Our lineup of online events are open to all, as we aim to highlight the benefits of Waldorf education. For more on all happenings at The Denver Waldorf School, please refer to our school calendar.

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Parent Education: Managing Children’s Anxiety

December 6, 2022 @ 8:45 am - 10:00 am

How to Help Children with Anxiety and Stress

Worry and anxiety are normal emotions that we and our children experience on many occasions throughout life. Sometimes they are accompanied by other emotions such as nervousness, fear, panic, and even anger. Want to learn more on how to help children manage this flurry? Join us for a presentation led by Denver Waldorf School Counselor Madhuri Deshmukh and Student Support Direct Andrea Weid on the body responses to anxiety, stress, and worry, with tips and tools for managing these.

Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Time: 8:45-10am; Join us for Coffee in the Courtyard starting at 8:15am

Location: DWS Music Room

Please note childcare is not provided.

A Note from Madhuri on Body Responses

When we experience anxiety, our bodies go into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode; this is our body’s natural way of reacting to a perceived threat. The bodily symptoms of anxiety, such as increased heart rate, sweating, shakiness, headaches, butterflies in our stomach, etc., urge us to decide fast whether to fight, flee or freeze from a threatening situation. Life is often fast-paced and requires a lot of our time and energy, and our children are not an exception to that. We all have varied definitions of what situations are threatening to us, and our perception is shaped by our experiences; what you might find threatening, another person may find easy to deal with. Just being aware of when our body is going into a fight, flight or freeze or fawn mode can be a considerable tool for enabling us to overcome our worry and anxiety.

About Madhuri Deshmukh

Madhuri Deshmukh is a school counselor at Denver Waldorf School. She graduated from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, earning her Master’s in Counseling Psychology – School Counseling and Mental Health. During the last three years, she worked as a school counselor in Douglas County School District. Before her previous job as a school counselor, she served as a counseling intern for almost two years in an alternative, Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBIS) research school in Pennsylvania. She served students with emotional difficulties and special educational needs on Tier III level emotional and behavioral support. She also comes from the extensive experience of her work with children with trauma, neglect, and abuse. In addition to her work at The  Denver Waldorf School, she is a clinical intern with a nonprofit organization that offers mental health services to underserved families and children. She grew up in India and is close to her family, home, and culture. Madhuri likes to volunteer for various causes, hang out with friends, shop, travel, and explore new places and cultures in her free time. She is passionate about mental health and is grateful to have the opportunity to work with children.

About The Denver Waldorf School

The Denver Waldorf School is an urban pre-K through 12 independent school in Colorado. Founded in 1974 on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, DWS believes education should foster what it is to be human, cultivate lifelong curiosity, and inspire a love for the world. We are currently enrolling for in-person learning:

Want to learn more about us? Learn more about our in-person and virtual events, read our blog, or take a listen to our podcast.

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Details

  • Date: December 6, 2022
  • Time:
    8:45 am - 10:00 am
  • Event Category:
A new experience of color and a reminder of community. While our hallways and classrooms have been quiet, there is still much happening behind the scenes here at school!

Our main hallway now welcomes all who journey through to experience the movement and progression of color thanks to this refresh of lazure painting - a technique of applying paint in layers that receives light and illuminates color. Many thanks to @lazure.art.charlesandrade for guiding our teachers through this lazure workshop - it is always wonderful to see what we can accomplish when we work in community. We are grateful to our hardworking faculty and staff for pouring their hearts into bringing beauty, warmth, and light into our spaces.
With joyful anticipation, we welcomed our newest families to campus this morning for our New Family Breakfast! 🌟

It was a wonderful gift to be able to gather together on the playground and look forward to the year ahead by meeting new friends, sharing conversation, and watching children connect through play. Moments like these remind us of the beauty of our school community and of the thoughtful, intentional choice that brings each family to Waldorf education.

We feel very grateful to welcome all of the new families into our community and to share in the journey ahead together. Here’s to a new school year ahead filled with connection, discovery, belonging, and a deepening of our community.
If you’ve ever witnessed our kindergarten transition from outside play to indoor snack, I’m sure you have wondered how our teachers get a group of young children to react so quickly and peacefully. The children hear the cue from their teacher for cleanup in a gentle, singing voice and they immediately move to pick up all the toys. There is no barking or nagging - simply, it is rhythm! 

In our Waldorf kindergarten, the day unfolds in a predictable rhythm, which intentionally flows between complementary activities - what we often describe as the “in breath,” for quiet or focused activity, like storytime, rest, or snack, and the “out breath” of social interaction and free play. The children are guided by familiar songs, consistent routines, and the teacher’s quiet yet intentional modeling. 

When children know what to expect, they feel a sense of comfort, safety, and order, easing transitions throughout the day - promoting a harmonious classroom environment and opening themselves to the world around them!

Comment “ECE” to schedule a tour and see what our Early Childhood Program is all about! And new this fall - we look forward to introducing our Nursery Program (serving 2.5 - 4.5 year olds) at a satellite location in University Park.
There is more and more commentary about needing a revamped educational system for the future - one that isn’t about more testing, more worksheets, and more memorization. Instead, we need an education that fosters resilience, adaptability, compassion, and confidence. We need an education where childhood is honored through creative play, a connection to nature, and purposeful work. We need a learning environment that prioritizes creativity and critical thinking to make a meaningful lesson. We need a human-centered approach that values being well-rounded develops head, heart, and hands. 

And...this education already exists! This is the gift of our Waldorf education - where we prepare students not just for college but for life beyond - with readiness to contribute to the ever-changing world all around them. 

Interested in learning more about our K-12 education? Comment “WALDORF” for a direct link to schedule a tour today!
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When the world around us pushes towards AI and digital shortcuts, we cherish the process of becoming, the joy of learning, and that which makes us human.
Our goal is not simply to have students recall information. The result we aim for in Waldorf education is to cultivate lifelong curiosity and develop the capacities to be creative, independent thinkers.

We recognize that this doesn’t happen through memorization alone, but through meaningful experience. In our studies of science, for example, our teachers use what is called a phenomenological approach, guiding students to carefully observe natural phenomena, make hypotheses about what they are seeing, and draw conclusions through their own thinking.

Concepts are broken down into lived experiences, allowing understanding to emerge before definitions are introduced. Rather than telling students what to think, we invite them to discover and connect ideas for themselves. Learning becomes more than something to recall - it becomes true understanding that they will carry with them long after the lesson ends.
Each day in our Waldorf kindergarten classrooms you will find the children engaging in purposeful work. Whether working alongside our teachers in preparing snack, washing dishes, caring for our toys, digging in the garden, or helping with laundry - our kindergartners participate fully in practical, meaningful work. 

Developing their sense of pride and purpose, the students come to learn that small acts done with great love grow a community, build their foundation for growth, and show reverence for the world we share.

Schedule a tour today to see what our Early Childhood Program is all about. And new this fall - we look forward to introducing our Nursery Program (serving 2.5 - 4.5 year olds) at a satellite location in University Park.
More and more schools across the country are implementing screen time limits in the classroom to meet the backlash against reliance on digital devices. But - keeping iPads, Chromebooks, and personal devices out of our elementary classrooms has always been a mainstay of our Waldorf education. Before technology becomes a tool for learning, we focus on fostering the human capacities that make learning possible - imagination, curiosity, and wonder. Schedule a tour and come see what Waldorf education is all about.
The creation of a main lesson book is a unique element of Waldorf education. Rather than using traditional textbooks, our students create their own main lesson book as a compilation of all of their findings during the block course. They combine art, writing, diagramming, and more to collectively demonstrate their understanding of the subject. It not only serves as documentation, but also as an active learning tool to synthesize the material from the lesson. Learning is not passive in our classrooms, but rather is alive, engaging, relevant, and deeply meaningful. // shown here are pages from our 7th grade students’ main lesson books

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The Denver Waldorf School

2100 S. Pennsylvania St.
Denver, CO 80210
p) 303-777-0531
f) 303-744-1216
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