Happy Valentine's Day!

It is Valentine's Day and I wanted to share with you the lovely handmade cards HG received from the children in her class. They celebrated on Wednesday because not all the children come to school on Fridays. Her class is mixed age and many younger children come only three days, which is M-W at her school. 

In HG's Waldorf classroom there is a special emphasis on handing out the cards. Each child has an opportunity to play postal carrier, and the other children sit facing the outside of the circle, according to HG. I'm not completely clear on how or why the distribution works like that--it's not always easy to get the full story from a five-year-old, but like everything else in Miss Nancy and Miss Jane's classroom, I trust them to have a reason supported by years of experience and love and knowledge of young children. In any case, HG was very excited about the day, and when I asked her whether she preferred giving or receiving her valentines, she wholeheartedly said "giving!"

Here are some of the lovely cards HG received from her classmates.  

Those two mulitcolored 3D hearts are made from melted crayons. This child must have had a lot of fun making his valentines! 

I admire the dedication it takes the children to do these--imagine the effort this nearly-six child expended writing the same thing on 12 cards. Keep in mind that at Waldorf schools children are not introduced to letters at this age, so while some children have some familiarity, they are not used to spending time writing every day!  

This child baked little clay hearts. 

Here is a younger child's exploration with letters (back), and a gorgeous softly watercolored heart (front). 

More cuteness with lettering and cutting.

The children also spent time in school the last couple of weeks making valentines for their families. According to HG, Miss Nancy's husband carved these beautiful hearts from a fallen tree in their yard. Someone at school folded the boxes from paper, and the children sanded and then oiled (waxed? I'm not sure what they put on the wood) their hearts. Each heart came placed in the box on a bed of natural wool roving. 

The teachers' valentine was homemade strawberry jam, quite possibly made from the strawberries that grow in the children's play yard. HG enjoyed an awful lot of hers on her toast this morning! 

We enrolled HG in Waldorf because of how often the children go outside, the dedication to educating the whole child, and how beautiful the spaces are, among other things. While the emphasis on community and on teaching life lessons like the joys of giving wasn't entirely unexpected, I am always amazed at the depth of care the teachers and children show. 

Happy Valentine's Day!