MUYA Programs
It is the mission of the Muya Enrichment community center to provide families with support for socially-connected, eco-friendly, personal development that recognizes and fosters each person’s creative potential. The community center currently offers daily organic meals, arts-based classes for children, educational programming for parents, and community-wide festivals and events.
Muya Community Offerings
Growing Heart, Head, and Hands at Every Age
Early Childhood Program
Our early childhood class (ages 4-5) is guided by song throughout the day as children are gently transitioned from circle time, to free play, to cooking, to painting, or to handwork, depending upon which day it is. While children play and have circle time every day, also helping prepare a daily snack and take an afternoon rest, each day of the week promises a consistent routine for them: Monday is handwork day, Tuesday painting day, and so on. By establishing strong rhythms for the children, the early childhood teacher and her assistant create a routine that will harmoniously carry the children through each day. The teachers also practice creating a mood of calmness and wonder within themselves to establish a harmonious atmosphere that will allow the children to explore their world in a healthy way.
While the early childhood class eats a morning meal with the grades children and may occasionally join them for a special presentation or game, they primarily stay within their realm of quiet wonder with their own teachers until they are old enough to join the grades' classes. Those in the early childhood program often attend half-day, though they are welcome full-day.
Outdoor Waldorf Enrichment Classes
Children in grades 1-7 begin the day with an organic, plant-based meal before engaging in a rotation of three morning classes designed to cover all aspects of the Waldorf main lesson: an academic session, a movement session, and an arts session (drawing/watercolor/clay). Our three rotation groups are mixed-grade according to ability level.
After recess and snack, we have a story drawn from the traditional Waldorf humanities curriculum, which orients our monthly unit of study. The day closes with an arts intensive thematically matched to the main lesson, provided by our community partners: Modern Folk Art Studios, Be Me Theatrics, Peace of Mind Meditations, and others.
We emphasize the magic and wonder of storytelling as a key pedagogical tool because children learn through stories that bring them mental pictures and feelings that they will explore within the unit of study. Each day, they use their Main Lesson sketchbook to write, draw, or calculate something derived from the previous day's story, discovering and playing with the concepts introduced. Special attention is given to creating detailed, meticulous work in the page lay-out, border design, and lesson activity, as this main lesson book serves as the child's own textbook.
See our block schedule for 2022-2023 to see the Waldorf curriculum we are covering this year.
Children's Arts Intensives
One of the most beautiful aspects of Waldorf-based pedagogy is that children are given so many different opportunities to develop their skills for creative expression. The children at MUYA draw, paint, sculpt, act, sew, meditate, learn foreign languages, take eurythmy, learn capoeira, and play in nature. The skills they learn from these classes are highlighted at bi-monthly community presentations and performances. Families who do not want the morning academic work but are interested in afternoon arts intensives sign up directly with the teachers we partner with. See our community leaders page for links to sign up.
This year, MUYA is also offering Artisan Days where children not enrolled in MUYA programs can visit and participate in a day-long art workshop. Contact us for information on upcoming artisan days!
Adult Activities and Classes
MUYA families are primarily brought together out of a desire to place their children in a community that shares their values of protecting childhood, learning through arts and nature education, and building lasting friendships. And since we often end up friends with our children's friends, our MUYA parents schedule time to learn and play together as well. See our Events page for upcoming activities!
Naturalist Fridays
Most Fridays, members of the Muya Community Center are invited to participate in a family hike in a local Orange County park. This provides opportunity to share knowledge about the local flora and fauna, to connect with each other through stories and play, and to explore the natural world around us together. Naturalist Friday is a free event for Muya community members, though visitors are welcome at a drop-in rate. Contact us to join a family hike!
