VISION
AN OASIS FOR THE YOUNG CHILD
Laying the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing
our pedagogical impulses
The Center’s methodology is inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy and, in addition, draws on other teaching approaches, such as nature-based education, recent scientific findings in neuroscience and psychology, as well as our own experiences and observations in working with children. We base our educational approach on a constant quest to improve our practices, with the aim of enriching our understanding of human development and providing children with appropriate support.
Our aim is to support children in their overall development: physical, cognitive, emotional, relational, social and spiritual.
When we recognize that human beings are more than just our material aspect, we understand that it is the spiritual dimension that nourishes our humanity. This ethical approach to education goes beyond imparting practical knowledge. It emphasizes respect for oneself and others, while nurturing each child’s inherent sense of wonder. By embracing this perspective, we can share essential values with children, such as care for the earth, empathy, and the development of a harmonious relationship with the world around them.
For us, the spiritual dimension means above all, having an experience of deep connection with life itself, independent of any religion.
creating a unique place together
Community
Our community is created in relationship with the local space and community. Each family is invited to consider Centre Pastel as a space for sharing their family culture (traditions, food, celebrations).
At the Centre Pastel, celebrations unfold around the rhythm of the earth. Seasonal holidays of our geographic location and our center’s community are celebrated in a meaningful way.
Our intention is that every member of the community should see themselves represented within this community.
Environment
Centre Pastel provides a “home-like” environment that provides warmth and safety for the young child during this delicate time from birth to age 10. Children are in daily contact with nature, mainly in the garden, with occasional outings to Mount Royal throughout the week for various activities. This natural and stimulating environment allows them to play, explore in complete freedom, and hone their curiosity and independence.
Offering children an authentic connection with nature is essential to Centre Pastel: through activities such as wildlife observation, gardening, woodworking using materials gathered on-site, and creative outdoor play.
Inter-generational
A special feature of Centre Pastel is the presence of elderly people with the children, some afternoons. It provides the opportunity to the child to learn from adults about the life that the child is discovering. Sharing moments with the elderly enriches and illuminates the development of the young child.
PROMOTING EDUCATIONAL VALUES BASED ON KNOWLEDGE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Doing, Feeling, Thinking
At Centre Pastel, contact with nature and the arts is at the heart of experiential learning. Humans connect with the world not only through thinking, but also through feeling and doing. The heart, in fact, lies on the path leading from the head to the hands.
“Knowing” is more than just intellectualizing concepts. At Centre Pastel, we nurture creativity by providing space and time for playful engagement in everyday life. The whole being of the young child is thus awakened in their thinking, feeling, and capacity for initiative.
At Centre Pastel, learning and integration of a wide range of skills is achieved through group collaboration on everyday tasks such as gardening, cooking, creating and mending.
Fulfilling a Child’s Potential
Centre Pastel is a non-profit organization created in 2024 that aims to help children up to the age of 10 year, to reach their full potential. This short period lays the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing.
Like a tree in its seed stage, a young child needs enough time to grow its roots, and develop its strengths and uprightness. At Centre Pastel, just like in nature, we cherish childhood by offering a nuturing and intimate environment, in which the child can unfold and develop all their strength and full potential.
Avoiding screens at this young age
We believe that it is essential to preserve time and space for our children to enjoy the deep experiences that are essential to childhood and a healthy early development. To enable young children to remain fully anchored in their childhood experiences, we avoid the use of screens.
WHO ARE WE?
Prune DESGEORGES
Educator
Co-founder
My first years of primary school were pivotal in my life and in inspiring this project. I had the privilege of doing my elementary education from first to fifth (or 1st to 5th – but consistent) grade, in a school at Mont Boron in the hills of Nice, France. Our schoolmaster and his wife welcomed some forty pupils in 2 multi-age classes. These very warm and enriching moments nourished my dream of creating a family educational environment in a human, intergenerational climate.
My inspiration continued to be enriched during the last 10 years, when I had the opportunity to study and teach Steiner pedagogy. While raising my two children, I devoted my time to learning more about this fascinating pedagogy from experienced teachers and colleagues.
These experiences have strengthened my conviction that nurturing these moments of childhood is so important.
Develop young children’s creativity in a simple, natural environment : this is the vocation of Centre Pastel, a center for co-education with parents.
Anke SCHEINFELD
Educational Consultant
Co-founder
Dr. Anke Scheinfeld has been an early childhood educator for over two decades. She received her Masters in Early Childhood Steiner Education from Sunbridge College. Prior to teaching, Anke worked as a physician and researcher in Germany, Great Britain, and the USA.
Anke is also the ideal contact for english-speaking families of the Centre Pastel.
Ludovic LE DRAOULLEC
Administration
Finances
Choosing the education given to your kid. Choosing freely and conscientiously. It’s a process that no longer seems as free as it once was. So many parents seem resigned to endure an education with a system, public or private, whose shortcomings, flaws and challenges they grudgingly tolerate.
It’s only with the arrival of my children that I’ve grasped the importance of the daily food they are given. And I’m not talking about meals. I’m talking about learning, discovery, awakening, everything that is born and learned with the help of adults, arts and nature. I want to believe, and I invite everyone to believe, that something else is possible. That anything is possible, and that the education of our children is always something to be rethought, explored and improved.
The project to create Centre Pastel is part of this irresistible desire to create and offer the most enriching experience for young children.
Website, administration, conformity, finances, gardening: in keeping with my skills, which go beyond being a lawyer in civil practice in downtown Montreal, I’m committed to support this vision so that the project can flourish and blossom in a thousand ways.
Long live Centre Pastel.
WHAT’S NEXT ?
We have the impetus to offer more opportunities for involvement for the elderly, to nurture intergenerational links that are so precious and enriching for all.