When we lived on a little kibbutz in Israel my first daughter attended a Waldorf preschool right there in the middle of the community. It was my first exposure to this approach in early childhood education (although I had read some books beforehand). It’s a complex educational system and I’m not going to focus on that but I do want to talk about the crafting involved! The parents were all very involved in the school and I learned quickly that a lot of parents would craft amazing creations in their free time to contribute to the school. The parents would focus on making crafts with felt and natural fibers, since the mind frame of Waldorf embraces natural everything (where possible). I loved going to meetings and seeing the community sitting there listening to the agenda and working on their handcrafts simultaneously. The focus was on animals, fairies, dwarves, anything that would inspire the children to use their imaginations.
One of my favorite crafts that we parents (and teachers) created were animal horn and ears headdresses.
The kids absolutely loved putting these and on and being transported into their imaginative play.
Now my youngest daughter attends an amazing Reggio Emilia-inspired school here in Los Angeles. I made some of these headbands for her preschool class and the kids are having such a great time with them.
