What is the "Waldorf view" about clay projects with children from ages 2-6?
Rahima replies:
In Waldorf schools, clay isn't introduced until after the "nine-year change" in third grade. Up until that time we do modelling with colored beeswax with the children.
The reasoning behind this is that beeswax comes from a living source and also requires (and generates) warmth to fashion it into forms. It is also fragrant.
Clay, on the other hand, comes from the cold earth and is damp and musty smelling. It actually takes warmth from you when you work with it.
Around the age of nine, children "wake up" with an influx of "I" forces and experience a new sense of themselves, often manifested in questioning or loneliness. The child is falling out of the magical, protected world of early childhood, and also gains a new understanding of death for the first time. For more information on this developmental stage, see my article on "Parenting the Nine Year Old."
Does this mean your child should never play with clay? Certainly not, but it explains why Waldorf programs use beeswax rather than clay with young children. Through kindergarten age, modelling is a free expression of what lives in the child, rather than trying to make a specific object. The children hold the beeswax (which has often been warmed slightly in advance, depending on your ambient temperature) while the teacher tells a story. Then they fashion anything they want (the wise teacher will finish hers last, so they won't want to do the same thing; this prevents their becoming frustrated if they can't do things as well as the adult, although I found they were more creative with beeswax than I was!). The objects might sit on a tree stump or platform for the week, and then are warmed and handed out the next time. In the grades, more guidance is provided, and everyone might make the same thing from a seasonal story.
If you're unfamiliar with beeswax modeling with your child or with a group of children, it is available from many of the online companies listed in our "Waldorf Resources" category under Arts and Crafts Supplies.
