MONADNOCK WALDORF SCHOOL AT KROKA

Second graders stacking wood.

This year we broadened our cooperation with Monadnock Waldorf School in incorporating an Earth Living Curriculum into traditional classroom education. This year students of grades 2, 3 and 4 are coming to Kroka one day every month, enthusiastically spending the entire day out in nature, learning wilderness skills and experiencing the changes of the seasons. Working together with class teachers we are beginning to weave together the Kroka and Waldorf classrooms. It is our intention to expand this program into all of the grades at Monadnock Waldorf School.

Tim Price, 2nd grade teacher at Monadnock Waldorf School, reflecting on coming to Kroka with his class:

“At the end of first grade I came to realize that the children needed more time outside and more physical activity. They make the most of our playground, but their options are limited and it can get crowded, so I committed to taking them to Robin Hood most Friday afternoons, and I was excited by the opportunity to visit KROKA on a regular basis. When at the Waldorf School in Quechee, Vermont, my class and I had an 8-day adventure with Misha in the Vermont wilderness, so I was familiar with the KROKA folks and their work.

Logistically, visiting KROKA couldn’t be easier (than your typical field trip). We know where we are going, the KROKA van takes most of the class, and I don’t have to prepare, really, because the children will be in good hands and KROKA staff will lead us through the day. Because the trips are on the calendar, I just remind the parents, collect permission slips, and we go. I, and the parents, I believe, want the children to visit KROKA village because they will have time outside in a beautiful natural setting, they will be physically active, they will share good food, and they will share their day with folks who are deeply thoughtful about how they live. In the early grades, the children are not “taught” anything, really. They see how the land and animals are loved and cared for. They see the warm, considerate relationships shared by the staff and students. They see all kinds of work being accomplished and they see how much they can accomplish when they work together - like when cutting up vegetables for the soup pot, or feeding the animals, or moving and stacking fire wood. I like to see us visit regularly, so the children can see how the streams, trees, animals, even sky, change through the seasons.

Aside from helping to bring a healthy balance to the children’s time at school, the children gain experience of the natural world that they will draw on in later years when we study animals, plants, geology, geometry, geography, physics, etc. in the classroom.”

Grade Two preparing for a winter hike.