Children under 5 years old are extremely open and highly sensitive to ward their surroundings. Their consciousness has not fully awakened at this stage, their learning and development are based on their sensory experiences, e.g., interacting with nature, meaningful play and imitating adults.

Steiner’s early learning approach acknowledges that children learn from sensory input.  Teachers and educators serve as important roles for children to imitate. They teach via modelling and cultivate an attitude of love, trust, openness and gratitude towards the child. Their moral characters affect children’s learning, and they must demonstrate respect, patience, gentleness, strength, reverence and care for all.

3-5 years old children are characterised by activity and creativity. They are attracted to adults who are visibly active and visibly creative. Each day teachers and educators prepare all activities ahead of time and ensure everything is in place to enable the children readily and easily to join in the work.

When children play outside, they imitate teachers and educators to perform all caring environment tasks, for example, gardening. Children imitate to sow seeds, water plants, pull weeds, mix compost, apply fertilizer, care for chickens, keep the yard tidy, sweep, pack up toys at the end of day. They unconsciously learn to care for their environment, via imitation and doing. This imitation fosters their healthy development.

When children play inside, they observe and imitate teachers and educators to perform many domestic activities, such as making dough for bread, cutting vegetables for lunch, preparing morning tea, making juice, cleaning the room, washing dishes and doll clothes, watching stitching and knitting. Through imitation and doing, children cultivate a love of learning, care for their learning community, and develop skills and general knowledge of life.

Children also offer opportunities for experiential learning.  In other words, learning is discovered through activity. This activity is opposed to explicit learning by given instructions and explanations.

Imitation can happen immediately when children see. The most common response is “Can I do it too? or Can I help? Children are willing to participate. Teachers and educators are welcome to join in. All activities are relevant to a child’s daily routine and at the end of the activity, the child will feel a sense of achievement for doing something for themselves and their community.

In today’s culture, many parents are working and may be unable to offer such opportunities at home. In this context, the imitation and doing learning experiences in Steiner early learning setting becomes increasingly valuable.