Please be advised that our Playgroup is currently suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions. We envisage it will resume in Term 3, 2020. Please check back for updated information.
Our playgroup meets each Friday during school terms
Where
41 French Street, Launceston
Email: playgroup@tamarvalleysteiner.tas.edu.au
Facebook: Rainbow Garden – Steiner Playgroup
When
Every Friday from 9.30am – 11.30am
During school terms only
What to bring
Pieces of fruit for you and your children for morning tea.
During the Winter months, please bring a vegetable per person (instead of fruit) to contribute
to a healthy warm soup that the children will share at morning tea.
Bread dough if it is your turn on the roster.
Slippers or socks for inside; sunhat, rain wear, gum boots for outside.
How to help
Please feel free to assist with cutting up fruit, bread making, washing up and packing away, emptying the compost bucket, feeding the pets, shaking out the table cloth crumbs, sweeping, and collecting sandpit toys. You are also welcome to join the committee if you would like to contribute to the managing of the playgroup.
All welcome!
Fees
$130 for 9 week term for one child and $160 for 2 or more children
$145 for 10 week term for one child and $175 for 2 or more children (for 10 weeks).
Membership of Playgroup Tasmania is recommended.
If you wish to attend Bush Playgroup, membership of Playgroup Tasmania is a requirement
and proof of membership must be provided before attending.
Library
The library holds books on Anthroposophy (Steiner’s philosophy) parenting, child development, home schooling resources, bio dynamic gardening, craft work, music and a range of children’s books. You may borrow 2 books for 2 weeks. A late return fee may apply.
Activities
We hold seasonal festivals including an Autumn and Spring Picnic, Winter Solstice celebration and an annual Lantern Walk.
Craft workshops and talks or discussion groups are also offered each Term.
Our playgroup meets each Friday during school terms
Where
41 French Street, Launceston
Email: playgroup@tamarvalleysteiner.tas.edu.au
Facebook: Rainbow Garden – Steiner Playgroup
When
Every Friday from 9.30am – 11.30am
During school terms only
What to bring
Pieces of fruit for you and your children for morning tea.
During the Winter months, please bring a vegetable per person (instead of fruit) to contribute
to a healthy warm soup that the children will share at morning tea.
Bread dough if it is your turn on the roster.
Slippers or socks for inside; sunhat, rain wear, gum boots for outside.
How to help
Please feel free to assist with cutting up fruit, bread making, washing up and packing away, emptying the compost bucket, feeding the pets, shaking out the table cloth crumbs, sweeping, and collecting sandpit toys. You are also welcome to join the committee if you would like to contribute to the managing of the playgroup.
All welcome!
Fees
$130 for 9 week term for one child and $160 for 2 or more children
$145 for 10 week term for one child and $175 for 2 or more children (for 10 weeks).
Membership of Playgroup Tasmania is recommended.
If you wish to attend Bush Playgroup, membership of Playgroup Tasmania is a requirement
and proof of membership must be provided before attending.
Library
The library holds books on Anthroposophy (Steiner’s philosophy) parenting, child development, home schooling resources, bio dynamic gardening, craft work, music and a range of children’s books. You may borrow 2 books for 2 weeks. A late return fee may apply.
Activities
We hold seasonal festivals including an Autumn and Spring Picnic, Winter Solstice celebration and an annual Lantern Walk.
Craft workshops and talks or discussion groups are also offered each Term.
Imagine a place…. where children can skip, play and enjoy all their senses in beautiful surroundings.
The toys are simple and natural, a child’s imagination and creativity is nourished and parents embrace the qualities of openness, warmth, acceptance and joy amongst one another.
The Rainbow Garden Playgroup started in 2007 and was an initiative of the Launceston Friends of Steiner Education Inc. whose principal objective is to encourage an understanding of early childhood as underpinned by Rudolph Steiner’s insights, including the understanding that human beings are also spiritual beings.
This perspective focuses on the well-being and health of the whole child and supports parents and the general community in providing environments and experiences for young children that are loving and nurturing.
The Rhythm of the Morning
The morning starts with a story, as a way of bringing the children together and marking the beginning of playgroup. We then have playtime which is normally inside for creative play with dolls, coloured cloths, wooden blocks, shells, woolly ropes, rocks and other natural materials. An artistic or craft activity may be offered at this time and the adults prepare fruit and bread for the morning tea with the assistance of their child if they wish.
A packing away song brings us together for our morning circle of seasonal songs, finger plays, movement, verses or a game, and leads us into washing hands. We all sit at the table and hold hands, light the candle, sing our verse and are then ready for morning tea of fruit and freshly baked bread and butter.
We hold hands, say thank you for our meal and the table is cleared. Children are then ready for outside play which we encourage in all seasons. There is compost to take outside, weeding and planting in the veggie patch, a garden to explore and time to play in the sandpit. Parents and children are then free to stay a while in the garden or if they wish, head home. This is a nice time for parents to sit with their craft work or catch up and chat while their children are happily occupied. When ready to go home we form a circle and say our goodbye verse.
Why do families enjoy Rainbow Garden Steiner Playgroup?
- Steiner playgroups are underpinned by Anthroposophy and the educational philosophies and guidelines used in Steiner/Waldorf schools around the world
- Guidelines for playgroups are also drawn from the traditions of Bio-dynamics, Eurythmy and holistic Steiner-based health practices
- Parents attending playgroup seek to understand out of a Steiner perspective, how children develop through their first 7 years
- There is an awareness of the need to model appropriate behaviours/attitudes/values, with the understanding that children imitate all that we do
- There is greater parental involvement, both in terms of practical contribution as well as to the guiding and holding of the children within the group
- A sense of lightness and gentleness created through the furnishing of the playgroup room. This is as well as through the children wearing plain, simple, rainbow coloured clothes without the distraction of logos or inappropriately aged outfits, i.e. clothes targeted for older children or even adults
- Children are not overstimulated, but gently held within the group and through the guidance of the parents
- Reverence for nature, the child and the parenting journey
- A feeling of warmth
- The creation of a sense of wonder for nature through seasonal songs, verses and the holding of festivals
- A place for parents to connect in a place of beauty and simplicity
- An environment that is gentle, harmonious and nurturing to both children and parents