Waldorf in the Home

Waldorf education is a worldwide system of education for preschool through grade 12 developed from the indications of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner, an Austrian scientist, educator and writer, turned his attention to education after the First World War at the request of Emil Molt, who helped him found a school for the children of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart in 1919. The impulse for "Waldorf education," as it came to be called, spread throughout Europe, with the first school in America being founded in New York City in 1928.

There are many things you can do as parents to provide a naturally enriched environment for your young child. Neuropsychologist Jane Healy states, "The brain tends to seek out what it needs at each stage of development. Why not trust the child's brain to seek out the stimulation it needs from a naturally enriched environment?" (Your Child's Growing Mind. A Practical Guide to Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence). Here are some simple ways to do this:

LifeWays "Basic Practices" are based on the LifeWays Principles. They are equally appicable in the home and childcare settings.

General Practices
~ LifeWays practices are based upon the fundamental need for relationship-based care (bonding and continuity), neurological research, and recognition of living arts (domestic, nurturing, creative and social arts) as central to the advancement of children's social, emotional and intellectual skills. These practices can be applied in parenting, in family childcare homes, and in childcare centers.
~ In child care, "suites" consist of small groups of children who stay together with the same caregivers over a several-year period, creating a more homelike atmosphere and better teacher-child ratios.

The name "LifeWays" grew from the realization that what young children need most is the routine activities of a healthy home life, bathed in the warmth of secure relationships - whether they are at home or in childcare. Blessing to use the name was given by Gudrun Davy, Bons Voors, Patti Smith and Signe Schaefer (editors of the two Lifeways books) and Lee Sturgeon-Day, who uses the name in her biography and counseling work. With their blessing in place, the first LifeWays Center was opened in Wisconsin in September 1998 as a pilot childcare project for children three months to six years old and host to the first LifeWays training.

LifeWays North America is a multi-service organization providing consulting and training for family childcare providers, childcare centers and parents caring for children from birth to 6 years of age. LifeWays suggests that too often the missing ingredients are consistency, warmth, and long lasting relationships revolving around the care of young children in a community of mutual support for the adults who care for them. LifeWays contributes a powerful voice to the early care arena by focusing on nurturing infants, young children and families in mixed-age, family style childcare settings. The heart of LifeWays childcare is the "Family Suite" in which children and caregivers develop long term relationships in an environment that protects childhood and enhances optimal physical, socio-emotional and cognitive growth and health.

The LifeWays Child Care and Human Development Training is a specialized program developed specifically for this new approach to child care and parent education. Along with the study of child development from pre-birth to young adult, there is an emphasis on the training of the caregiver's speech, voice and movement skills, handwork, and domestic arts, as well as social exercises dealing with cultural diversity, personal development and adult relationships. There is also a component on government regulations and requirements for both in-home and center locations. Ongoing continuing-education programs enhance the initial training.

What was it that day, twenty years ago, when my young son came running into the house, eyes widened, breathless, and full of both wonder and trepidation? What had he seen? He tried to describe it - a shadow, but not really a shadow. It moved quickly, and then it was gone. It had looked at him!

To the young child, everything has "being-ness" - and nowhere more than in the world of nature. It is a world that can at once delight, awe and even frighten. And children cannot get enough of it! A favorite story is one I heard from a friend in Denmark who described a toddler who spent half an hour exploring a knothole in a tree. His finger went in; it came back out. It went in again; came back out again.

One of the hallmarks of LifeWays Child Care is the family-style approach. By caring for children in small groups of varying ages, the child's daily experience is much more natural and home-like than the institutionalized and program-oriented care that is prevalent today. Through the inspiration of Steiner's research in child development and current research on brain development and the importance of bonding, we recognize that this model of care supports the healthy development of the child.

The following are two anecdotal stories from students who are currently in the LifeWays Child Care and Human Development training in Wisconsin. They each offer child care in their homes, and one is preparing to open a LifeWays Center in Milwaukee next year.

Waldorf education poses certain answers to the question "How will our children be able to cope with the challenges of an increasingly technological world? How will they be able to determine its proper uses and avoid its misuses?