L’Alzina
Emotional
support
We take care of children by listening to them, putting ourselves in their shoes, looking at situations through their eyes.
Contact with
nature
Connecting with nature brings us closer to a better understanding of ourselves and our environment.
A tribe of
families
We take care, supporting each other, sharing our concerns, helping each other and ‘celebrating’.
The stages at L’Alzina
Our groups have small carer-student ratios
Aglans (Acorn) group
18 months/walkers – 3 years
Ratio 1:5
Alzines group
3 – 6 years
Ratio: 1:9
The experiences of families
Our pedagogical approach
The spaces infused in Waldorf pedagogy, based on the idea that childhood is the most important stage of life and the most decisive for our development.
A day in L’Alzina in the infant stage
The rhythms are cyclical. Each day of the week is dedicated to an activity, on Friday we always go on an excursion to the forest and another day the older ones go out to get to know our surroundings. We take care of the moments of introspection and expansion.
The children arrive between 9 and 9.30 am, take off their shoes and coats and go inside accompanied by their relatives. If necessary or if they wish, they can share the space with them until the time of the ‘Good morning’ circle.
Just as the day goes by with a specific rhythm, the week also flows with its own. Each morning the colour of the ‘dwarf’ reminds us what day it is today and so the children already know what is going to happen. This fact helps them to understand time as a cyclical and perpetual phenomenon and gives them security.
The activities proposed by the carers are organised for each day of the week. Bread is made, drawing with crayons, knitting, moulding with clay or beeswax, painting with watercolours…
Once the main activity is over, we meet to prepare breakfast time. Each day of the week a variety of different foods are offered, with organic and seasonal fruit, with bread made by the children themselves.
For the youngest children it is time to eat and the larger groups continue with a proposed activity or with a time of free play, depending on the energetic moment the group is in.
We close the morning by telling or acting out a story. A story that is linked to the annual season we are living in and that is repeated for 2 or 3 weeks, introducing traditional and magical stories that encourage the imagination and creativity of the children.
The little ones say goodbye and farewell to the ‘dwarf’ with songs and repetition games. Then, young and old alike meet up with the families and share a moment to talk about how did the day go.
Some children stay in the ‘afternoon service’ organised by the families themselves, where they have a snack and then have free play time.