Movement Jumpstarts the Brain – Flipping the Learning Switch at Blue Oak School with S’cool Moves

“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able, of themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives.” Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)

Today, parents have choices about their child’s education that would have been unavailable or unaffordable a decade ago. In addition to public education, government-subsidized education now allows districts to offer charter schools and independent study. Parents can also choose to homeschool or enroll their child in one of several types of private schools or homeschooling programs. With research, parents can custom-fit an education for their child, most especially in the elementary and middle school grades.

Blue Oak School (Chico, CA), a Waldorf-Inspired public charter (blueoakcharterschool.org), understands that making choices about your child’s education is one of the most important decisions you make. “Public Waldorf” is a service-mark of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, and Blue Oak School is a certified member. Waldorf, or Steiner, schools came into existence in Europe 100 years ago, and the first American Waldorf school was established in 1928. For decades, a Waldorf education was both geographically and financially out of the reach of most families. But, in 1994 the first state-funded Waldorf-inspired school opened in Nevada City, CA. Over the past two decades, many school districts nationwide have been inspired to open a charter version of their own. In the North State, Waldorf-inspired education is garnering increased interest every year with more educators and more parents working together to bring this holistic approach to education into their districts.

One of the vital aspects of public Waldorf schools is the focus on the children themselves. Both knowledge of early childhood development and daily qualitative assessment guide staff toward educating the individual student rather than blanketing classrooms with a collective dependence on curricula.

At Blue Oak School, educators are offering a program that integrates teaching intellectual concepts with movement and sensory processing through offering a program based on movement and sensory processing. This innovative program is called S’cool Moves (schoolmoves.com). S’cool Moves adheres to neuroscientific facts that children need movement to facilitate learning.

Marcia Carter, Blue Oak School’s movement intervention teacher, has been working at Blue Oak School for five years. “I help the children develop a strong foundation for learning, self-regulation, self-confidence and reading readiness skills through a fun and challenging movement/sensory processing program.” She lists some of the brain/body integration skills she works on with the children through S’cool Moves: “Deep pressure, focus and listening, heavy work, vestibular system, core postural muscles, crossing the midline, vision skills, and auditory-vision integration.” She adds, “These are the skills needed to build a strong foundation for all higher levels of learning. So many children are struggling in school because they are using too much of their cognitive energy on processing that should be automatic. Children who are struggling with academic or behavior challenges usually have some underlying issue that is taking energy away from them being able to learn with ease.

“I’ve had the amazing gift of studying under many experts in the field of mind/body connection,” Marcia explains during a passionate discourse about her 45-year long devotion to children and movement. “I’ve learned about movement and its impact on learning and thinking for all ages.” She developed a program called Rolling into Reading in collaboration with Dr. Debra Em Wilson, reading specialist and author of several books on therapy-based academic and behavior support in the classroom.

“Blue Oak is an exceptional school offering children sensory processing, games, music, arts, handwork and a positive atmosphere for children to learn,” she attests. “No child should have to struggle through school or life because they didn’t have enough cognitive energy to focus and process information at the same time.”

Marcia says, “Blue Oak was the only school that believed in my work and believed in the work of Deb Wilson. The administrator and the entire Blue Oak staff are dedicated and supportive. The parents are amazing.” Marcia works four days a week at the school with equipment the school purchased for the program. “What I see? Through movement, children learn skills that help them move through school with ease. We have the proof, the before and afters. We track the scores and assessments; we know that even after just eight weeks, there is measurable improvement and that what has changed is retained.”

In today’s modern world, movement has become a secondary experience for too many children; young minds are immersed in screen time, attending daycare and spending less free time in physical activity or playtime. Marcia works with all the Blue Oak kindergartners and first-graders as well as those students assessed and referred to the program by their teachers. Marcia’s 30-minute sessions are filled with movement. Jumping and dancing, forward rolls and supermans are some of the lessons taught and learned.

Marcia meets with parents and leads parent and child movement seminars. She tells families, “At home? Less TV, fewer screens. We put this emphasis on education as though sitting at desks is the only way to learn, and then we send kids home with more desk work in the form of homework. Kids need to get outside and play every day, even if it’s at the park. Let them swing and climb. Best place to go to give your sensory system a workout? A fun place is a trampoline park or gymnastics center.”

If you would like to learn more about public Waldorf education so that you can consider Blue Oak School for your child, guided school tours with a follow-up discussion are being offered on the following Wednesday mornings:  February 20, March 27, April 17, and May 15. Call to reserve your spot (530) 879-7483 ext. 2001.