Set your student up for success by creating a learning space that excites your child and helps them dive into learning each day.

Waldorf classrooms are designed specifically to accommodate student development and welcome learning. While classrooms emanate warmth and are designed specifically for children we know an exact classroom replication isn’t a possibility for many parents engaged in distance learning.

However, there are ways to create a space that will inspire your child to be creative and stir up excitement for projects each day.

Our teaching staff is using creative solutions to keep a balance between screen time and other educational activities based on developmental capacities.

On any regular school day a guest could walk into the Waldorf School of Baltimore and find children engaged in activities from reading to playing string instruments to exploring the great outdoors.

What guests won’t see are children glued to screens – in fact, a guest would be hard-pressed to find a screen at all. The school embraces slow technology and is screen-free during the school day on the Pre-K through eighth grade campus. As the school transitioned to distance learning, continuing to be conscious of developmental needs is a continued, top priority for the school during this time said Executive Director Pat Whitehead.

Our guest blogger and school counselor, Christa Marvenko-Athas, has some useful insight for coping with our feelings during this stressful time. Take a look at her simple mindfulness practice.

During highly stressful times I find it difficult to stay grounded in the present, although that is one of the best ways of coping with the stress response. Tara Brach, a psychologist, author, and proponent of Buddhist meditation, explains the use of the acronym RAIN as an easy-to-remember tool for practicing mindfulness.  I recommend creating reminders to take moments throughout your day and take a moment to:  

During this hectic time, children can be ushered into developing valuable life skills.

Allowing children to have ample amounts of self-directed, independent play is part of our Children’s Garden daily rhythms. Waldorf children are able to develop imagination while working through challenges with free play during their earliest developmental years and experts say these skills can last a lifetime.

Digital School Spirit Week

Don’t let distance learning completely disconnect you from our community. Next week we will be taking part in a second spirit week in an effort to bring us back together digitally.

Take a look at the list below and snap a photo each day and send them to Lindsay: Lmachak@twsb.org

At the end of the week she’ll post a gallery on our website and across social media platforms.

Experts say children who are openly talking about the worldwide pandemic are having a normal, healthy response.

If your child is casually mentioning COVID-19 in their day to day activities, you shouldn’t be alarmed, experts told The Atlantic.

Our guest blogger and school counselor, Christa Marvenko-Athas, has some useful insight for coping with our feelings during this stressful time. Take a look at her suggestions of how to approach this unprecedented situation at home.

As we all are determining how to manage our lives, obligations, and feelings regarding the coronavirus, it is important to consider we are being flooded with information regarding COVID-19.  This information is upsetting, concerning, and scary; our fight-or-flight responses are being activated not only daily, but also for days on end.

With each new piece of information most of us experience mounting stress.  In response to acute stress a cascade of stress hormones are produced in the body, which produces physiological change.  We are not meant to sustain this high level of fight-or-flight for long periods as this can create problems of its own.  Many of us are not only managing this stress response in ourselves but also in our children.  As we continue to face this challenge, I feel it is important to focus on a counter measure to this fight-or-flight response in order to calm the body, the mind, each other, and our children, and stay in touch with our strength and resilience.

Over Thanksgiving break, each eighth grade student interviewed a grandparent, or other beloved elder, and wrote out the answers to some twenty questions about his or her childhood. When they returned to language arts class, they wrote extensive descriptive essays based on their interviews. Take a look at this interview from Abigail S.:

My Grandma

Class plays teach life skills and invigorate subject lessons as an important part of Waldorf education. Find out why class plays are an important part of Waldorf education.