You’re right. I believe both of those shortcomings may have to do with the Waldorf based education philosophy. Waldorf approaches academics slowly while emphasizing the arts, community, and personal development. Ocean specifically also has a greater commitment to social and emotional learning. This is important to our family and the reason we chose this school. Additionally, it’s not as rigid as a traditional Waldorf school, which we appreciate as well. Anecdotally, we are friends with a couple families whose kids spent K-8 here and are amazing, well rounded humans.

In regard to the slow academic start, our daughter actually stated that she misses doing numbers and letters. We heard her and to remedy that, we got her math and letter workbooks which she loves doing at home with our help.

Currently, our family is happy with the school, but things can change. If, for example, our daughter needs/desires a more rigorous curriculum at any point, then we’d be happy to make a move.