Meet Claira Le Marchand
Sewing Seeds Kindergarten is a Ofsted registered childminding setting, run by childminder Claira Le Marchand. A mother of 3 children, fine arts graduate, seamstress and handcraft tutor. I have been running rural arts groups, handcraft workshops and home education arts tutoring for 12 years and childminding since 2018.
My philosophy is inspired by Steiner with an emphasis on the development of handcraft skills and inspiring imagination and creativity in young children.
I am passionate about exploring our natural environment, growing vegetables and foraging to create delicious organic home cooked meals for everyone to enjoy.
Children are magical little beings and I like to instil the development of awe and imagination in their beautiful little minds, finding special moments of wonder in every day.
Our Philosophy
I conduct a Steiner inspired setting; this is how I use elements of the Steiner ethos in my educational philosophy.
I am a childminder, Claira Le Marchand and I provide a Steiner inspired kindergarten setting from my home.
Our curriculum is contained within the toys, resources and materials we have at our setting and also the daily wonders that nature delivers to us while outdoors.
Our steiner pedagogy respects the essential nature of childhood. I provide a secure unhurried environment that enables children to develop a range of skills, providing a sound foundation for emotional social and cognitive intelligence.
Our Kindergarten is a community of 'doers'. I present myself as an example to the children in my care, encouraging a child's creative play and self-motivated inquiry, through active feeling, touching, exploring, imitating (doing).
Through imitation children naturally develop a sense of their own purpose for 'doing' and creating. Working alongside my we enjoy a creative environment, active in a rhythm of meaningful tasks. This process helps develop the child's inner 'will'. Our primary task in early childhood is to develop the child's inner 'will'. We do this by enriching their feeling of life, through creating a sense of awe and wonder.
Imitation is an activity of one's 'will'. I cannot teach imitation but a child's 'will' is activated/encouraged by the image of myself engaged in active purposeful work. A child is free to follow their 'will' in joining the activity or feeling secure and inspired by the creative environment, they find their own activity to engage in. Here we find an orderly rhythm of good habits that belong to the right physical environment. We use awe and wonder to entice a child to find the capacity within themselves to do what is needed.
Children feel secure and held as they become aware of our daily rhythm, they are settled and reassured by routines. (playtime, snack, washing-up, activities creative or domestic, lunch, getting dressed, garden time and pick up).
Overtime they become more consciously aware of larger rhythms in our lives: the changing of seasons, celebrations, festivals and daily events that all give structure to their lives.
Our rhythm provides a structure to the day providing balance between times of activity and rest. Following these routines and rhythms provides the foundations for an awareness of time (past, present and future). The children develop to become more confident, strong and secure, easily moving freely and confidently through the structure of the day. The world becomes a familiar place and the child feels safe.
Repetition plays a key role in establishing 'continuity' and in the healthy development of memory repetition of daily routines bring the opportunity for children to familiarise themselves with materials, resources and tools and deepen their relationship with them. This in itself engages a sense of security for the child now living within the 'familiar' world.
As a childcare provider it is important to me working within the Steiner Ethos, to receive each child with reverence. It is my job to help each child to discover and develop the gifts a child holds within themselves.
As a role model works through imitation, I present examples of reverence: to each other, the environment and the food we eat, taking pride in caring, respecting, empathising and giving warmth and friendship. Children learn and imitate these traits and working with the social inner 'will', older children assume roles as helpers, looking after younger children.
"We have all the time in the world to teach facts, but only this very limited time to develop empathy and will through imagination".
It is also an important part of our day to find moments of reverence we can all enjoy together. When these moments don't materialise naturally. I create opportunities for the children to experience joy, awe and wonder. Finding these moments of beauty, those "Ahhh" moments bring a sense of peace and joy to the children learning about life's eternal possibilities.
As a handcraft tutor and steiner inspired childcare provider, I see that offering a wide variety of handcrafts is eminently important to the creative and cognitive development of the child. Learning skills such as sewing and weaving, help develop hand eye coordination, manual dexterity and orientation. Painting and drawing skills help with balance and symmetry. The development of verbal skills are promoted through discussing their own drawings, telling stories 'by reading their pictures'. Verbal skills are also enhanced through storytelling, puppetry, and practicing a rich repertoire of seasonal songs, stories and poems that flow through our daily and seasonal rhythms.
For me the most important elements are: to provide a safe holding space to nourish the delicate innocence of each child, to help support their curiosity and ripen their natural imagination, to give them the gift of providing the time and space to live fully in their imagination.
These details above are just a few elements of the Steiner pedagogy, that when brought together with the eyfs requirements and based in a home from home setting, create a beautiful balance, that is harmonic to nurturing both the physical and emotional needs of a child.
