Colleen Hroncich
Colleen Hroncich
When Daniela Hindman moved to Kansas City, one of the first things she did was look for a Waldorf school. Her timing was fortunate because a group of parents had recently started a Waldorf-inspired homeschool enrichment program. “I found City of Fountains back in 2012 when I was pregnant with my son. We had just moved here from St. Louis, and we had attended the Waldorf school there with our eldest daughter and done the parent-child program with her,” she recalls. “So when we moved here, that was something that we actively searched for. We had loved our experience there and stumbled upon this tiny little seedling in its infancy.”
City of Fountains was initially a once a week homeschool co-op with a parent-child program for very young children, a small kindergarten, and a “grades” program, which is what Waldorf calls the elementary curriculum. Before too long, it became a full-time school Monday through Thursday while continuing the homeschool enrichment program on Fridays
“My understanding is that it was very quickly evident that they needed to create a staff and have more consistency in their rhythm and the people being with the kiddos. So within, I think, that first year of starting it also developed into kind of a more formal program,” Daniela explains. “Some families choose to come to us just on Fridays, and they’re happy with that. And then we also have some families that tack on Friday so that they can have that five-day schedule.”
Spending time outdoors is an important component of a Waldorf education, so the school day usually begins outside at City of Fountains. This gives the children time to burn off some energy before they head inside to spend time on academic work. The main lesson is typically two hours long and is organized into blocks that last between four to eight weeks depending on the subject matter. » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/friday-feature-city-fountains