Cynthia Aldinger has contributed many articles to this blog. She is the founder and Director of LifeWays North America and worked for many years as a Waldorf early childhood and parenting educator. She writes:
When I was pregnant with my firstborn son about three decades ago, I developed a passion for learning all I could about Waldorf education and child development. When he and his brother were 9 and 7 years old, his father and I had the privilege of moving to Sussex, England where I completed my Waldorf teacher training at Emerson College.
Since then I have been involved professionally in Waldorf, first as the founding teacher of Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Wisconsin and now as Executive Director of LifeWays North America. You can learn more about LifeWays at www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org. I also served on the Board of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America for fourteen years.
I loved being a kindergarten teacher--especially the nature walks, the stories and the festivals. However, when I was on my sabbatical in England, a good friend, a successful businessman, asked me one of those life-changing questions. The question: "What are you going to do about child care?" He and a number of his business acquaintances were concerned about the quality of child care in Great Britain and the States, feeling that childhood itself was at stake. They felt there was too much emphasis on formal learning and not enough on quality of life and practical life skills.
In 1998, with the help of many individuals, I opened the first LifeWays Child Care Center in East Troy, Wisconsin, supporting families who needed care for their children from three months to six years old. I also began laying the groundwork for the development of a LifeWays training for parents, grandparents, child care providers, parent educators and preschool teachers. Since that time LifeWays has grown in response to the tremendous need for support for childcare providers and for parents.
In 2000, I moved with my husband back to my birth State of Oklahoma and became an active LifeWays consultant, traveling throughout North America and abroad. We now have trainings in six locations. Recently, I was blessed by the opportunity to live with my parents and my grandmother who is 104. Having the chance to help with the care of my grandmother reminded me of the importance of having predictable routines and rhythms in daily life. They provide a sense of security to both young children and the elderly. In many ways, it truly is the simple things in life that count!
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