Frequently Asked Questions

Celebrated around November 30th, coinciding with the beginning of Advent. The Advent Garden is dedicated to welcoming the winter solstice. At this time of year, the Waldorf kindergarten reverently invites children to walk through a spiral of greenery in the „garden” while carrying lit candles.

Weaving, knitting, wool felting, and other handicrafts are elements of the Waldorf kindergarten program. Finger knitting, weaving, and wool felting provide many benefits, including hand-eye coordination, development of mathematical skills such as counting, understanding and following a process from concept to completion, and improving the ability to focus on a project for longer periods.

The entire environment — both indoors and in the yard — encourages and supports the child’s creativity because it is uncluttered and natural. Open-ended toys, storytelling, and ample time for free play nurture and preserve the senses and stimulate the imagination. Artistic activities (watercolor painting, modeling with wax and clay, drawing, music-making) inspire children toward discovery and creativity. Elements of eurythmy help children discover the possibilities of their own bodies and become aware of those around them.

A loving interest in each child and the acceptance of every child.
The opportunity to engage in free creative play with simple materials — such play is the work of a young child, giving them the chance to „digest” and understand the impressions they receive.
The understanding that a young child learns by imitation, through varied sensory experiences and movement. A child’s innate need is to actively explore the physical and social environment. The space created must ensure safety, boundaries, and structure, while also allowing for risk-taking and encounters with challenges.
Real experiences — not virtual ones — are what matter, helping the child build a healthy relationship with the world.
Artistic activities — storytelling, music-making, drawing and painting, rhythmic games, modeling — foster healthy development of imagination and creativity.
Meaningful work — cooking, baking, gardening, handicrafts, and household tasks — provides opportunities for developing emerging human capacities. Here, the emphasis is on living through the process rather than learning outcomes.
A familiar rhythm of the day, week, and year nurtures feelings of security, continuity, and fullness of life. Calendar and other festivals are celebrated according to national customs.

In Lithuania, the ideas of theosophy and anthroposophy were echoed by Vydūnas (1868–1953). The first Waldorf kindergarten groups began operating after the restoration of independence in 1992. In 1993, the Lithuanian Waldorf Pedagogy Centre was established, and the first Waldorf schools were founded in 1995 (Vilnius Waldorf School, Kaunas Waldorf School, Kazlų Rūda Elmas Pro-gymnasium). Waldorf education is carried out according to formal (primary, basic, and secondary) and/or non-formal (pre-school, pre-primary, and other non-formal) education programmes, and is based on the concept of distinctive (non-traditional) education approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, the Waldorf Pedagogy in Lithuania concept (http://www.valdorfoiniciatyvos.lt/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Valdorfo-pedagogikos-koncepcija-Lietuvoje.pdf), and Waldorf education programmes. Currently, there are over 20 Waldorf institutions, schools, kindergartens, or groups operating in Lithuania (https://valdorfoasociacija.wordpress.com/pradzia/organizacijos-nariai/), (http://www.valdorfoiniciatyvos.lt/apie-mus/).

The founder of this pedagogy is the Austrian philosopher, writer, teacher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), who edited and published Goethe’s writings on natural science, promoted theosophy, created the philosophy of anthroposophy, and in 1919 founded the first Waldorf school on the basis of anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner — philosopher and literary scholar, educator, founder of Waldorf pedagogy, writer and playwright, pioneer of the new movement art of „eurythmy,” founder of the new spiritual movement of anthroposophy, founder of anthroposophical medicine and biodynamic farming, architect and artist — maintained that „a child shapes their personality not only by what we tell them, but by our inner attitude, by the quality of our inner thinking and our inner feelings… We need no other method than to become a person worthy of the child’s imitation…”

St. Martin (November 11th), the patron of the poor and the oppressed, is remembered by lighting lanterns and carrying them outside to a bonfire in the yard. In this way, we are reminded that light and warmth must be shared with the people around us. The Lantern Festival reminds us all that even though it is dark outside, inside it is always warm and bright — „inside” meaning in the soul. The light of the soul is the true light of the lantern, which it is important to protect, tend, and not allow to go out. During the lantern season, children build „little houses” in the yard for gnomes, who show their gratitude during the festival by leaving small gifts.

Rudolf Steiner speaks of Michaelmas as a festival of liberation from fear, inner initiative, and inner strength. In the human being, it is meant to encourage the growth of what stands as the opposite of comfort and fearfulness — a free, initiative-filled, courageous, and strong will. The Feast of Michael is a festival of strong will. Michaelmas is celebrated around the autumn equinox (September 29th) and is associated with the defeat of the dragon of darkness. Fairy tales about knights, princesses, and dragons are told to pre-schoolers. Courage is especially emphasized. Games are played during the festival, children are „knighted,” and the celebration ends with apple cake.

Eurythmy is an art form that unites the expressive means of speech, music, and movement into a whole. Through specific movements of the hands and the entire body, interweaving into complex forms in space, it expresses the sounds of language, the moods of the soul, and musical compositions. Eurythmy harmonizes body and soul, develops hearing, a sense of melody and rhythm, the ability to move freely in space, teaches the expression of feelings through movement, cultivates sensitivity, attention, agility, and a sense of community, activates a person’s vital energy and strengthens their sense of self. From kindergarten through the end of school, eurythmy is taught according to a separate curriculum. By freely learning eurythmy, children learn to act skillfully and nimbly in a social environment and to sense the spirit of the times. This movement art has undeniable social and integrative significance. Today, eurythmy is known throughout the world as a branch of healing therapy, as a Waldorf pedagogy discipline, and as a performing art.

In 2000, the Association for the Support of Waldorf Pedagogy was founded, uniting Waldorf pedagogy and anthroposophical initiatives in Vilnius (http://www.valdorfoiniciatyvos.lt);
In 2013 — the Lithuanian Association of Waldorf Early Childhood Pedagogy Initiatives (https://valdorfoasociacija.wordpress.com/)
The Lithuanian Waldorf Schools Association — founded in 2016, with the goal of uniting Lithuania’s Waldorf schools, promoting and coordinating their cooperation, and representing and defending their interests (http://lvmasociacija.lt/category/naujienos/)

Waldorf pedagogy emerged after the First World War, amid prevailing social and economic chaos. As old social orders collapsed, people concerned with the future of Europe sought new approaches. One such person was Emil Molt, director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. He approached Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the anthroposophical movement who was seeking ways of social renewal, and asked him to help establish a school for the children of factory workers. Six months later, in September 1919, the first Waldorf school was opened. The name „Waldorf pedagogy” spread from this school. Near this school, in Stuttgart in 1925, the first Waldorf kindergarten was founded (by E.M. Grunelius). Several more similar schools and kindergartens were then established in other German cities and abroad. During the National Socialist period in Germany, these educational institutions were banned, and after the war were reopened, with their number growing ever more rapidly around the world. Throughout the entire period of communist rule, this pedagogy was also banned in the territory of the former Soviet Union. In Russia, it began to spread as the Soviet empire was collapsing — in 1989; in Lithuania — in 1992.

Waldorf pedagogy is an education that aims to holistically integrate a child’s intellectual, practical, and artistic development. Learning proceeds from sensations, experience, lived moments, and phenomena toward analysis, patterns, systematization, and theory — with the goal that theory is not simply presented but rather discovered. At the primary level, less time is devoted to theory; instead, learning happens through play, experience, imagery, drawing, drama, music, and dance. What was earlier understood through the senses is scientifically deepened at the upper level, creating the conditions for independent, conscious reflection on acquired knowledge. The path leads from education to self-education. The pedagogy is grounded in both science and intuition; body and spirit are developed without attachment to any specific religion. The core principles of education align with democratic and humanistic values. In Waldorf pedagogy, the foundation of education is the human relationship between teacher and child and their mutual interaction. Waldorf pedagogy is learning to be free. The fundamental principle of this pedagogy is the principle of freedom.