Why is daily rhythm so important?
Each day at Rain or Shine School, children can collaborate with many friends to increase social-emotional awareness. Rhythm plays a large part in each student’s success from early childhood and beyond.
As Waldorf-educated early childhood teachers, one of our fundamental tasks is to offer the children a breathing-like rhythm to our day together – breathing in, listening to a story or resting, and breathing out, as in running or having uninterrupted, free play. In and out, in and out, throughout the day.
Human life is filled with rhythms. They play an essential role in all life processes and in processes of cognition as well. Every rhythmical exchange is at the same time a process of transformation. The air we breathe out is quite different from that which we breathe in. We can discover such moments of transformation in the child´s learning.
When writing, we no longer think of the struggles we had to learn the individual letters. All this has been forgotten and becomes the ability to write. This rhythm of remembering and forgetting can be used consciously by teachers to support the child´s learning. Waldorf education strives to support these processes not only through rhythm in movement, but also through teaching methods which take the rhythmical nature of learning into account.
The day goes back and forth in this way, with some breaths shorter and some longer as needed. We are like a river, each of the children finding their way in the water as it bends naturally back and forth through anticipated twists and turns.
Each child meets the rhythm in their own way. Educators need to understand and support children in rhythm and provide a safe space to explore and leave room for many wonders throughout the day.
As Waldorf early childhood educator Susan Weber states, Some Thoughts on Rhythm, “This work-play-rest rhythm is a healthy habit for a whole lifetime.”
