The Waldorf School of St. Louis
Teaching Methods
What’s the Right Age for Academics?
At the Waldorf School of St. Louis, we approach education through a deep respect for childhood development. Formal academic instruction begins in first grade, when children are developmentally ready to engage fully -- socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively.
Some families wonder whether beginning academics later means missing out. Our experience, supported by research and decades of Waldorf practice worldwide, suggests the opposite. When children are given time to mature, they often develop greater confidence, resilience, and a lasting love of learning.
In You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, early childhood educator Rahima Baldwin Dancy reminds us that as academic expectations have moved earlier and earlier, it has become even more important to ensure children are not only chronologically ready for school, but developmentally ready as well.
Developmental maturity is not tied to intelligence. Rather, it reflects a child’s readiness to navigate social relationships, regulate emotions, coordinate physical movement, and engage meaningfully with their environment. When children enter formal academics before these foundations are secure, learning can become stressful rather than joyful.
“The heart of the Waldorf method is that education is an art—it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, the heart and the will must be reached, as well as the mind.”
— Rudolf Steiner
Research and classroom experience consistently show that children who begin school when they are developmentally ready:
Adapt more easily to classroom expectations
Show stronger emotional well-being
Demonstrate greater long-term academic confidence
This philosophy is shared beyond Waldorf education. In Finland, often cited for its strong educational outcomes, formal academics begin later, with an emphasis on play, curiosity, and readiness to learn. As Finnish educator Dr. Pasi Sahlberg explains, the early years are about developing a child’s relationship to learning, not measuring performance.
At the Waldorf School of St. Louis, our mixed-age, play-based early childhood classrooms lay a rich foundation for future academic success. Through imaginative play, movement, storytelling, practical work, and time outdoors, children build the capacities they will later bring into reading, writing, and mathematics.
When children enter first grade, they do so with enthusiasm, confidence, and readiness. They are prepared not just to learn, but to love learning.
“Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.”
— William Butler Yeats
Story Telling
The power of stories is used to bring each subject area to life. The subject matter is chosen to meet the emotional needs of each age. Every grade has a theme for the year. Stories illustrate the lessons and live within the students during a three-day cycle of listening, recalling, and recording.
Hands-on Activities
Each lesson offers opportunities for students to feel and experience the subject themselves. In this way, students connect the lesson on a deeper level. Instead of learning math facts at a desk, students go to the garden to calculate how many rows of seeds may be planted. When learning how early civilizations made cloth, students visit a sheep ranch and learn to spin yarn themselves. These experiences are unforgettable. Hands-on activities are an integral vehicle for reaching the school’s curriculum objectives.
Movement & Circle Activities
One key factor of academic success is a child’s physical development. Each school day includes a number of opportunities for physical and rhythmic activities that strengthen a child’s coordination, movement, and ability to activate their senses. Physical development and movement are intertwined with academic lessons. For example, verses recited in circle time have accompanying movements. Students jump rope to multiplication tables, and practice rhythm stick activities that emphasize movement that crosses the body’s mid-line. Movement strengthens students’ connection to each lesson.
Art Expression
Artistic expression is a part of each day. Music, drawing, painting, sculpting, and handwork are deeply engaging for children. When children are deeply engaged, a sense of creativity flourishes, and their conception of beauty grows. Teachers and students celebrate the uniqueness of each student’s creation and the accomplishment of completing a project. Art and music enrich every subject studied in school.
Block Rotation
The curriculum of each school year is divided into a block schedule consisting of two to four week periods that allow for intense focus on each subject. Each morning lesson is dedicated to the designated curriculum area (language arts, math, science, etc.) for the duration of the block. When it is time for the next block of the curriculum area, prior blocks are refreshed, reinforced, and taken one step further. This type of schedule allows the teacher and students to dive deeply into the subject matter.
Main Lesson Recording
Students record and illustrate what they have learned in each subject in main lesson books. Recording is the final step of the learning cycle. In doing so, students reaffirm what has been learned through classroom and hands-on experiences. These books serve as a cumulative record of each child’s progress and are often cherished keepsakes of a student’s beautiful school experience.
Class Plays
Class plays are an important part of the Waldorf curriculum. The plays selected annually relate to the year’s curriculum theme, and parts are distributed with each student’s innate gifts in mind. The short 10-minute skit performed by first grade grows to a complex, multi-scene play by eighth grade. With each production, the class learns to work together - creating their own costumes, backdrops, and learning each part. Students gain confidence as they perform in front of an audience, and the social aspects of a class play strengthen friendships.