Monday, June 6, 2016

Magical Childhood

Today was a special day.  My son had his first grade celebration.  The first celebration of him leaving Kindergarten and entering the first grade.  I say the first because everything Waldorf touches seems to turn to beauty and magic and there are many symbolic ceremonies.  It is one of the main reasons my son attends a Waldorf school and why I am a Waldorf trained teacher.
In Waldorf, leaving Kindergarten and entering first grade is a major milestone because it is the start of academics, sitting in a desk, and longer school days.  You are not advanced to first grade until you are close to seven years old and have completed many other developmental tasks.  Elijah is so very ready!

I am going to walk you through this short 45 minute celebration primarily so I never forget it!

It began with the children who are leaving the Kindergarten being called into their classroom to sit in a circle and hear a story from their Kindergarten teacher.  If you know anything about stories in Waldorf, the start of a story itself can make you cry.  The story was about the oldest children in the class going off into the forest on an adventure where they found many treasures including letters, numbers, colors.  The children put these things in their basket and headed off until they came to a beautiful rainbow bridge.  On the other side of the bridge was someone they recognized.  It was their first grade teacher Brooke waiting to escort them into a new land.

After that, the children, were each read their own special poem and got up to the words, "off you go", where their Kindergarten teacher sent them to follow their first grade teacher off.  She shook each of their hands and then led them to their new classroom.  When they arrived, each of their desks had pictures of themselves on them, a book from their teacher, and their poem.
Upon entering the world of desks and blackboards in first grade
Elijah with his gifts
His beautiful Kindergarten classroom that we will miss so much!

Seeing the excitement on the faces of these children, I cried and cried tears of joy in watching my beautiful son, his classmates and his teacher grow and embark on a new journey through the next eight years together.