Waldorf Play Silks and Play Stands: How Children Use Them at Each Age

Play silks are light squares of dyed silk that a child can turn into almost anything. Today it's a cape, tomorrow a river or the sky over a farm of wooden animals. A play stand is a low wooden frame, a bit like an open shelf, that children drape silks over to build a house, a shop or a puppet theatre. Add a set of wooden stacking arches or blocks and you have a whole play world. Babies watch and touch silks and toddlers hide under them. Children from about 3 to 6 use silks, stands and arches to build long pretend games.

Below: what each thing is, which size silk to choose, how children use them at each age, and how to set up a play space without buying a stand.

What are play silks?

Picture a basket of colored silk in the corner of a Waldorf kindergarten: red, gold, sky blue, leaf green. Camellia Waldorf School describes its kindergarten this way, with silk playcloths alongside wooden blocks and woollen dolls. In free play, a child might turn a silk into a superhero cape, a flowing river or a cosy nest for dolls. Kimberton Waldorf School lists colored fabrics among its few simple toys.

A play silk is plain on purpose. It has no one right use. The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) encourages parents to give children play objects that aren't too "finished", so their own powers of making pictures can step in. A silk is about as unfinished as a toy can be. Bella Luna Toys, a Waldorf toy shop, describes silks becoming skirts and veils in dress-up play.

Silk is light, it drapes and it floats. That's what makes it good for play. A child can throw it up and watch it fall, or spread it over a chair without a grown-up to lift a heavy blanket. You don't have to use silk, though. Cotton or thin wool cloths work for most games, and old scarves are a fine start.

What size play silk should I buy?

One well-known play silk maker sells four sizes, and they're a useful guide to what the sizes are for:

Size	Roughly	Good for
Mini	53 cm (21 in) square	Babies and small hands, a scarf or kerchief
Classic	90 cm (35 in) square	Dress-up, twirling, small-world play, a doll sling
Giant	178 x 76 cm (70 x 30 in)	Dens and outdoor play
Double	137 x 274 cm (54 x 108 in)	Large forts, a canopy

The same maker uses a lighter silk for the smaller squares and a heavier one for the big den-making sizes. If you're buying just one or two, the classic square is the one most families reach for.

A Waldorf toy shop in Europe also sells silk play cloths of about 55 cm square in seasonal sets, and wool and cotton cloths from 75 to 90 cm. Any of these sizes will do.

What is a play stand?

A play stand is a simple wooden frame that looks like an open shelf, often made of solid alder or beech. Waldorfshop, a European Waldorf supplier, says play stands can be found in every Waldorf kindergarten. Stand two side by side, add a roof, and you have a play house.

Waldorfshop lists a shop, a play kitchen, a puppet theatre, a post office and a home for the dolls among their uses. Hang a few silks over the sides, clip one across the top, and the stand becomes whatever today's game needs. Waldorfshop also notes that a play stand gives children of different ages both a place to play and a place to retreat to.

A stand is lovely but not essential. The toys and play guide covers this too: Waldorf toys and play at home suggests two chairs, a clothes horse or the underside of a table with a cloth over it. One play silk maker shows a corner fort made with a large silk, a few push pins and two clips, with no furniture at all.

Stacking toys and open-ended play spaces

Wooden stacking arches, often sold as a "rainbow", are the other thing you'll see in many Waldorf play corners. On the shelf they look like a rainbow. In play, the maker says, they become a fence, a tunnel or a house of several floors.

One maker of wooden rainbows gives parents a tip worth passing on: to encourage free play, don't set the rainbow out assembled. Tip the arches into a basket instead, so your child sees them as building material rather than a picture to put back together.

Put these together and you have what some families call a playscape or small world. Lay a silk on a table or the floor as a field or a lake. Add a few arches for hills, some wooden animals and a basket of pinecones and stones. It's the same idea as a Waldorf nature table, but for playing with rather than looking at. It's also the stage for a table puppet show.

How children use them at each age

Children don't need a new set of things each year. The same silks and arches carry through, and the play changes.

Babies

For a baby, a silk is something to look at and touch. Saha, a children's clothing maker that writes about playsilks, suggests using them gently: peekaboo, a silk floating down, a silk tied to a play gym to watch it move. The smallest squares are easiest.

Treat a silk like any other fabric around a baby. Saha's advice is to supervise, never wrap it around the neck, and choose breathable materials. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises taking off loose ribbons or strings from toys and keeping soft objects out of the cot. So play with the silk together, and put it away before sleep.

Toddlers

Toddlers love to hide, cover and carry. A silk over their head for peekaboo, a silk thrown up and caught, a silk stuffed into a basket and pulled out again. Smaller silks are easier for them to grasp and wave. Two chairs with a silk over the top make a first little house to crawl in and out of.

Stacking arches can work at this age too, for piling up and knocking down.

Children aged 3 to 6

This is when silks, stands and arches come together. Children in these years often play long pretend games, and they need big, loose pieces to build with. A 4 year old might spend a morning running a shop from the play stand, then drape it in blue and brown for a boat by lunch. Silks become crowns, capes, skirts and wings. Giant silks and a couple of chairs become a den.

Small-world play starts to matter here as well: a silk on the table, arches for bridges, animals and figures, and a story that runs all afternoon. For how play fits into a whole kindergarten morning, see Waldorf kindergarten at home. Silks are also good for acting out a story you've told, as in Waldorf fairy tales and storytelling.

Into the school years

Silks don't get put away at 7. School-age children still build dens and put on puppet shows, and many families keep using silks on the nature table as the seasons turn. The Waldorf festivals are a good time to change the colors, with deep reds and gold in autumn and blues and silver in winter.

How to wash play silks

By hand. One well-known silk maker suggests washing play silks in water with a little mild dish soap or shampoo, then hanging them to dry. Iron on a medium heat if you want the shine back. It also suggests it as a small job to share with young children, who often enjoy the feel of wet silk.

Keep silks folded in a basket on a low shelf, where your child can reach them and put them back.

Setting up a small play space

You don't need much.

1. Choose three to five silks or cloths in different colors. Old scarves are fine to start.
2. Find a frame. A play stand if you have one. If not, two chairs, a clothes horse, or a small table.
3. Add a few building pieces: a basket of blocks or wooden arches, tipped in loose.
4. Add a few figures: a simple doll, some wooden animals, a basket of pinecones or shells.
5. Leave it be. Put things where your child can reach them, and let the play find its own way.

Swap a silk or a basket every few weeks when something stops being used. The Waldorf homeschool daily rhythm shows where long free play sits in a day.

If you'd like to find other families who play this way, the Waldorf Map lists Waldorf schools and kindergartens near you, many with parent and child groups and school fairs.

When your child is ready for grade 1, Starpath has Waldorf-inspired lessons for grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 being added. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher with over ten years in the classroom, writes them. The Waldorf grade 1 curriculum guide shows what that first year holds.