Waldorf Playstand

In the past year or so, I've taken an interest in the tools and machinery in my garage (which I am told is no longer a garage, but a "shop"). With a lot of assistance from my boyfriend, I have begun to explore with creating learning materials for early childhood educators. So here I am, now a builder in my free time. This is my blog about my experiences in the shop and the positive changes the learning materials have made in one early childhood program. Hopefully what you find here will inspire you do amazing things for the children in your life.

Project #1

After going on a tour of early childhood programs in Portland, Oregon, I was inspired to make some changes to the program I work at. I wanted to build things that seemed familiar to people, but had a new twist on them. 

I'd seen Waldorf Playstands before. They foster creativity in children, can be used MANY different ways, and aesthetically provide that "wow" factor for anyone that walks into the room. I wanted one for a space in my program that desperately needed all of those things.

WALDORF PLAYSTAND

I got in over my head with this one. Pinterest makes things look so easy! Don't let it fool you though! For this project, I learned how to use a jigsaw, router, table saw....the list goes on. Anyhow, I didn't get too many photos of the process, but I did find some specs on Pinterest that I somewhat followed and eventually had to ad lib the rest.

                               Once all of the pieces were cut out, we began to put it together:

Here's the finished product!

Looking back on this project, I will say that I learned a lot of new things in the shop. Should it have been my first project? NO. But I do have to say that the results of this piece have given the program I work at some major kudos from children and adults.

Since adding the playstand to our Children's Commons, it has been used as:

• a kitchen
• a reading space
• a climber
• a car wash
• a fort
• a place to calm down