Roots and Shoots Parent Child Program
The Roots and Shoots Parent class supports parents and caregivers of very young children by offering a warm and welcoming environment in which to meet with others facilitated by an experienced and trained Waldorf teacher in a beautiful setting. We are nurturing and building a community of caregivers. Our vision is grounded in the living inquiries of today's parenting community.
Each week we will gather for lively discussion, observation, baking and time for singing and finger games. Topics may include setting up an environment where children are safe and may cultivate the habit of independent play, setting boundaries while remaining calm and establishing a rhythm in which you and your child are thriving.
The Roots and Shoots program is held one day a week (either Monday or Tuesday depending on your selection) from 9a-11a.
The Autumn Session runs weekly September - December following the Acorn calendar.
The Winter/Spring Session runs weekly February - May following the Acorn calendar.
Program cost is $540 per seasonal session.
Expectant parents are also welcome!
Join the waitlist for the 2025 Winter Session!
If you are interested in being on our mailing list to hear about new opportunities for enrolling please fill out this
FORM. Email admin@acornws.org with any questions!
Thank for your interest!
Nursery & Mixed-Age Kindergarten Programs
ACORN WALDORF SCHOOL offers exceptional nursery & mixed-age kindergarten programs designed for the young child. Our nursery program serves children ages 2 and 3 (children must turn two by September 1st of the school year), and our mixed-age kindergarten program serves children ages 4-6. Wish to learn more? Email admin@acornws.org with any questions.
Here, we cultivate a space for intelligent play, allowing the children to engage with the physical world and each other. This is the true work of childhood, the essential basis for critical thinking, problem solving, and social interaction. In our warm, home-like atmosphere, the children are guarded from sensory overload (so ubiquitous in our culture) that can disrupt and even arrest this fundamental activity from finding expression. Journeying through the year we honor the seasons and celebrate festivals. The daily rhythm balances time spent indoors and out, restful times with active, and individual with group activities. This provides a nurturing and sustaining creative space, fostering self-confidence, physical health, and social intuition.
Experiential tasks, great and small, build the foundation for cognitive learning. With song and story, literacy and linguistic capacity are strengthened, along with a sense of the beauty and expressiveness of language. Counting games and rhyme provide a solid basis for memory and mathematical skills. Concentration, small-muscle development, and hand-eye coordination are all skills significantly promoted through tasks such as baking, braiding, finger crocheting, sewing, modeling with beeswax, and watercolor painting. All these elements work together, creating not only a superior foundation for elementary school learning, but also a basis in areas such as artistic ability, ethical values, social awareness, resilience, and health.
2024-25 Enrollment is now open.
Aftercare
An Aftercare Program is offered Monday through Friday, 3pm to 5pm when school is in session. Aftercare is owned and operated by lead Acorn teacher, Jamie McGinnis. Ms. Jamie's aftercare program is billed by semester, with different rates and availability for drop-in needs. Please contact Jamie directly at aftercare@acornws.org with any questions at all and to sign up for aftercare.
Daily Rhythm - a sample...
The ACORN WALDORF SCHOOL day is designed to create a balance between the individual
and group creative, and between active times and restful times.
A SAMPLE DAILY RHYTHM
The morning begins as children are welcomed by the teachers and say good-bye to their parents or caregivers at the gate.
CREATIVE PLAY – For young children, play is work, through which they make the world their own. To stimulate healthy imaginative play, the child needs time, a quiet, positive atmosphere, and play materials taken from nature that allow open interpretation. Supported by the adults who are engaged in meaningful, practical tasks of life, children can experience and understand the purpose and process of these activities.
COOKING – During this time, the children participate in the preparation of the meal we will share that day. This may include the kneading of bread dough, chopping vegetables for soup, or grinding a grain to make flour for baking.
CREATIVE ARTS – For family festivals, we use many ways and mediums to create seasonal crafts. Activities such as watercolor painting, crayon drawing, finger crocheting, sewing, and even woodworking all encourage each child’s natural sense of beauty and the development of fine motor skills.
CLEAN-UP TIME – All playthings and materials are returned to their places and the table is set. This activity teaches children to be good stewards of both their belongings and their environment. It also begins to develop good organizational skills.
CIRCLE TIME – Songs and verses throughout the seasons are learned, sung, and explored with gesture and movement. Hearing and seeing, feeling and imagining, moving and acting are all intertwined and become a whole through the child’s participation. Older children familiar with the words and choreography from the previous year act as models, strengthening the self-confidence in older children and giving the younger ones incentive to imitate them.
OUTDOOR PLAY – We go outside rain or shine to run, climb, swing, sled, garden, construct, push wheelbarrows, pull wagons, and jump rope. This is essential free play in which the children delight.
SHORT REST AND STORY TIME – Children love stories and fairy tales. These carefully chosen tales contain wisdom and life experience, profundity and cleverness, thoughts and logic–all of which is expressed not in abstract terms, but through imagery. With countless details, entire landscapes are painted, delighting the soul. As the teacher presents a puppet play or tells the story by heart, it is the individual child who creates the pictures with his or her own imagination.
HAND WASHING AND LUNCH – A lunch of organic whole grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, and cheeses are served family style. Clean up is shared by the whole group, with rotating assignments. Table manners and warm conversation are practiced.
GOOD-BYE VERSE – This is for those children going home for the afternoon.
SIESTA – After clean up, a quiet time begins until everyone is ready to lie down on a mat or outdoor hammock. The teacher tucks each child in and sings a lullaby, or tells a story.
QUIET IMAGINATIVE PLAY/PROJECTS – Some children continue to sleep while others wake up gradually in the care of the assistant teacher. Those that are ready and awake engage in creative play indoors and out in the company of the teacher until pick up time at 3pm.
Acorn Summer Camp
Thanks for another wonderful summer camp season! Check back in February for 2025 Camp Enrollment.
Acorn Camp serves ages 3-12 year olds!
Every week, along with Acorn Waldorf School teachers and their helpers, we play in meadows, build and dig in the sandbox, make beautiful crafts, take nature walks, run through the sprinkler, make good friends and simply enjoy summertime days.
🌿 Ages 3 to 12 years old. Must be fully potty trained and comfortable independently using portable toilets.
🌿 Monday through Thursday, 9am to 2pm, unless otherwise noted.
🌿 $375 per week (discount available if child is enrolled all 5 weeks).
🌿 Aftercare available from 2-3pm on days when camp is in session.
Email us at admin@acornws.org with any questions!
Acorn Waldorf School is a Full Member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
