Essex on Lake Champlain
\"Essex
  • About
    • Essex, New York (Town)
      • Essex Maps
      • Essex, New York Weather
      • Town of Essex Government
      • Close
    • Essex on Lake Champlain (Blog)
      • Contributors
      • Sponsors
      • Testimonials
      • Get Involved
      • Close
    • Close
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Calendar
    • Add an Event
    • Upcoming Events
    • Close
  • Essex on Lake Champlain
  • Connect
    • Social Media
      • Facebook
      • Twitter
      • Google +
      • Pinterest
      • YouTube
      • Flickr
    • Newsletters
    • GET INVOLVED
    • CONTACT
        • Your Name (required)

          Your Email (required)

          Subject (required)

          Your Message

      • Close
    • Shop
    • Search
        • Search
          • Close
        • Categories
            • Agriculture (518)
            • Architecture (76)
            • Arts (353)
            • Business (122)
            • Daily Doodle (62)
            • Dining (151)
            • Doodle Quotes (5)
            • Doodlebomb (3)
            • Education (296)
            • Entertainment (369)
            • Environment (28)
            • Essex Doodles (62)
            • Events (1705)
            • Exercise (54)
            • Government (247)
            • Health & Wellness (134)
            • Heritage (397)
            • History (183)
            • Hyperlocal (29)
            • Landscape (35)
            • Lifestyle (197)
            • Lodging (16)
            • Music (276)
            • Nature (258)
            • News (1217)
            • Nightlife (18)
            • Obituary (9)
            • Opinion (45)
            • Outdoors (177)
            • People (115)
            • Philanthropy (86)
            • Real Estate (3)
            • Recreation (214)
            • Resources (7)
            • Services (7)
            • Shopping (96)
            • Sports (22)
            • Transportation (71)
            • Worship (17)
          • Close
        • Archives
            • June 2018 (21)
            • May 2018 (30)
            • April 2018 (28)
            • March 2018 (30)
            • February 2018 (31)
            • January 2018 (26)
            • December 2017 (23)
            • November 2017 (25)
            • October 2017 (22)
            • September 2017 (32)
            • August 2017 (35)
            • July 2017 (30)
            • June 2017 (30)
            • May 2017 (35)
            • April 2017 (31)
            • March 2017 (33)
            • February 2017 (30)
            • January 2017 (35)
            • December 2016 (30)
            • November 2016 (37)
            • October 2016 (43)
            • September 2016 (53)
            • August 2016 (49)
            • July 2016 (59)
            • June 2016 (70)
            • May 2016 (57)
            • April 2016 (64)
            • March 2016 (69)
            • February 2016 (56)
            • January 2016 (46)
            • December 2015 (39)
            • November 2015 (43)
            • October 2015 (61)
            • September 2015 (57)
            • August 2015 (61)
            • July 2015 (54)
            • June 2015 (41)
            • May 2015 (67)
            • April 2015 (66)
            • March 2015 (72)
          • Load More
          • Close
        • Contact us
          • CONTACT US

              Your Name (required)

              Your Email (required)

              Subject (required)

              Your Message

            • Close
        • Close
      • Log In
        • Log Into Calendar
        • Log Into Blog
        • Close
      • Skip to primary navigation
      • Skip to main content
      • Skip to primary sidebar
      • Skip to footer

      Essex on Lake Champlain

      Essex, New York Community Blog Since 2011

      • Lifestyle
        • Agriculture
          • CSAs in Essex, NY
            • Essex Farm
            • Full and By Farm
          • Farmstead Catering
          • The Hub on the Hill
          • Reber Rock Farm
        • Outdoors
          • Champlain Area Trails (CATS)
          • Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center
        • Entertainment
          • Champlain Valley Film Series
          • Whallonsburg Grange Hall
        • Arts
          • Adirondack Art Association
          • Essex Community Concerts
          • Champlain Valley Film Series
          • Essex Poetry Open Mic
        • Music
          • Essex Community Concerts
        • Shopping
        • Recreation
          • Champlain Area Trails (CATS)
        • Health & Wellness
          • Lake Champlain Yoga & Wellness
          • NEW Health
        • Nature
          • Champlain Area Trails (CATS)
        • Education
          • CFES Brilliant Pathways
          • Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center
        • Nightlife
        • Worship
      • Events
        • Christmas in Essex
        • Downtown Essex Day
        • Fourth of July in Essex, NY
      • Dining
        • Chez Lin & Rays
        • Essex Ice Cream Cafe
        • Essex Inn on the Adirondack Coast
        • Farmstead Catering
        • Old Dock Restaurant
        • The Pink Pig Cafe
      • Lodging
        • Essex Inn on the Adirondack Coast
        • The Cupola House and Cottage
      • Transportation
        • Essex-Charlotte Ferry
      • Heritage
        • Architecture
          • Essex, New York Architecture: A Doodler’s Field Guide
        • Historic Essex
        • History
        • People
        • Government
          • Essex Post Office
          • Town of Essex Government
        • Vintage Essex Trivia
        • Vintage Essex Artifacts
      • Directory
        • Adirondack Art Association
        • Champlain Area Trails (CATS)
        • CFES Brilliant Pathways
        • The Cupola House and Cottage
        • Essex-Charlotte Ferry
        • Essex Farm
        • Essex Ice Cream Cafe
        • Essex Initiatives
        • Essex Post Office
        • Farmstead Catering
        • Full and By Farm
        • Historic Essex
        • Lake Champlain Yoga & Wellness
        • NEW Health
        • Pedal Power
        • Reber Rock Farm
        • The Hub on the Hill
        • Town of Essex Government
        • Whallonsburg Grange Hall
      • Show Search
      Hide Search
      You are here: Home / Education / Lakeside School: Learning from Experience

      Lakeside School: Learning from Experience

      November 2, 2012 By Lakeside School Leave a Comment

      Inside Lakeside School (Image courtesy of Lakeside School)
      Inside Lakeside School’s Early Childhood program (Image courtesy of Lakeside School)

      Lakeside School at Black Kettle Farm offers birth – 1st grade education based on the Waldorf philosophy on a working farm in Essex, NY. Each week our Office Administrator, Kathleen Morse, writes on the Lakeside school and community and education based on the Waldorf philosophy through her perspective from the office window.

      View from the Office Window: Learning from Experience

      It has been a pleasure to meet each family this week.  I started my first day at Lakeside with Hurricane Sandy brewing in the Atlantic.  While the North Country wasn’t hard hit by the storm, many friends and families on the east coast were not spared the wind, rain, and disaster that spread during and after the storm.  Our thoughts go out to those who have had their lives upturned.

      While my first day was a bit blustery, on my second day, there were bright blue skies with puffy clouds and warm weather.  One of the Kindergarten boys became interested in the large pumpkin at the edge of the woodpile.  Robin helped him to upturn the pumpkin to see what was happening underneath.  Other children began to gather round to see what was going on.  One of the nursery children said, “Wow, look at those strange bugs Robin!”  Now many children were intrigued.  Robin suggested that the pumpkin get moved to the compost pile as it is beginning to rot.  This challenge piqued the older Kindergarten children’s interest and they went off with Robin to find a sled.  The pumpkin was moved onto the sled and Robin began to pull.  I couldn’t resist to get involved so I pushed as the older Kindergarten children found their place in the work.  More and more children began to take a piece of rope, push from behind, or balance on the side.  It was slow going as the pumpkin was quite heavy.

      As an adult with a background in the math and sciences, I saw how momentum, leverage, friction, etc. either served or hindered our progress.  As you will often find in Waldorf Education when working with young children, nothing was said about how the bugs facilitate the rotting process or how organic matter begins to break down, or how physics play into the progress of the sled, it was simply left as an experience for the children.  The learning for these children is in the physical experience, they understand the world through doing.  These experiences serve the children later when they enter middle and high school as their capacities to integrate these experiences with their budding intellectual capacities.  They then have the potential to take these experiences and understand them in a new way in order to apply the underlying principles in a variety of settings.

      From my experience teaching physics in Middle School, the students who had the most experiential childhood were the ones who were able to understand and apply fully elements of Physics into a variety of situations.  The students who had been told how physics works could recite the principles but had a harder time integrating the elements into real world applications, it was as thought they had gotten stuck with ‘this is how it works” and had to free themselves from the earlier explanations in order to understand and use the principles in their own life.  So, give your child the gift of experience; it serves them now as young children and will serve them in the future.  This is a peek out of the office window for this week.

      Kathleen Morse
      Lakeside School at Black Kettle Farm, Essex, New York

      Related articles
      • Lakeside School: View from the Office Window
      • Lakeside School: Initiative Foundations
      • Parent-Tot Play Gym at the Whallonsburg Grange

      Share this:

      • Facebook
      • Twitter
      • Pinterest
      • Email
      • More
      • Print
      • LinkedIn
      • Pocket
      • Reddit
      • Tumblr

      Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Black Kettle Farm, Kathleen Morse, Lakeside School, View from the Office Window, Waldorf Education

      Avatar photo

      About Lakeside School

      Lakeside School is a Waldorf inspired early childhood and elementary school in Essex, NY. Learn more at www.lakesideschoolinessex.org.

      Reader Interactions

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

      Primary Sidebar

      40×41: Midlife Crisis Postponed 

      Essex, New York Architecture: A Doodler's Field Guide

      View all Essex Editions books...

      Follow Essex, NY on FacebookFollow Essex, NY on TwitterFollow Essex, NY on PinterestFollow Essex, NY on YouTubeFollow Essex, NY on FlickrFollow Essex, NY on RSS

      Search

      Top 10 Contributors

      • Katie Shepard (595)
      • Geo Davis (394)
      • Whallonsburg Grange Hall (259)
      • Avatar photoChamplain Area Trails (CATS) (208)
      • Avatar photoEssex Farm (205)
      • Olive Alexander (190)
      • Sara Kurak (165)
      • Avatar photoTom Mangano (142)
      • Avatar photoFort Ticonderoga (142)
      • Avatar photoLakeside School (116)

      Footer

      Resources & Policies

      • About Essex on Lake Champlain
      • About Essex, New York
      • Essex, NY Weather
      • Disclosure Policy
      • Privacy Policy
      • Submit a Story
      • Contact Us

      Popular Essex, NY Searches

      • Essex, NY
      • Essex, New York
      • Essex on Lake Champlain
      • Essex Charlotte ferry
      • Essex ferry schedule
      • Essex Charlotte ferry schedule
      • Full and By Farm
      • Essex Farm
      • timber rattlesnake
      • Essex NY fireworks
      • Christmas in Essex, NY
      • Champlain Area Trails

      Local Links

      • Adirondack Art Association
      • Belden Noble Memorial Library
      • Champlain Area Trails
      • Champlain Valley Film Series
      • Essex Community Concerts
      • Essex Theatre Company
      • Historic Essex
      • Rosslyn Redux
      • The Crater Club
      • Town of Essex Information
      • Whallonsburg Grange Hall

      Copyright © 2023 Essex Editions

       

      Loading Comments...