The Best Decision We Ever Made as a Family

True, our 14-year-old, graduated from Waldorf school this week and will head to high school in the fall. He’s been attending Waldorf since Kindergarten, and its culture, rhythms, and gentle way of educating and tending to children have completely shaped our family’s life (and parenting) in the best, most heart-centered ways.

Waldorf is all about nurturing the whole child - heart, hands, and head. It honors imagination, creativity, reverence, and rhythm. It values beauty. It protects childhood. It leans into storytelling, art-making, seasonal celebrations, and deep, meaningful connections with each other and the natural world.

All the traditional subjects are taught, but there are no screens or tech in the classrooms. No formal testing.

And there are no traditional textbooks the way most of us remember them. Instead, students create their own handbound books, called main lesson books. These are hand-drawn, hand-written (in cursive!), and filled with their own illustrations, notes, stories, and academic lessons.

These hefty books are living, breathing reflections of the child’s journey through each subject. Every page is infused with drawings, and teachings. It’s one of my favorite parts of the entire philosophy. We have all the books True has created this last decade, and they have become treasured keepsakes.

And the music! It has been woven into everything. From learning the flute in the early grades, to singing in harmony, to exploring string instruments like cello and ukulele. By the time they graduate, most of the children know how to play several instruments.

As someone who attended seven different schools in seven years as a child, it has been one of my wildest dreams as a parent to give this kind of steady, soul-nourishing experience to my child.

It has been THE greatest gift of our family’s life over these past ten years.

At graduation, each student gave a speech, a Waldorf tradition, and I was undone in the best way by their groundedness, their humor, their wisdom, and their deep appreciation for the community that raised them.

Saying goodbye to our official Waldorf days is no small thing. Yet, I know this education will continue to inform how True moves through the world. We are full of gratitude.

What a gift it has been. What a milestone it is.

I am feeling it all. The pride. The nostalgia. The joy. The whoosh of time moving so fast.

To all the mamas, papas, and caregivers out there watching your kiddos cross a threshold this season, I see you. Be gentle on yourselves. Take time to soak it in, to pause, to celebrate, and to love up your kiddos, and yourself too.

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