Math and Science in the Kindergarten Waldorf Early Childhood Settings
By Lisa Gromicko
Steiner-based, early childhood settings abound with rich opportunities for the development of math and science concepts. This may be surprising to some who can easily see the beauty, language, and coziness of the Waldorf kindergarten, but not necessarily the mathematical or scientific side. A primary focus of Waldorf early childhood education is on the care and development of the physical body of the child, and that of the child’s environment. Considering the ‘physical’ basis of the early years, it then becomes possible to glimpse the natural mathematical relationships. In reality, all activities of Steiner-based early childhood education are math and science based, including activities of language acquisition and pre-literacy, such as listening and word recognition, patterning, and story sequencing.
How do young children learn fundamental math and science concepts and skills? Concepts are the building blocks of knowledge, accumulated and built upon through experiences and physical movement in the world. Healthy children manipulate concrete materials (including their own bodies) in every situation, collecting ‘data’, and through repeated exposure, finding order for that ‘data’. The order the child then creates leads to the development of concepts. Young children are naturally astute mathematicians and scientists, learning vast amounts of information daily, as they explore the world and move in their bodies. Without needing flashcards or structured lessons however, the young child learns the fundamentals of math and science concepts, with every sense impression, movement and action. Research has shown that ‘structured’ math and science lessons in early childhood are premature and can be detrimental to proper brain development for the young child, actually interfering with concept development.
The activity of play especially, provides the child with the most enriched setting for the learning of concepts. “If we observe carefully, child’s play is revealed to be excellent unconscious preparation for future education in mathematics and natural sciences, provided this play can proceed freely, and without an adult agenda.” (Developmental Signatures).[i] We can see in the young child, the brilliant genius of play in its most scientific essence. Like the archetypal ‘scientist’, the child is totally absorbed, taking great interest, exploring and ‘playing’ with the physical world.
Beginning in infancy, the young child is learning concepts. The free-exploration of the early years provides the foundation for all future math and science learning. The infant begins to perceive the world and eventually to track the movements of activity in the surroundings; feeling the various textures of objects, the warmth of a caretaker’s embrace, that of the sunshine, or the cold wind blowing on the face (temperature). The child is also unconsciously living and learning at this time about the powerful rhythms of day and night, the concept of time sequence. The child learns about the physical experiences of hunger: how the body feels, what audible expressions are needed to bring a caretaker with nourishment, the comfort in the body of having physical and emotional needs met.
Then, physical movement begins. One day, the child becomes aware of his limbs, and this begins the long process of discovering how to grasp objects. The child investigates every object within reach: tasting, turning over, rattling, biting, dropping objects to the ground. Concepts such as weight, texture, hardness, shape, taste, sound and temperature are all registered continually at this age through primarily, naturalistic experiences, led by the child. These spontaneously initiated experiences, are the primary mode of learning in the early years and continue to be valuable for older children, as well. An interesting and rich, natural environment, with adults engaged in purposeful activity, provide the child with endless opportunities and motivation for interacting with the surroundings.
Mobile toddlers learn multiple concepts about spatial relationships with the world, in their tireless efforts to stand up, walk, and then in falling down and getting-up again. Becoming upright and mastering movement through the three planes of space is a monumental accomplishment and informs all future concepts of spatial understanding. Activities such as ‘crawling over and under’, ‘climbing’, ‘walking’, ‘running’, and ‘jumping’, naturally provide the essential bodily basis of geometry and physics. The child will now endlessly sort objects, pick them up, carry them, place them inside of a container and then dump them out again, developing the concepts of one-to-one correspondence and cause and effect. It is very interesting (and fun!) to bang on pots with wooden spoons, drop food on the floor (gravity), to build with blocks, and pick-up the