The grades curriculum stimulates the mind with the full spectrum of academic subjects. It nurtures healthy emotional development by conveying knowledge through direct experience as well as through academic methods. Students work with their hands everyday, both within the academic subjects and in the artistic, musical, handwork and physical education activities.

The academic curriculum covers all the subject matter required by the B.C. Ministry of Education, but the timing and emphasis may vary in order to best match the development of the children at a given age. For example, children learn to write as a natural extension of drawing before they learn to read. In mathematics, the four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) are all introduced in grade 1, with students doing fairly advanced geometry and algebra in late elementary grades. Science is introduced in the younger grades through nature studies, with gardening leading into botany; and nature stories and fables leading into the later study of zoology and physiology. Hands-on projects in early grades like building, cooking and other practical activities prepare for mechanics, physics and chemistry in grade 7 and 8. By grade 8 the geography curriculum has encompassed the world as has literature and history. The students are now ready to use their escalating intellectual capacities to explore the challenges of our modern world.

For more information on Waldorf Curriculum visit www.whywaldorfworks.org.