Recipe Books and Elderberry Mush

One late summer's day, Yevgeny, Aleyna and Lilli grind up a handful of elderberries on a large stone in the grounds of a Berlin Waldorf school. The result is a deep red-purple mush. They are sure that they have discovered the secret of color production. They proudly present the result to their teacher and ask him if they could dye something with it. He is amazed at the children's discovery and shows them where they can find paper and fabric scraps. The children color the different materials, but also notice that the color is still lumpy. They collect new berries and continue experimenting by boiling the elderberry pulp, sieving it and later even thickening it with various substances. Another group of children is inspired by these experiments and tries to achieve similar results with grasses, roots and flowers that they collect on the grounds.

If you observe everyday situations in Waldorf all-day schools or after-school care centers, you often encounter children who take up and test their very own impulses in their activities. They independently search for a solution to their questions and implement them with the support of the teachers. If the actions have a serious character – that is, the children do things that they assume adults would also do – they experience their self-efficacy to a particular degree. On the way there, they go through numerous social processes in order to be able to act in the group. They also acquire fine motor skills that enable them to make the things they want. They observe the various phenomena and draw their own conclusions. In doing so, they are supported by inner images – such as watercolor painting in class - which give impetus to their actions. What becomes visible here is education in a broader sense.

Everyday learning

The daily routine at Waldorf all-day schools and after-school care centers incorporates many nature-related, playful, social or artistic-craft elements so that the children can develop a deep connection to the world in their activities. In addition to taking up their own impulses, hands-on learning tasks that are linked to lesson content can help to integrate learning into everyday life and broaden its methodological scope within the framework of all-day care. This means that children who require more individual support can also be supported more intensively. For example, the teachers in the after-school area can take up writing opportunities that arise, which enable more in-depth learning integrated into everyday life: Individual third graders make a recipe book in the afternoon lessons, in which they write down all the recipes for pastries that they make for snacks. Individual sheets are given headings, arranged alphabetically, illustrated and bound into a small booklet using a simple technique.

With the introduction of the legal entitlement to all-day care, the question of a developmental and health-promoting approach also arises anew for Waldorf schools. In successful all-day care, so-called formal, semi-formal and informal learning opportunities can be combined, with the interests and needs of the children guiding the action. Formal learning is guided learning, for example at school. Informal learning happens almost unintentionally in everyday life or during leisure time. This makes the school a living space for the children who attend it and for the adults who work there. Our all-day facilities offer reliable educational environments and relationships. They provide meaningful stimuli that give the children a sense of well-being and enable them to develop their strengths in meaningful experiences and activities in freedom.

Inhale, exhale

Waldorf education also pursues a health-promoting approach. First and foremost is the creation of a rhythm in everyday life. If teachers in all-day schools and after-school care centers design rhythmic processes, this means first and foremost that they incorporate the daily alternation of sleeping and waking, tension and relaxation, activity and rest into their conceptual considerations. According to Steiner's General Study of Man, an entire school day should be roughly divided into two phases. Firstly, he speaks of a phase of «inhalation», which predominantly characterizes the morning. Inhaling refers to waking up, concentration and mental activities such as absorbing and listening. The «exhaling» phase mainly takes place in the afternoon. It lasts into the evening and is dedicated to regenerative processes such as resting, relaxing, physical, manual or artistic activities.

The pedagogical daily routine in Waldorf all-day elementary school and after-school care centers is largely designed in such a way that both qualities alternate several times a day – regardless of the time of day – both on a large and small scale. A breathing rhythm between periods of concentrated learning and exhaling activities such as drawing, singing, handicraft work or movement units is the basis of teaching at Waldorf schools.

Based on these considerations, concepts have been developed in the practice of after-school care that make it possible to enjoy pedagogically supervised free time after school, in which the focus is on realizing one's own needs and impulses – in the sense of breathing out. The content absorbed during the school day can thus be actively processed. With increasing age, afternoon lessons are also possible if their content has an exhaling character meaning that the lessons belong to the craft, artistic or sporting subjects. A balance should always be kept in mind between free play time, arts and crafts activities and the requirements of the lessons. Overly structured all-day supervision could contradict this approach. Free playtime and unscheduled free time are essential for healthy child development, whether at home or in after-school care.

If the working hours of teachers, educators and other professionals are reconsidered and possibly restructured, overlaps in the supervision of children can be made possible and exchanges facilitated. With appropriate working time models, teachers could also accompany one or two sections of the daily routine in the afternoon or provide individual support to individual students after school. In the context of all-day schools, it is also possible for teachers and educators to jointly organize individual elements of the lessons, an active break or participatory elements in the weekly routine, such as the class council.

Community

Waldorf all-day schools and after-school care centers are places of a binding social community that provide the child with both a physical and social home, even at lunchtime and in the afternoon. Given the conditions in which children grow up today, a reliable community can be a great enrichment. By being together for longer periods of time, children develop more intensive relationships with their classmates and, of course, with their teachers, which can positively strengthen their overall sense of community and thus also make an important contribution to promoting resilience. Community means dealing with the ideas, wishes and interests of other children, finding compromises and being able to act. Free play is an important place for this learning experience. The Waldorf all-day school can therefore be seen as an opportunity for children to experience developmental spaces whose diversity extends far beyond their own family horizons. The social structure of the Waldorf school should be such that the children can contribute their ideas and wishes. Participatory opportunities for action, such as control circles, class councils, mailboxes for feedback, but also jointly organized services are ways of enabling children to participate in the context of the entire day and thus ultimately have a democracy-building effect.

Educators make a responsible contribution to health promotion by forming eating habits and enabling breaks. The need for retreat is a universal human need. In order to meet this need in all-day schools, times and places are needed inside and outside the school buildings where children can take a break from the busy school day and relax.

Many perspectives are important

The implementation of all-day care presents both opportunities and challenges. People with different professions and experiences contribute their perspectives and each perspective is equally important. The educational impulses described in this article can only be implemented if all stakeholders involved in the process work hand in hand. Appreciative and successful communication and cooperation are the basic prerequisites for this. The financial resources of Waldorf all-day schools also play a central role, as they influence the framework conditions for educational work, the team culture and the quality of the offerings.Waldorf education can only become effective through constant new and further development. Because it is not a «recipe pedagogy» that «merely outwardly indicates what is to be done», it only comes to life «when it is constantly created anew by people in the present from spiritual activity». This is how Heinz Zimmermann, who was a Waldorf teacher and headed the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum from 1989 to 2001, once put it. For this reason, the constant further development of pedagogical action is an important prerequisite for healthy all-day care.

Sylvia Ramp's book Praxis der Alltagsgestaltung in Waldorfganztagsgrundschulen- und Horten is expected to be published by Beltz Juventa in early summer 2025.