Miro House Kindergarten provides a warm and secure homelike environment where childhood is honoured and children are given the gift of time. Within this environment the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual nature of each child is carefully nurtured.

We aim to develop children’s early learning naturally, and we do this very purposefully through daily activities that are offered in the kindergarten.  This is done via many avenues both inside and outside, each with an impulse and purpose aligned to the developmental stages of the child.

Play is considered to offer rich and productive learning opportunities for children to experiment and develop in the social, intellectual and physical realms.  The opportunities for learning provided by play are highly valued in the Miro House programmes.  The chance to initiate, plan, reason, create, problem-solve, negotiate, take on roles, predict, experiment, draw conclusions and develop working theories are all facilitated through play.  The careful selection of quality play materials, gathered from the garden, forest and sea further enhance play through actively supporting the imagination.

During the outside playtime, experiences of the wonders of Nature, the elements and the potential for real adventures are found in the Centre’s garden, along with the richness of the seasons that are the turning points of the year. Here children enjoy early childhood movement naturally where their inherent curiosity in the world around them is fostered, further enriching their learning and development.

Inside activities may be in the form of baking bread, caring for the environment, drawing, painting and modelling of the adults around them.

A celebration of our relationship with our natural world is developed through seasonal festivals, stories and movement circles as well as practical engagment in the outside environment, including the building of compost, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The child’s social and emotional development is recognised for its importance in the whole of human development and is carefully nurtured in the kindergarten environment. It is an inherent quality in the daily programme.  The mixed age groups support tuakana-teina learning relationships and helps the child develop their sense of belonging and contribution as well as their ability to care for each other.

Early literacy and numeracy are key skills that are developed in a purposefully natural way, laying strong foundations for later academic learning when they enter the Waikato Waldorf School.  A strong emphasis on oral language through storytelling and the daily movement circle further develops skills the child can draw on when they enter a formal learning environment.

ERO Report, 2017

“Children benefit from curriculum planning and assessment that is based on the Rudolf Steiner philosophy.  The programme successfully engages children’s imagination and creativity, and fosters their wonder for the environment.” 

Open Monday – Friday 8.45am to 2.45pm