Babies and Toddlers at a Waldorf-Inspired Co-op: A Nursery Corner, a Parent Schedule and Room for the Older Children's Work

To run a co-op with babies and toddlers along, give the little ones their own corner, away from the story and the handwork table. Furnish it with a rug, a few large, simple toys and a basket of real work. Put one steady adult there for the whole term and a second from a short weekly list. Parents of new babies take the jobs a baby can come along to. Keep small parts and needles on the older children's table, and follow safe sleep advice when a baby naps.

How to live a Waldorf rhythm at home with a little one is in Waldorf with a baby or toddler. This piece is about the co-op morning, when the little ones come with their brothers and sisters.

Why the little ones need their own place

Picture a Thursday morning. Seven children are on the rug for the main lesson story, and a 20-month-old walks straight through the middle of the circle to get to her brother. Nobody did anything wrong. She just wanted to be where the voices were.

The older children need a quiet room for the story, and the little ones need to move. WECAN's page on the years from birth to three talks about "freedom of movement, time for uninterrupted play from infancy". It also describes a close, predictable bond with a caregiver as what lets a young child "rest into their unfolding". Both needs are real, and they're easier to meet when each group has a place of its own.

Larger co-ops solve this with a nursery. The LIGHT Learning Cooperative's handbook provides a nursery for children 2 and under. It asks parents who are teaching not to bring their little ones into the classroom, so they can give the class their full attention. A small Waldorf-inspired group can do the same thing with a corner and a steady adult.

A nursery corner

If you have a second room, use it, with the door open. If not, take the far end of your main room, away from the circle and the story and handwork table. A folded play stand or a low shelf can mark the edge.

What goes in it:

• a rug or a blanket, and a low basket of large toys: wooden bowls, big blocks, cloth dolls, play silks
• a basket of real work: a cloth and a small bowl of water for wiping, a wooden spoon and a pot, a brush for sweeping
• a low chair or cushion for a parent who's feeding a baby
• a portable crib or play yard for naps, somewhere quieter
• a changing mat, wipes and a bag for diapers, kept up high

Check the corner for small things before every co-op. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission bans products with small parts that are meant for children under 3, because of the risk of choking. A co-op room isn't a shop, but the same idea applies. The older children's work is full of small things: beads, buttons, knitting needles, pieces of modeling beeswax, crayon stubs. Keep all of it on the older children's table, and pack it away before the little ones come near.

The parent schedule for the babies

The teaching rotation article explains why the little ones need one steady adult for the term rather than a new face every week. Here's how to fill the rest of the schedule.

The steady adult. Choose a parent who enjoys small children and doesn't mind missing the story. It may be a parent who has a toddler of their own there. Give them this job for the whole term and take them out of the teaching rotation.

The second adult. With more than 2 or 3 little ones, one adult isn't enough for diapers, a crying baby and a toddler heading for the door at the same time. Make a short weekly list of parents who take the second place in turn.

Parents of new babies. One co-op handbook excuses mothers of babies under 1 from teaching. Another marks the co-op jobs where having a younger child along is welcome. In a Waldorf-inspired group, a parent with a baby in a sling can welcome families at the door, set out snack, watch outdoor play or sit in the nursery corner. Telling the main lesson story with a baby who might wake is harder. Leave it for next term.

Every parent can come to the corner. At LIGHT, the nursery is for the times when parents are doing a co-op job. A parent who isn't on duty and wants their child in the nursery stays there with them. For a small group, that's a good rule: any parent can come and sit with their own little one, and nobody leaves a baby with the group and wanders off.

A schedule to copy:

	Weeks 1-4	Weeks 5-8	Weeks 9-12
Steady adult, all term
Second adult, week by week
Jobs for parents with a baby
Who packs the nursery corner

What helps the older children's work

Put the quiet work furthest from the corner. The story and the handwork table go at the other end of the room. Painting can sit in the middle, since it's a little messy anyway.

Give the little ones a job at the same time. Susan Howard, writing for WECAN, describes real adult work as something young children take up in their play. She names cooking, baking, gardening and cleaning. While the older children paint, the steady adult can wash the jars with a toddler at a bowl of water. While they knit, the toddler can help knead the dough for snack. The little ones are busy, and the older children get their quiet.

Bring everyone together where it's easy. Circle, snack, outdoor play and festivals can hold every age. A toddler on a parent's lap in circle may join the gestures long before the words. Keep the main lesson story and anything with needles for the older children alone.

Let older siblings be children. GRACE Co-op's handbook doesn't allow anyone under 18 to help in its nursery. It also says student helpers may not pick up a child who isn't their own brother or sister. A small co-op doesn't need rules that formal, but the idea holds. A 9-year-old came for the story and the knitting, not to mind the baby.

Keep the little ones' morning the same each week. The same songs, the same snack, the same corner. For songs and rhymes made for this age, WECAN publishes Singing and Speaking the Child into Life by Susan Weber, Nancy Macalaster and Jane Swain. It collects traditional songs, verses and games for the first three years.

Naps and feeding

Babies sleep at co-op, and it's worth planning for. The American Academy of Pediatrics' safe sleep guidance says to put babies on their back for every sleep, on a firm, flat surface, with no pillows, blankets or soft toys. If a baby falls asleep in a car seat, stroller or sling, it says to move them to a firm sleep surface as soon as possible. A portable crib or play yard in the quiet end of the room works.

For feeding, a comfortable chair a little apart from the group is enough. GRACE Co-op's handbook keeps an overflow room for mothers who want privacy to nurse. In a home co-op, a spare bedroom does the same.

When the little ones grow up

The toddlers of this year are next year's kindergarten children, and they'll join the circle with the older ones before long. Co-op age range has more on who belongs in which group as the children grow. If there are enough families with babies, a Waldorf parent and child group may suit them better than a co-op for a while. The Waldorf Map lists schools and groups near you, and some Waldorf schools run one.