Kinderleben at Willow Tree Community School
Willow Tree Community School will be having an Interest Meeting at the school on April 14th at 7 p.m. to go over application and enrollment procedures. Please email to [email protected] or call 980-295-2661to RSVP or to get more information about our Kinderleben program or other forms.
The old word “kindergarten," translated from German, means "child garden.” The idea was brought forth by Friedrich Froebel in the 1840s, who created an environment where children could play, explore, and, quite literally, tend a garden. Charlotte Mason makes a distinction about the word garden and its use as a descriptor for educating children. She did not believe that children were a garden to be tended by a gardener but rather living persons in their own right with all the potentialities of personhood. Education then should be about living as persons in the world that God has made for us. This idea that children are living persons spurred Dr. Jack Beckman, Professor of Education at Covenant College to coin the term Kinderleben, or Child-Life, to reflect our beliefs that even our youngest students are people who should live naturally rather than crops to be cultivated.
This idea is radically different from what kindergarten has become. You may have heard people say that today's kindergarten is yesterday's first grade. But why? The answer may be the increased pressure to get children to do more, faster, and the desire to move students as quickly as possible into a rigid classroom system, away from the interactions with nature, unstructured play, and delightful stories that promote creativity, curiosity, and a love of learning.
At Willow Tree, we have a different mentality. We believe that children under seven should be busy playing and spending time outdoors. There is plenty of time for academics the rest of their lives! Research and early childhood specialists support this belief, and experts are increasingly alarmed at the assault on children's play in favor of academic pursuits (see this article about the balance of play and pressure or this article about the benefits of outdoor learning). There is substantial evidence that the edge obtained through early academics disappears in elementary school, and children who are allowed to play instead are more creative and well-adjusted than their peers who were pushed into academics too early.
We are currently crafting a living kinderleben program for children ages 5-7, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. Our model for learning will focus on giving children lots of time and space for play and exploration:
Additionally, we our designing our program with a uniquely family-first perspective:
Space will be limited to 12 students per form. Call 980-295-2661 or email [email protected] for more informationtoday to get your child's name on our waiting list.
The old word “kindergarten," translated from German, means "child garden.” The idea was brought forth by Friedrich Froebel in the 1840s, who created an environment where children could play, explore, and, quite literally, tend a garden. Charlotte Mason makes a distinction about the word garden and its use as a descriptor for educating children. She did not believe that children were a garden to be tended by a gardener but rather living persons in their own right with all the potentialities of personhood. Education then should be about living as persons in the world that God has made for us. This idea that children are living persons spurred Dr. Jack Beckman, Professor of Education at Covenant College to coin the term Kinderleben, or Child-Life, to reflect our beliefs that even our youngest students are people who should live naturally rather than crops to be cultivated.
This idea is radically different from what kindergarten has become. You may have heard people say that today's kindergarten is yesterday's first grade. But why? The answer may be the increased pressure to get children to do more, faster, and the desire to move students as quickly as possible into a rigid classroom system, away from the interactions with nature, unstructured play, and delightful stories that promote creativity, curiosity, and a love of learning.
At Willow Tree, we have a different mentality. We believe that children under seven should be busy playing and spending time outdoors. There is plenty of time for academics the rest of their lives! Research and early childhood specialists support this belief, and experts are increasingly alarmed at the assault on children's play in favor of academic pursuits (see this article about the balance of play and pressure or this article about the benefits of outdoor learning). There is substantial evidence that the edge obtained through early academics disappears in elementary school, and children who are allowed to play instead are more creative and well-adjusted than their peers who were pushed into academics too early.
We are currently crafting a living kinderleben program for children ages 5-7, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. Our model for learning will focus on giving children lots of time and space for play and exploration:
- Listening to stories and poetry with rich, literary language;
- Going on nature walks, during which they learn the names of the local plants, insects, and animals they encounter;
- Watercolor brush drawings of specimens they observe;
- Learning the basics of geography: Noticing the position of the sun and shadows, locating north, noticing how water runs, etc.;
- Foreign language immersion lessons;
- Developing oral language expression, observation skills, vocabulary through "sight seeing" adventures;
- Spending long hours outdoors;
- Catching caterpillars, tadpoles, and various other specimens to watch;
- Preparing and enjoying nutritious meals together (with some ingredients they grow themselves);
- Playing games that introduce early literacy and mathematical concepts as children show readiness and interest;
- Engaging in creative play;
- Enjoying fine art and classical music;
- Learning handcrafts;
- Resting when tired.
Additionally, we our designing our program with a uniquely family-first perspective:
- Unprecedented flexibility
- Affordable cost-tuition for kinderleben students will be $4000 per year
- Open access to classrooms for parents
- Community development across families
Space will be limited to 12 students per form. Call 980-295-2661 or email [email protected] for more informationtoday to get your child's name on our waiting list.