Elementary Curriculum

"At Monadnock Waldorf School you receive the kind of atteniton that elevates your confidnece, a confidence you will always carry with you." -Brian Gehan, MWS 1989

What Are Your Deepest Hopes For Your Child?

            Ask parents about their deepest hopes for their children and certain ardent wishes ring out.  Parents wish to raise compassionate and confident children who can express creativity and exhibit tolerance.  Parents hope their children will remain enthusiastic, curious, and healthy as they grow. They expect children to acquire the academic and social skills necessary to be successful in today's (and tomorrow's) global environment. Parents value respect, skill, flexibility, determination and good humor, and they wish to lay a strong foundation on which these capacities will rest.

            At Monadnock Waldorf School we share these hopes. Our rich curriculum, brought with enthusiasm and skill by our dedicated teachers, draws from thoughtfully held insights about the developing child.

            Elementary school children learn through the guidance of a class teacher who stays with the class ideally for eight years. The curriculum includes:

• English based on world literature, myths, and legends.
  
• History that is chronological and inclusive of the world's great civilizations.
  
• Science that surveys geography, astronomy, meteorology, physical and life sciences.
  
• Mathematics that develops competence in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.
  
• Foreign languages; physical education; gardening.
  
• Arts including music, painting, sculpture, drama, movement and sketching.
  
• Handwork such as knitting, crocheting, felting and woodworking.

            As educators, we work each day to protect and nurture the gifts of childhood: curiosity, enthusiasm, imagination, and a sense of awe, making it possible to carry such qualities into adult life. We work equally hard to engage students in a rigorous curriculum, encouraging them to offer their best efforts to the tasks at hand and guiding them to develop and deepen their skills. In the process they gain an enduring sense of the sweep of human achievement in the arts and sciences, the fulfillment of working closely with classmates and teacher, and the satisfaction of a challenging job well done.

            Our educational philosophy and curriculum are uniquely suited to prepare students for the challenges and experiences of life.  At the heart of our curriculum are intensive blocks of study, three to four weeks in length, that deeply involve students in a single subject, interweaving facts, reasoning, art, observation, music and physical activity. We consider this block of time, called Main Lesson, to be the heart of the school day.

            The curriculum through-out the grades is a dynamic balance of arts and academics.  As the education unfolds from the number songs and letter stories of the first grade to the chemistry experiments and Shakespeare productions of the eighth grade, students develop attitudes that will serve them throughout life: love of learning, satisfaction with true achievement, courage to question, and an active interest in and concern for others.

            Creating anything of value takes skill, practice, and perseverance. Our dedicated teaching staff works each day to challenge the thinking, to engage the will to work, and to stir the feelings of all the students in their care,so that they in turn will make for themselves purposeful and satisfying lives.