Childhood celebrated at Cedar Springs Waldorf School

For many families, the first days and even weeks of school can be filled with anxiety and stress, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Cedar Springs Waldorf School (CSWS) strives to present a balanced education that meets children right where they are at developmentally.

Students at CSWS experience hands-on and inspiring academics in a wholesome setting on a lovely 5-acre wooded campus, complete with a garden, farm animals and woodshop. Here children develop a love for learning.

In the fast paced world with dizzying schedules and unlimited choices, movements such as simplicity parenting and slow parenting are gaining steam and advocating what Waldorf education has been doing for nearly a century: allowing young ones to fully experience their childhood instead of being rushed to grow up.

The Early Childhood Program is a remarkable example of this. Using a loving home-like setting with predictable rhythms, the parent-child and kindergarten programs gently stimulate the development of imagination, sequencing, sensory integration, memory, social skills and motor skills that are essential for later learning and are the foundations for academic excellence.

“The way a human being learns during the first seven years is different from any other time in their life,” noted Veronica Gunasekara, a kindergarten teacher at CSWS with nearly 20 years of Waldorf teaching experience.

“Their early education is a foundation from which all future learning capacities will develop. Children need movement, art, storytelling, and other modalities where they are engaged and participating in the learning, making it more meaningful to them. In our hurried fast-paced society, there are many stressors that children meet each day. Waldorf Education provides a safe place for each individual to grow and develop at the pace that is right for them,” Gunasekara said.

As the students pass through the grades, first through eighth, they apply these foundational skills cultivated in the early years to problem solve in math and science, as well as critically think about global issues in the present and past.

Social skills are also developed so that students see they are valuable citizens in their community and can make a difference in a world that is becoming more socially alienating.

“My children spend half their day at school, so I wanted them to go somewhere where they feel loved and cared for,” pointed out Laura Hauge, a parent at Cedar Springs. “I want them to be valued for the unique people they are and not just whether they can put the right answer down on a test.”

CSWS is an accredited Waldorf school serving children from 6 months to eighth grade.

The school holds parent-child classes for parents and their young children ages 6 months to 2 ½ years to attend together.

There are both three day and five day kindergartens as well as grades first through eighth.

The school is accepting applications now for the parent-child and kindergarten classes, which will begin after Labor Day.

For more information call Enrollment Director, Lynn Morgan, Ed.D., at 530-642-9903 or visit the school’s Website at cedarspringsonline.com.