Dear Members, 

It is my great pleasure to greet you as the newest member of the WECAN Staff. I have received a warm embrace of collegiality, interest, and support as I step into this new role as Co-Director. Heather and I are delighted to embark on this journey together, which has been well prepared by Susan’s many years of diligent care and leadership. Throughout this transition, she continues to model enthusiasm, grace, trust, and the true spirit of collaboration. We are grateful that Susan will continue to serve on the Board. 

In this issue, you will find invitations to observe and celebrate 100 years of Waldorf Early Childhood education, a newly formed Digital Media statement to support this critical aspect of our work with young families, our listings for Professional Development offerings for educators and Family and Caregiver events, introductions to our newest regional representatives, and reports from our board committees. 

We are busy, and we know you are too! We appreciate the time you take to stay connected with us, and we look forward to hearing about how this year unfolds for you all.

In gratitude, 

Meggan Gill and Heather Church

WECAN Co-Directors

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WALDORF EARLY CHILDHOOD

Meggan Gill and Heather Church, WECAN Co-Directors 

In our spring newsletter, we shared a seedling of the growing celebration to honor 100 years of Waldorf Early Childhood Education, worldwide. This is a very exciting and sacred time to reflect, celebrate, and look forward as we enter a new century together. We invite each of you, new, seasoned, and retired Waldorf Early Childhood teachers, to join us in celebrating this important milestone through intentional activity, study, creativity, and gatherings. 

As the center of our celebrations and activities, we have chosen the butterfly. The butterfly is a beacon and symbol of beauty, perseverance, and transformation. From the mighty Monarch that migrates thousands of miles across North America, from Canada through the US to Mexico, to the unique regional species, butterflies inspire awe and wonder in us all. As great pollinators, they also play an essential role in the health of our ecosystem, reminding us of our interdependence and the power of small deeds. With this picture in mind, we imagine this celebration will serve to connect us all, while being unique to each community. 

For details about activities, conference, study, and study group, please click here..

FROM THE WECAN BOARD

Anjum Mir, Board Member

WECAN Board: Meggan Gill, Keelah Helwig, Susan Howard, Laura Mason, Gabriela Nuñez Plata, Anjum Mir, Heather Church, Ruth Ker and Amber Chavez

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

As WECAN prepares to celebrate 100 years of Waldorf Early Childhood Education, we are reminded that each of us, as we work in our own spaces, holds the spirit of this beautiful impulse and, like a collective beacon, sends it outwards into the world. 

Our 100 Years planning committee has been hard at work envisioning a celebration that will stimulate the imagination of our schools throughout North America. This milestone comes at a time when we invite transformation in order to meet the needs of the time. Honoring our past, engaging with the present, and observing actively what comes towards us from the future, we hope to find the new in the wisdom of what has been. The centennial festivities will be an opportunity for us to honor and reinvigorate the work that takes place daily in classrooms, to celebrate pioneers, and for Waldorf children and families to experience the vastness and commitment of our community worldwide. We will be integrating our efforts with IASWECE, the International Association of Waldorf Early Childhood Education, which is organizing a worldwide acknowledgment of this anniversary at the World Conference, to be held in Dornach in April 2026.

Click here for the full article.

FROM THE MEMBERSHIP OFFICE

Laura Mason, Membership Coordinator

WECAN currently has 188 active member and affiliate schools, early childhood centers, and home programs! Of those, 130 are Full Members, 39 are Associate Members, and 19 are Registered Initiative Affiliates in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and on Tribal Lands. 

We are excited to expand our Registered Initiative Affiliation category to include newly established early childhood initiatives and schools, as well as home programs and other small, early childhood-only programs, with the goal of increasing access and broadening our circle of organizational colleagues throughout North America. We welcome interested programs to view our WECAN Registered Initiative Affiliation document for detailed information and to reach out to Laura Mason, Membership Coordinator, to discuss the application process. 

Congratulations to our newest Associate Member program, The Garden School of Marietta, in Marietta, GA, for completing its membership application process this summer. The school was established in 2015 and includes robust Joyful Beginnings classes for children ages 2-3 years old and Forest Kindergartens for 4-6 year olds, as well as grades 1-8. Welcome colleagues! 

For a list of programs that have completed membership renewals since our last report in June, click here.

The Garden School of Marietta in Marietta, GA, WECAN Associate Member

JOIN WECAN BY BECOMING AN INDIVIDUAL MEMBER!

Membership benefits include:

• A subscription to the Gateways Journal (includes the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 issues)
• WECAN News Updates
• A 10% discount on WECAN book sales
• Discounts on registration fees at WECAN conferences
• Regular email messages that include reports on activities, conferences, and events of both WECAN and IASWECE (the International Association of Waldorf/Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education).

Click here for more information.

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

Laura Mason, Membership Coordinator

Waldorf early childhood educators and caregivers serve as regional representatives of WECAN in each respective region. Regional reps are our on-the-ground connection to the regions, and their collaborative efforts strengthen the movement. We now have 21 reps in 15 regions and sub-regions. You can find a current list of representatives on the Contact Us Page of our website. We have several new reps to introduce this fall! 

Our newest reps are Melody Birdsong-Shubert and Rie Seo in Mid-Atlantic, Ruth Ker in Pacific Northwest BC, and Parvati Scatena in Great Lakes III. For more information on our new reps and to see a list of the regional rep responsibilities, click here.

For a list of current reps, see the of the WECAN website. Many thanks to all our regional reps for their work this school year. We are deeply grateful!

Click here for full article.

Melody Birdsong-Shuber

Rie Seo

Ruth Ker

Parvati Scatena

TEACHER EDUCATION

Ruth Ker, Teacher Education Coordinator

Another successful summer of teacher training has happened for many of our institutes, as students from all over North America engage in studies in anthroposophy and Waldorf early childhood education. Each institute has its own unique way of offering its early childhood trainings, but all member institutes are striving to meet the minimum WECAN expectations of a 450-hour offering. For example, teacher educators will continue this fall as each institute finds the best way to meet the needs of their students with both online and in-person options.

Our Shared Principles provide guidelines for each of our 14 member EC institutes, while allowing for a variety of place-based and unique cultures. WECAN Shared Principles for Early Childhood Teacher Education 2023.

This past summer, one of our WECAN institute site visitors, Andrea Gambardella, experienced this diversity that happens with our institutes when she visited Rudolf Steiner College Canada and Centro de Desarrollo Antroposofico in Mexico – two diverse cultures, one in Canada and the other in Mexico, each accomplishing remarkable things to address the needs of their particular clientele. In the year ahead, WECAN has plans to visit at least six of its members.

Click here for the full article.

BIRTH TO THREE

Heather Church and Anjum Mir, The Birth to Three Working Group

We write to you in the tailwinds of the CARE 1 Conference—Becoming and Belonging—which took place in Spring Valley at the beginning of August. It was a remarkable gathering, bringing together medical and therapeutic practitioners with Birth-to-Three educators, united in their care for the youngest children in our movement.

The work was both good and hard. We came with open hearts and minds, seeking to deepen our understanding of the child from conception to age three. Together, we asked: How can we support this delicate process of incarnation? What hindrances do we encounter? How can we nurture both the child and the emerging relationship between pedagogical and therapeutic fields?

Each participant brought their own gifts and expertise, and yet a new, vital question began to stir: What can we offer one another? One field is richly developed yet struggles to find its place in the wider world, while the other is among the least paid and least recognized professions. And yet, the seeds have been planted. New relationships are forming, and with courage and steadfastness, we can continue this collaborative journey.

Click here for the full article.

DIGITAL MEDIA

Susan Howard, WECAN Board Member

Greetings from the WECAN Digital Media Group! 

We are pleased to share with you the WECAN Statement on Digital Media that we have been collaborating on for the past six months. It now has the approval of the WECAN Board, and we encourage you to share it widely in your school community. 

The Digital Media Group members —Lisa Bechmann, Tammy Caldwell, Amber Chavez, Meggan Gill, Susan Howard, and Janene Ping —meet monthly to explore how they can best support educators and parents in the Waldorf community with questions about screen use among young children. We are developing resources for a new section on the WECAN website, which will be available soon. This group will share information on the WECAN Community Hub and plan activities for the upcoming school year, including workshops at WECAN conferences and online opportunities. 

If you would like to participate in this work, we invite you to join the WECAN Hub subgroup on Digital Media by subscribing at DigitalMedia+subscribe@wecan.groups.io. 

WECAN is delighted to share The Healing Forces of the Night by Holly Koteen-Soulé.  This essay, one of several in the newest publication of the Pedagogical Section Council called:  Sleep on it- Waking up to the Importance of Sleep, available from Waldorf Publications. The Pedagogical Section Council’s new website will launch in October. Be sure to check it out! 

THE HEALING FORCES OF THE NIGHT

Holly Koteen-Soulé 

The wakefulness required by the modern human being in our daily life with our many roles and responsibilities can often make us feel fractured and fragmented at the end of the day. A good night’s sleep can restore us, make us feel whole again, and heal the sense of fragmentation. This restoration of forces happens mostly without our conscious awareness. Sleep is a mysterious blessing that we mostly take for granted unless it is disturbed or disrupted. How could the healing power of our nightly journey be enhanced if we understood the remarkable reciprocal alchemy between our waking life experiences and what transpires during sleep? 

As an early childhood teacher and teacher educator, I often revisit the opening lecture of the training course that Rudolf Steiner gave to the teachers of the first Waldorf School. In that lecture he spoke about the task of the Waldorf teacher in helping students to learn to “breathe” and “sleep.” In my recent reading, I was struck by Steiner’s focus on the opposite and complementary directionality of these two common, everyday human activities.

Click here for the full article.

IASWECE REPORT

Louise deForest, IASWECE Representative for North America

2026 will mark the 100th anniversary of Waldorf Early Childhood Education in the world. It will also be the 21st anniversary of the founding of IASWECE, so much of the recent Council meeting in Godollo, Hungary, was spent discussing and planning for this big anniversary year. 

The World Early Childhood Conference will be held in Dornach, Switzerland, from April 8th to 12th, 2026. A small conference planning group has been established, comprising IASWECE Council members, members of the Pedagogical Section, and several others. The title of the conference is "Kindness, Strength, and Love – Planting the Seeds for a Healthy Unfolding." It promises to be the most international conference ever, featuring keynote speakers from around the world, 34 workshops held in several different languages, and 13 puppet shows from 13 different countries. The foundation of the conference and all the presentations is the seven conditions for esoteric development, as found in Rudolf Steiner’s book, How to Know Higher Worlds, Chapter 5. The pioneers and history of Waldorf early childhood education will be honored, and together we will experience the astonishing and delightful diversity of our Waldorf early childhood movement today.



Click here for the full article.

WECAN CONFERENCES AND ONLINE OFFERINGS

Heather Church, WECAN Co-Director

Gathering together in person is always such a rewarding experience. I can still remember my very first February Conference - I was amazed by how many colleagues I truly had. Participants had come from all across the continent to learn, be inspired, meet one another, form new friendships, and more. And I’ll never forget how lively the café was, early childhood teachers can be much louder when they’re not in their classrooms!  These events brought me incredible joy and profound wisdom.  This year, we’re delighted that three WECAN conferences are planned. 

The first is the annual Birth to Three Conference, in collaboration with Sophia’s Hearth in Keene, NH, on November 14 -15, 2025. This event will be part two of a four-year theme, Developing Capacities for Being with Children from Birth to Three, and this year’s focus is on the sense of touch.

In February, we will gather for the Spring Valley Conference - Remember, Observe, Shape the Future – 100 Years of Waldorf Early Childhood in North America (more information below). 

Please stay tuned for the PNW Conference in Portland, which will take place on February 14 - 15, 2026 - details will be announced soon! 

For those in the Great Lakes Region II, a regional gathering is coming up soon - October 25, 2025 at the Juniper School in Columbus, OH. Register here.

And finally, we warmly invite those who can to attend the World Conference in Dornach, Switzerland.

To contact your regional representative and learn about gatherings close to you, please look here https://waldorfearlychildhood.org/about-wecan/contact-us/

SAVE THE DATE!

Remember, Observe: Shape the Future - 100 Years of Waldorf Early Childhood in North America

2026 WECAN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS CONFERENCE - February 6-8, 2025

We think you’ll want to join us for this special event. We’ll look back at how we’ve been growing and developing over the past 100 years in North America and then begin to look toward what we will need to grow, imagine, and develop for the future, especially for the children coming to us today, entering this world.

We invite the pioneers in this work in North America to join us, as well as the many newer teachers who have recently entered the Waldorf Early Childhood movement. Together, we will journey from the beginning to the present and look ahead to finding ways to use creativity, spirit, and science, united with the wisdom of the past to shape how we will meet the children coming toward us in the next 100 years.

Wahsonti:io Hill, Otsistohkwi:yo Elliot, and Heather Church, along with several special guests, will introduce the Creative Spiritual Research process and share living examples of the power of working with spirit to develop new ways of working in our ever-changing world.

WECAN FAMILY AND CAREGIVER EVENTS

Heather Church and Anjum Mir, WECAN Co-Director and Board Member

We are excited to share with you the 2025/26 WECAN Family & Caregiver Event Series - a unique initiative designed to support families, caregivers, and educators in understanding and nurturing young children from birth through seven years of age.

Partnerships between families and teachers are essential to children’s healthy growth and development. WECAN has created these offerings to help build bridges, deepen understanding, and foster meaningful collaboration. Together, we are so much stronger, and we can create a brighter future for our children.

This year, we are offering three events: one in October, one in January, and one in February.

Click here for more information.

Click images below to register.

WECAN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS

Heather Church, Meggan Gill and Ruth Ker, WECAN Co-Directors and Teacher Education Coordinator

NEW this year: We are offering Professional Development for Educators. Our intention is to provide accessible educational opportunities to support you with some of the questions currently living in schools and school communities.

Click here for more information.

Click images below to register.

FOR A FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS VISIT OUR WEBSITE

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WALDORF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

April 8-12, 2026, Dornach, Switzerland

Everyone working with young children between birth and 7 years of age is cordially invited to the World Early Childhood Conference, which will take place at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland from April 8 to 12, 2026. The conference theme is «Kindness - Strength – Love. Seeds for healthy unfolding». Be a part of it!

Please make a note of the date and begin fundraising in your community so that every school or early childhood program can send at least one colleague to this once-in-a-lifetime celebration!

For more information click here.

WECAN BOOKS - NEW PUBLICATIONS

DONATE TO SUPPORT WECAN'S ACTIVITIES

Your contribution will help us support our members with additional resources, more ways to connect with colleagues, and inspiration for their ongoing professional development. Your support will also help us collaborate with other organizations to keep a light shining on the ever more critical and precious treasure of the first seven years and protect the young child’s joyful devotion to everyday life and unmitigated hope for the future.

We are grateful for any contribution you are able to make!

Interested in offering a legacy gift to WECAN through your estate planning? Contact us at info@waldorfearlychildhood.org.