Want to raise imaginative out-of-the-box thinkers?
At The Kindergarten that box has been painted in vivid rainbow colours and re-imagined and transformed into a lantern, playhouse, bird feeder or some thingamabob you’ve never heard of. When given free rein to their imagination, children have endless ways in which to shape and share their creativity.
- Without the freedom to express through art, you cannot develop or nurture creativity.
- Without creativity, innovation is impossible.
- Without innovation, we’d still be living in caves, swinging clubs.
The Kindergarten, in the picturesque setting of Rosemary Hill Farm in the east of Pretoria, offers no formal academic instruction and an abundance of time for free play. Our teachers are trained and dedicated, cultivating an atmosphere of creativity and enriching the imaginations of our children. They teach by means of imitation rather than instruction or rote learning.
FREE RANGE CHILDHOOD
Inside the classrooms, the children play with toys from all-natural materials like wood, wool and cotton that are more tactile than plastic. Stories, songs and rhymes during circle time are filled with rich vocabulary and beautiful imagery.
Outside the classroom, where a lot of activity happens every day, our little ones continue learning: from nature, their teachers and each other. Meals are a hearty, communal affair prepared with care (and a healthy serving of love) by Rosemary Hill’s chefs…and sometimes by the toddlers themselves!
Over the last 75 years a vast number of educational theorists and researchers from top universities around the world have identified the values of imaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child (language, maths, interpersonal skills, etc.) and these findings are widely published.
Why do we continue cheating our toddlers out of a childhood? What exactly is the point of a 5-year-old being able to read or write?
Do you you value keeping your child’s innate creativity and imagination rich and alive?
Do you cherish your toddler’s childhood as much as we do?
