Farm-School Curriculum
At Kona Biodynamic Farm we strive to make sure all our children's activities are age appropriate. We take into consideration the stages of the children's physical, mental, emotional, social and imaginative development.
School children are helping gather mowed and sun-dried grasses to make stable bedding for our farm's cows.
Preschool & Kindergarten
The young children of preschool and kindergarten age live and move and have their being in a world rarified and glowing with light and sound and texture. It’s as if they have one foot in this world and one still in the heavenly realm from which they have recently come. To simply behold the world of nature resplendent with all its glory and wonders is a magical experience. Seeing baby and momma animals and the farmer are archetypical experiences for children of this age. Simply walking in nature and singing simple songs of her creatures and people, perhaps while holding hands with their teacher and the farmer in a circle, are wonder-full activities.
First and Second Grade
In the first and second grades, the curriculum builds on the child's innate sense of wonder and awe at nature: they observe the seeds, the young seedlings about to be transplanted, the young plants with leaves striving to the sun, the developing plant with flowers, the mature plant with its fruits or vegetables or roots (and they may join in the joys of harvesting) and then they observe the older, dying plant with its seeds and then its change through composting to rich humus and earth to nourish new seeds. They participate in the gardens by singing to the nature spirits and building little homes for the fairies, helping to build the fall scarecrow or searching for treasures. They rake and groom and help with 'cleaning' chores, often to song. They also observe the animals and experience the joy of holding a chicken, as well as play games of beholding with all their senses.
They participate in the gardens by singing to the nature spirits and building little homes for the fairies . . . .
Third and Fourth Grade
The curriculum for third and fourth grades involves learning to trust the world by observing humanity's earthly activities in archetypal forms (the farmer grows the food and cares for animals) and through experiencing the practical work of the farm. The children become involved from seed to loaf: planting, cultivating, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, grinding and baking. The Waldorf school curriculum for third grade, especially, is very strong in agricultural activities: much of their curriculum revolves around the agricultural developments of humankind. Through their farming activities, the children learn real lessons of responsibility and gratitude.
Fourth and Fifth Grade
Toward the end of the fourth grade and through fifth grade, the children learn to observe and study the animals. Getting to know, love and understand an animal is a powerful and healing experience for this age. The children are involved in care, cleaning, observations. They study digestion, products of fertilization and decomposition, and create living pictures of processes. They can work with all products of animals, from milk to cheese to yogurt. The study of botany during fifth grade follows the development of a plant from stage to stage; the child acquires an instinctive feeling for organic evolution.
Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grade
The farm work expands as the children become more capable. Through grades six to eight, the children cultivate the soil and tend and harvest vegetables and flowers. During these three years, the repetition affords an experience of the seasons (here in Hawaii our dry and wet, warm and cooler) and of crop rotations. More science of agriculture is brought in during the upper grades, from studying connections between plant growth and subsoil to observing and recording of weather and astronomical conditions. Detailed journals can be kept. The emphasis is on learning to see the farm as an organic whole, a living organism.
AcknowledgementsOur deepest thanks to the following people for their work as educators and/or farmers and gardeners. You are a continuing inspiration for the ongoing task of developing children's gardening and farm-school programs!
—Catherine Carter and Phyl Dwyer
- Hilmar Moore: Rudolf Steiner's Contribution to the History and Practice of Agricultural Education
- Rudolf Krause, Gisela and Nicholas Fraceschelli, Nancy Holland: Gardening Classes at the Waldorf Schools
- Gunther Hauk: director of the Pfeiffer Center
- Nancy Redfeather: Waldorf gardening teacher, biodynamic homestead farmer, environmental activist
- Kathy Darcey: master Waldorf teacher and gardener
- Ron Krupp: "A Gardening Journey: Horticulture in the Waldorf Curriculm," Biodynamics, Summer 2005
- Diana Carey and Judy Large: Festivals, Family and Food
- Stephanie Cooper, Christine Fynes-Clinton, Marye Rowlings: The Children's Year