childhood school offering Preschool (ages 2-4) and Kindergarten (ages 5-6). This is what we do best.
How does a curriculum inspired by Waldorf principles affect my child’s academic learning process? Will they be prepared for public school at the grade level?
In these foundational Early Childhood years, we let the children be children. These are precious, imaginative years that must be protected. At Dragonfly, we’re helping children become aware and resilient little people who can communicate their needs and have compassion for others. THIS comes first before learning the alphabet and how to count to 100.
Using multidisciplinary teaching strategies, our curriculum provides opportunities to practice and apply developmentally appropriate skills with a strong emphasis on social and emotional health, fine and gross motor skills, language acquisition, problem solving skills, and artistic creativity. Ample research supports the belief that this is a founded approach to establish a strong educational foundation for independent, capable, lifelong learners.
Our school’s greatest purpose is to inspire a love of learning, so that children delve into questions with a genuine curiosity that persists throughout their life. So when they graduate from our school into the grades, and are presented with having to master the alphabet, learn more numbers, and read bigger texts, children dive into the task with a zest and enthusiasm for learning.
Additionally, how parents support their child’s reading skills at home will greatly influence their child’s ability to read before entering a traditional primary school setting. Graduates of the Dragonfly School will be alongside their peers in every way, often they will be more advanced in speech, language, and artistic activities due to the overall diversity of experiences in a Waldorf-inspired classroom setting.
Does Dragonfly Preschool use assessment tools?
Teachers use established comprehensive checklists of developmental skills and activities introduced in the classroom to observe and record each child’s progress. This observational data and other anecdotal records is used to create progress reports and hold parent teacher conferences in the Fall and in the Spring. Individual child portfolios, which will include recorded data, parent communication, and samples of the child’s work, will be referenced year to year.
How many children in a class?
We keep class sizes small to ensure quality interactions between teachers and children. The Preschool has a max of 13 children with 3 Teachers, and the Kindergarten has a max of 13 children with 2 Teachers.
Does the School offer parent education and involvement?
An essential aspect of our curriculum and philosophy is to offer Parent education that includes basics of our Waldorf principles and how to support healthy child development and growth at home. There are many family events and celebrations held throughout the school year with the intention of building a community that works in partnership to reach our common goals for our children.
We hold four major Seasonal festivals each school year, enriching your family’s and your child’s school experience. Children learn songs and stories as anticipation grows for these festivals and events—our September Harvest Festival, November’s Lantern Walk, December’s Spiral of Light on Solstice, and the spring May Faire festival (shown here below).
Why is outdoor play and experiences in nature so important? what benefit will it give my child?
Time outside is about showing children the natural rhythms of life and about learning from Mother Nature. Young children are connected to all things, people, animals, and nature in a deep and unique way. Our teachers do not try to prematurely bring a child out of this magical world, but instead work with this consciousness to nurture a reverence and interest for nature, that will stay with them through their life. Our curriculum builds in ample outside time, in all weather.
The Waldorf School of Philadelphia has a fabulous Blog post called the Waldorf Education and the Nature Connection. An inspiring read!
What is the difference between Waldorf and Montessori?
These two educational approaches began with a similar goal: to design a curriculum that was developmentally appropriate to the young child, and one that addresses the child's need to learn in a tactile as well as an intellectual way. The philosophies are otherwise very different. At a very basic glance: In Montessori, the curriculum emphasizes the individual child and their creativity. In Waldorf and at Dragonfly, every child is celebrated as an individual within the group. The daily rhythms of the class hold the individual children in flow. For more information, please see a comparison chart here.
Why do Waldorf schools recommend limiting television, videos, and all screen time for young children?
Our School policy is zero screen time. Children will not be exposed to screens at any point in the preschool day, and we ask that they do not bring technology to school.
Why? We are concerned that electronic media hampers the development of the child's imagination. We are concerned about the physical effects of the medium on the developing child as well as the content of much of the programming. There is more and more research that screen time contributes to shorter attention spans, childhood obesity, and more social/behavioral issues.
Here’s an article from the NY Times that went viral, about Silicon Valley parents preferring to send their children to Waldorf schools which fundamentally prohibit technology in the classroom.
What is Dragonfly’s culture of diversity and inclusion?
Dragonfly School is committed to creating a culture of inclusivity and awareness, from the level of our board of directors, to our staff and among our students, through language, curriculum, and policy. Here are some of the actions we are taking to promote this social consciousness:
Making our school more financially accessible to all by offering multiple financial aid options.
Looking at where in our curriculum we can add age appropriate content and lessons on multiculturalism and fostering a sense of appreciation for people of all colors and abilities
Adding dolls and art and crafts that feature people of all colors
We believe that it is the many small steps of many individuals that add up to big changes. We want our children, and all children, to learn the importance of diversity, tolerance, and compassion.
Please contact us if you have any more unanswered questions at Info@dragonflypreschool.org, or use the form on our Contact page.