There is an registration fee of $100 USD per year. It is paid during the first 5 days of each month by check payable to Tracy Finch or Joseph Ryan “Sacuanjoche Kindergarten” or cash in dollars or córdobas.

Enrolment to Sacuanjoche Kindergarten is open to anyone but the fees ($100 per month) exclude much of the local population, although the tuition is very low compared to the costs related to having highly skilled teachers as well as providing spacious and lovely surroundings and good quality materials for the children to work with during projects, Click here to see the Project Proposal.

This is why donations and sponsorships are so important for us. We hope this way to be able to offer this unique education to as many Nicaraguans as possible. Also, through the training of local kindergarten teachers, we want to ensure the sustainability of the project, as well as making sure that the skill and art of Steiner Waldorf pedagogy will be locally available in Nicaragua in the future.

The initiative for the Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten in Granada was born out of a desire to be able to provide this kind of freeing and enabling environment for our children - had we been living in our home countries of Denmark, England or the United States, we would have placed our children in a Waldorf environment. However, living here, we want to provide the same opportunity to children from Nicaraguan families, especially those from less fortunate backgrounds who cannot normally chose any alternative to the authoritarian and religious based school system which exists here.

The founding sets of parents have all lived and worked in Granada, Nicaragua for over seven years. During this time we have started families here and are now trying to provide our children, and others, with as good an education as we possibly can. On September 4th 2006, Nicaragua’s first Waldorf school, Sacuanjoche Kindergarten, opened its doors. We have already grown, and more families, both local and foreign, have engaged in the creation of this Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten.

Countless people have helped remodel and redecorate the old, colonial house that is the premise for Sacuanjoche Kindergarten, from foreigners who have given work or money, to local craftsmen and-women who have helped in kind. Local artists have helped paint and also give classes to the children. During the work weekends, children, parents and teachers have made toys for the children and kept improving the surroundings for the children. We are profoundly grateful for all of this help.

Being the first Steiner Waldorf initiative in Nicaragua, we are dependent on foreign teachers. Currently we have a Swedish teacher, Lise-Lott Lupieri, who has more than 25 years of experience in working with children. Lise-Lott has already worked 5 years in Nicaragua and speaks fluent Spanish as well as English and Swedish.

Victoria Miranda has a Bachelors degree in sociology and has a lot of experience in social work with young people and women. She has one year of experience in the Sacuanjoche Waldorf Kindergarten and is in the process of formal education as Steiner Waldorf pedagogue in the Centro Antropológico Cuernavaca, in Mexico. Victoria is Nicaraguan.

Jackeline Roblero, also from Nicaragua, is the maternal level teacher and has several years of work experience in her field.

Ricardo Lezama, Nicaraguan, leads the carpentry classes and the gardening with the children in the ecological kitchen garden in Sacuanjoche Waldorf Kindergarten. He has been working in the Kindergarten for a year now.

Valeria Rojas has several years of experience with the work with children at maternal level. Furthermore, she has a Bachelors Degree and teaches at a local university in Granada.

In the Sacuanjoche Waldorf Kindergarten we have a study group for self-education and self-development for the teachers as well as interested parents. Other people with interest in the Steiner Waldorf pedagogy are also welcome to participate.