An Education for the Future we want to see
For more than a century, Waldorf schools have approached rigorous academics through what children need most: warm relationships, purposeful rhythms, movement, practical arts, stories, and time in nature.
Today’s research in developmental cognitive neuroscience and educational psychology increasingly confirms that these practices help children focus, remember, and thrive.
Our goal as a school community is to inspire lifelong learners who will make meaningful and ethical contributions to our shared world.
Is my child a Waldorf Child?
AT ITHACA WALDORF SCHOOL WE STRIVE…
…To develop free human beings by awakening in the students clarity of thought, warmth of heart, and strength of purpose.
The academic, artistic and practical lessons respect childhood, encourage healthy growth and engage students in the living world.
Ithaca Waldorf School is located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Our curriculum is based on a time-tested and research-backed understanding of child development that supports a balance of intellectual, physical, and emotional growth. We nurture childhood and provide the right subjects and challenges for each age, from the start of the journey at age 3 and to the independent capstone project at age 14. Our teachers emphasize imaginative play and outdoor time for our youngest students, and screen-free, multidisciplinary, project-based, increasingly-rigorous academics for our grades 1-8. All our programs are infused with art, music, innovation, joy, and community-building on our 80-acre farm campus.
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Li'l Sprouts Parent Child Class
Our talented Waldorf Early Childhood Educators lead weekly classes for parents/caregivers to attend with their babies & toddlers. These gentle mornings designed for the very young include art and movement activities, indoor and outdoor playtime, puppet shows, and tea and snack time together. Adults enjoy meeting other families with similar values, and learning about Waldorf education, parenting, and creating a Waldorf home environment.
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Early Childhood (Preschool & Kindergarten)
Our Early Childhood (preschool and kindergarten) classes serve children ages 3-6 years old and nurture each child’s development through engaging and sensory-rich environments and play-based activities. Our organic and intentionally-designed indoor and outdoor spaces encourage the young child to investigate the natural world, explore social relationships and expand imaginative capacities. Open-ended playtime is balanced with teacher-led programming that is rich in pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skill building.
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Elementary Grades
Our Waldorf Elementary School curriculum for 1st-5th grades is alive with a richly-interdisciplinary, hands-on, and arts- and nature-infused approach to academics which meets and exceeds NYS Learning Standards. Teachers integrate storytelling, drama, rhythmic movement, visual arts, and music into every subject, weaving a tapestry of experience that brings joy, meaning and longevity to increasingly-rigorous academic learning. As integral to our day as reading, writing, and STEM, our elementary students also learn Spanish, play a string instrument in our ensembles, take care of farm animals, create fiber arts projects, and celebrate seasonal festivals. The variety of activities within the warm and firm structure of the day calms the nervous system, so that lessons “stick,” and social skills blossom.
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Middle School
Our Waldorf curriculum for 6th-8th grades prepares adolescents for a self-motivated and joyful high school journey. Students study government, physics, chemistry, ancient and modern history, literature, and more, with a focus on developing the critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills that they will need to make meaningful and ethical change in our modern world. They prepare for math and science Regents, produce school-wide events such as our annual Coffeehouse and a full-length play, and develop farm systems for our largest animals. Each graduate completes an 8th Grade capstone project and presentation. Awakening their moral development, and increasing their awareness of their own identity and their place in the world, makes students' formal academic learning meaningful and engaging.
“Waldorf education addresses the child as no other education does. Learning, whether in chemistry, mathematics, history or geography, is imbued with life and so with joy, which is the only true basis for later study. The textures and colors of nature, the accomplishments and struggles of humankind fill the Waldorf students’ imaginations and the pages of their books. Education grows into a union with life that serves them for decades.By the time they reach us at the college and university level, these students are grounded broadly and deeply and have a remarkable enthusiasm for learning. Such students possess the eye of the discoverer, and the compassionate heart of the reformer which, when joined to a task, can change the planet.”
-Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Amherst College
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