Aspies For Freedom

Actually, I loved school cafeterias!  At my old middle school we would wait in lines that backed up the stairwells, and every couple of minutes the line would begin to move again, and we would gradually get closer to that wonderful steam-table smell :smile:  & the food which I never minded & quite often liked.  I do not have sensory problems and tend to be somewhat "tuned out" wherever I go, which is probably why the noise & crowding didn't bother me.  I would just get my food, eat & think, usually alone, PLEASANTLY alone, in the midst of the mob.  Nice.

but Hotdog special tastes good in cafeterias :lol:

You must REALLY have loved the teachers' lounge, then!  Did your school have one?  Ours did, and the fun part of the long lunch-line wait would happen when a teacher cut across our line to enter the lounge...the door would open and we'd see vaguely humanoid figures moving about in a thick fog of CIGARETTE SMOKE!!!  Hold your breath, kids!!! :razz: Yeah, those were the days...smoke everywhere!  Nowadays I'm not sure a teacher could even smoke in the parking lot!

When I was homeschooling my son (and now with my art school - I offer a nature based arts integrated preschool program three days a week) I utilized waldorf - and http://www.enkieducation.org 's materials to craft my curriculum and approach.

A waldorf kindergarten is so welcoming it is just downright calming.  First of all there are no "educational posters" all over the place.  The walls are pretty well left blank and they are painted in soft pastel colours.  There are no electric lights on at all.  They use natural fibre materials - wood, wool, silk, cotton for furniture and surfaces.  Corners and high ceilings are lowered and softened with parachute like cloth.  The furniture is child sized (in mine I don't have chairs, I have a japanese table and floor cushions as well as a few one legged stools for fidgety kids).

The toys are natural - mainly unformed natural items like pine cones, stones, dyed sheeps wool, simple unformed dolls, wooden animals and pieces of cloth.   Classrooms are equipped with playstands which are like blanket stands and big clips that let children make little houses and cubbies.  outside the children are given similarly open ended playthings and their children's playspaces are very natural with big deep sandboxes, and quiet cubby like spaces for solitary play as well as room for large muscle activities like swinging, running etc.

The programming is based on a seasonal rhythm and each day includes free play, an artistic activity, oral storytelling, outdoor time, and a circle that focusses on sensory integration activities.  Everything is done very...quietly.  Teachers use songs and patterned transitions between activities.  Its very predictable for the children and the rhythm is determined by observation of the children in the group, not an externally dictated timetable.  

There are no school bells.  Children stay with the same teacher for several years.  I think its a really great physical environment, even though the curriculum is not perfectly suited to Asperger type personalities (no computers til high school!).