Nursery

By age 3 your child is ready to experience the first steps away from the shelter of home and family. The TWS Nursery provides a safe and beautiful home-like experience for 12 children, led by an experienced Waldorf teacher and assistant.

Schedule options:
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 8:30 am to 12 noon
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 8:30 am to 12 noon
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, full day program

•	A few spaces are available in our Kindergarten classes for families who require a 5 morning or 5 full-day program for their nursery-age children who turn 4 before September 1.
•	Children who are 3 years old by May 31 may enter Nursery in September that year. If space permits, a child who turns 3 between Jun 1 and September 1 may start Nursery in January the following year.

Parental Involvement:

	Parent Evenings held through the year provide an opportunity to discuss parenting issues and challenges, and explore the Waldorf approach to raising young children. These are an integral part of the program and one or both parents are expected to attend.
	Gateways, an annual conference for parents of young children, is held at TWS each spring. Many parents choose to attend this event to support their parenting work.
	The Nursery program requires an annual contractual commitment. The admissions process includes an individual meeting with the teacher.

Play as a Foundation for Healthy Development

	Your child will learn through primarily through play and imitation in the TWS Nursery program.
	Healthy play lays the foundation for growth and learning in a range of areas, from gross and fine motor skills to the development of imagination and creativity. Your child’s academic work in the years ahead will build on the base created in these early years.
	Storytelling, songs and verses help children develop the capacity to create their own visual images. Future reading comprehension and creative thinking will draw strongly on this capacity.
	Your child’s linguistic development is enhanced by the rich language of stories, songs and verses
	Storytelling draws on experiences of home and garden and qualities of the seasons, concrete elements of your young child’s life.
	Stories also spawn the early fantasy play that grows into full imagination. Development of imagination is a cornerstone of future openness to new ideas and creative problem solving, a hallmark of Waldorf education.

Role of Teachers

	Teachers join in the children’s play, as needed, to help build houses, bridges and tunnels and to model appropriate social interaction.
	As the children develop over the year they begin to initiate play and be less dependent on teachers’ involvement. Hands-on work by the teachers (baking, cleaning and gardening) lends itself to imitation, the young child's first cognitive exploration of the world.

	Children model both activities and the way in which they are done.
	Your child will see the attention paid to each individual, respectful social interactions, thoughtful speech and healthy movement.

	Through these, children learn important values such as respect for self and others, kindness, industriousness and a sense of wonder.
	Through imitation children learn to be good citizens of the world.

Class Rhythm

Rhythm provides continuity and consistency to support your child’s exploration of this new environment. The Nursery class provides consistent daily and weekly rhythms.

	Strong, consistent rhythms support children’s healthy physical development and ongoing strength
	Young children feel secure when they know what to expect, so we maintain daily and weekly rhythms to minimize uncertainty

For healthy intellectual and physical development, it is important that children move back and forth between different types of activities. A busy activity like free play might be followed by a quiet activity, such as listening to a story or painting. Exploring the garden, a busy activity, might follow.

Activities:

•	free play time indoors
•	watercolour painting and drawing with beeswax crayons
•	circle time with nursery rhymes, songs and movement games
•	storytelling, often accompanied by hand puppets to provide concrete visual experience
•	a nutritious snack prepared daily, shared by children and teachers
•	outdoor play each day in the nursery play garden or adventure walks into nearby fields, farm and forest on the TWS school grounds.
•	Special activities such as the birthday story and celebration for each child

Registration

		See our Fees page for current fees.
		See Events (tours, Open House) and Admissions (process, tuition), Application Form

Difficulties? Suggestions? Questions?