Our Sons and Daughters School

Our family is incredibly grateful for having found this Preschool. Our Sons and Daughters is the only Waldorf Oriented School around the East End and I would love to see it grow into an Elementary School one day. I love this School because of its simplicity, the women who run it and the community of families who attend.
This has been our first year here and I am already concerned about having to go elsewhere in a few more. Maggie, the director and kindergarten teacher is as caring, intuitive, deep and professional as a teacher can get. It is a real pleasure to drop off my three year old in the morning and to see both teachers Maggie and Holly so involved in their morning activities with the children: feeding the chickens, tiding up gardening tools, moving sticks and pumpkins around, peeling vegetables for soup, etc. They don’t give any orders, they just keep on doing, and the children will follow. When they do need to gather, Maggie just starts singing and the kids instantly fall under her spell. Maggie truly is a gem of a person and this is the first reason why I give this school 5 stars. Even though I was dreaming about a Waldorf School for my daughter I will still choose the right human being and environment over a method, and true dedication over a greater facility. Maggie and Holley gave us the reassurance that we were looking for: Our daughter’s spiritual life would be nurtured, her basic needs met, and she would be surrounded by love and care while given permission to explore and play.
Because it is based in the laws of nature, the Waldorf method pays close attention to rhythm and each day of the week is highlighted by a different activity: Bread baking, watercolor painting, soup making, crayon coloring and beeswax modeling. My daughter’s week is not from Monday to Friday but from bread to beeswax day and she does know the order!
After drop-​off time the kids start their day with a 20 min walk around the woods (rain or shine) and after that they go inside, put on their slippers, and start kneading flour, cutting vegetables or making art, according to the day.
The School’s yard is designed simply but with much thought. There is an herb garden, a dolls house, a chicken’s house and a sand box, besides swings and the usual set. The space indoors is full of details that make children feel safe and cozy and that nurture their creativity at the same time: small corners with magical objects from nature, wooden building blocks, dolls and hand made clothes for them, doll houses, fairy house, etc.
There are no poster signs with numbers or letters or county flags to remember. The Waldorf method doesn’t believe that there is an advantage in reading and writing before the age of 7 or learning mathematics before the age of 8. For me, this is a great benefit as it means that other aspects of childhood that feel more important are taken into consideration first. I am at peace knowing that my daughter is spending her time away from home in an environment that doesn’t threaten her innocence and consciousness and that will challenge her in ways that in the long term will be far more substantial than the ordinary ways in which we think we should be challenged.
Even though part of the magic of this place is due to its small size and to the fact that it still remains a bit hidden, I absolutely and openly recommend it, under the feeling that more families could benefit from knowing about it.