Circle Time: A Winter Movement Journey

In my pre-Waldorf, pre-Mama days, I was a preschool teacher and did graduate work in early childhood education. Back in the day, circle time was a pretty academic affair. We had a calendar, chose jobs, participated in show and tell, presented lessons, reviewed our ABCs and 123s, planned out how we would spend our mornings.

A Waldorf-inspired circle is quite a different proposition. Rather than dwelling in the head, its center in the child's body and heart. We move, we sing, we dance, we explore whole worlds in our imagination. It's not that learning doesn't happen-- when we sing songs that count down melting snowmen, for example, we are learning number concepts, and when we move to the beat of a song we are learning to control our bodies-- but it's not an "in your face" kind of experience. One of the things I love most about Waldorf is that it trusts the wisdom of a child to internalize concepts, even those not explicitly taught. Those ideas nestle deep in a child's imagination, seed-like, taking root and growing when the season in right.

For the last two weeks, we've been immersed in a Winter Woods circle. We got to know our animals friends, the bunnies and fishies and squirrels and bears, and how they prepared for the winter. We ice skated without ever leaving our living room, moving in straight lines and curves and spirals. We squirreled away beanbag nuts and found them again, and had a marvelous time.

This week, we left the woods and the animals and journeyed back to our warm homes. We put on pretend mittens and gloves and boots and went on a winter movement journey. We built snowmen and went sledding and had a snowball fight.

And, as always, we're learning too-- not only things like a song to help us put our mittens on and how to exercise inhibitory control over our bodies or how to count down from five as our jolly fat snowmen melt, but also things like how to take turns and how to exist and move without running into someone else's space. We're learning how to pause for a quiet moment of reverence and how to love one another by showing respect and gentleness and care.

Wishing you a peaceful week of winter joy...