2021-2022 MWS Kindergarten Packet

Welcome

Kindergarten 2021-2022

Dear Kindergarten Parents, We take great delight in welcoming your family to our kindergarten community. We eagerly look forward to introducing you to our kindergartens as we begin our time together.

Creating a bridge between home and school through a common picture of what is important for healthy childhood is essential to Waldorf education. It is our hope that we can work together to deepen our understanding of how to nurture and support your children during their first seven years of life.

We begin the year with a parent orientation evening in the late summer (dates to be determined) and follow up with regularly scheduled parent evenings throughout the year. It is our expectation that every family attend these evenings. This is vital to maintain communication and to build a healthy community of parents and teachers.

If you are transitioning into Marin Waldorf School or are new to Waldorf education, you will find that we strive to provide and promote a quality environment for the developing young child. We hope that you will use these summer days as an opportunity to take up or renew your commitment to minimizing screen time and encouraging healthy habits of connection with nature, the outdoors and each other. We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of freeing the children from media influence in order for the children to fully benefit from this education. Our ideal is no media!

In this folder you will find the following: ● ● ● ● ●

Items Needed for Kindergarten Sewing Instructions 2020-2021 Calendar (Draft) Immunization Requirements Articles (for new kindergarten families): “Play and its role in the Mental Development of the Child” “The Four-Year-Old-Child” “The Five-Year-Old Child” “The Six-Year-Old Child” “The Seven-Year-Old Transformation” “Daily Rhythm at Home and its Lifelong Relevance

If you have any questions over the summer, please feel free to contact our front office staff at 415479-8190, or email Robin Boynosky, front office manager, at office@marinwaldorf.org with

general questions, or Julie Meade, registrar, at registrar@marinwaldorf.org, for questions about immunizations, aftercare, and school records.

You may contact us by emailing Marieke Duijneveld at mariekeduijneveld@marinwaldorf.org or Nicole Mathers at nicolemathers@marinwaldorf.org, and we will get back to you at our earliest convenience.

With Warm Regards, Marieke Duijneveld (Morning Glory), Nicole Mathers (Hollyhock), and Greta Jee (Manzanita) Kindergarten Teachers

Things to Know for Kindergarten 2021 Food (Allergies, Lunches) Every day in the kindergarten, we prepare a fresh, warm snack in the classroom and eat it at the tables together. If your child has allergies or special dietary needs, please let the teachers know in writing as soon as possible. Depending on the foods that are restricted, it may be necessary to provide alternative snacks for your child to eat during our shared snack time.

Lunch should be healthy and substantial. Please do not send candy, chocolate, or sugary prepackaged foods such as bars, kettle corn, fruit yogurts etc. We ask that you use reusable containers whenever possible. Please label your containers.

Birthdays We celebrate birthdays as close to the actual day as possible. Parents are invited to participate in the celebration. The birthday ceremony includes a story highlighting events from your child’s life or qualities of the development of your child’s individuality. You will receive more detailed information as your child’s birthday approaches.

To minimize any social difficulties, arrangements for non-school celebrations should be handled outside of school and with sensitivity. Also, please send invitations in the mail; do not deliver them at school. Personal gift-giving among the children should also be done outside of school.

Health & Illness In accordance with the school policy, and for everyone’s well being, children with contagious diseases, fevers, streaming noses, nausea, diarrhea, etc., need to stay home until fully recovered (usually one full day free of symptoms). Sick children will be sent home.

Please notify the office if your child has been diagnosed with a contagious disease, including strep throat, pink eye, and hand, foot, and mouth.

Media We value the creative imagination of childhood and to that extent encourage all families to strive towards an environment where the child can explore, wonder and experience wholesome activities without the use of electronic media.

Dress Code Kindergarten children are required to follow the all school dress code. (Please refer to the Parent Handbook, available from the front office, for more information.) In addition, please see the “play clothes” section of the Items Needed for Kindergarten.

Items Needed for Kindergarten Your child will need the following items, all labeled your with child’s name. Please read on for more detailed descriptions of each item. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Shoes – Inside & Outside Hats – Sun & cold weather Raingear – Ideally a rainsuit or raincoat, hat/hood, boots, and rain pants Backpack (like REI Tarn 12 or similar) Water bottle Clothes bag (sewing instructions included) An entire change of clothes in clothes bag (socks, underwear, short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirt, shorts, and pants) 2 place mats and 2 napkins (sewing instructions included)

Inside Shoes It is very important that the children wear appropriate inside shoes. The children wear them when inside the classroom. After trying many styles throughout the years, we can strongly recommend slip-on, rubbersoled shoes like Keds or Soft Star Roo Moccasins.

Sturdy Outside Shoes We run, jump, climb, hike, and play hard. Our ability to move freely is of utmost importance in the kindergarten. Shoes need to be easy to get on and off as well as sturdy enough so that your child can comfortably participate in all kindergarten activities. High-topped sneakers, shoes with commercial characters, sling-back sandals, clogs, dress-up shoes, light-up shoes, and anything flimsy are not appropriate.

The children’s shoes play a crucial role in supporting motor development, so please choose them with care. A basic, sturdy sneaker is ideal. Laced shoes are also ideal, both for support and for the opportunity they provide to practice tying bows. This is a wonderful way to establish the kind of motor skills needed for writing and other fine motor skills in the future. We expect all 6-year-olds to be capable of properly tying their shoes, and ask you to help in teaching them.

Raingear: Raincoat, Hat or Hood, Boots, and Rain Pants Our daily rhythm provides ample outside time, even in the rainy season. One-piece rain suits by companies like Tuffo or Oki work best. They are easy to put on and take off and are incredibly compact so they can fit in our cubbies. If you need to make another choice, know that raingear should fit properly and snap or button comfortably. Many hooded raincoats don’t fit well around the neck, so check when

purchasing. Please don’t send umbrellas to school with the children. We have found that snow boots are not good rainy-weather protection for the children’s feet. Rubber or plastic rain boots are essential on rainy days, as is warmth, so dress the children in multiple layers as well as rainwear. We can strongly recommend the following as good options: ● ● ● ●

Tuffo Muddy Buddy - tuffo.com Oaki - oaki.com Puddlegear - puddlegear.com Biddle and Bop - biddleandbop.com/pages/rain-gear-helps

Lunch Basket The children bring their own lunch each day. As we take great care to create a wholesome, natural environment, we ask that you send their lunch in a natural rattan basket, preferably covered. We sell an appropriately sized, easy-to-clean basket in the office. Please mark the outside in some way so that we can easily recognize it as your child’s. You might consider using some of the same ribbon or calico from your sewing to make a tag of some kind that can hang on the basket handle. If purchasing in another style, remember that your child’s lunch should fit easily inside.

Clothes Bag On the first day of school, please bring your child’s change of clothes and inside shoes as well as placemats, napkins, apron, towel and bandana. If sewing is a fearful proposition, please let us know and we will do our best to find a fellow parent to assist you.

Please make these according to the specifications provided. See instructions in this packet.

Play Clothes Please choose sturdy clothing for your child’s school wardrobe. Children need to be able to move comfortably and keep warm. Logos and media characters on the children’s clothes are not acceptable.

Refer to the all school dress code found in our Parent Handbook or available from the front office. In the kindergarten it is especially important that the children have free access to their own imaginations and not be distracted by their clothes. Please don’t send your child to school in jewelry, watches, or tattoos, and keep hair accessories simple and functional. These things do not add to the quality of play and are a distraction.

Natural fibers such as cotton, silk, linen and wool are ideal as they absorb moisture and hold body temperature well. We have found that many light layers are far superior to heavy jackets, which tend to be worn open so that the chest and abdomen are cold, and the arms are hot; healthy movement is also impeded. A fleece or wool vest over layers is a much better solution for proper warmth in our changeable California weather. Hats for warmth in winter and sun protection in summer are essential.

Enough can’t be said about the impact that the environment has on the development of young children.

The more care we take with what the children eat, wear, touch, see, hear and do, the stronger and healthier they will become. Of course you needn’t go out and spend a lot of money on a new wardrobe, but as you are looking to buy new things over the summer or course of the year, keep these parameters in mind.

Please leave all toys, money, jewelry, “little treasures” and valued items at home.

Labels or Name Tags All the children’s clothing and personal items need to be properly labeled. Please get in the habit of labeling, in an easy to find place, everything that comes to school. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LABEL EVERYTHING!

Kindergarten Sewing Instructions 2021-2022

You will make: 2 single-layer napkins, 15" square 2 double-sided placemats, 12" by 16" 1 double-sided apron (*apron not required for all K classes—please check with your teacher) 1 single-layer bandanna, 24" square 1 cubby bag for a change of clothes 16" square wash cloth with a handmade loop for hanging Purchase: 2 and½ yads of cotton calico, at least 45" wide in a pattern appropriate for kindergarten ¾ yard of coordinating solid color cotton, at least 45" wide, of similar weight 3 ½ yards of 5/8" grosgrain ribbon in a coordinating color Terry cloth or fabric wash cloth

Preshrinking the cotton fabric You will preshrink the fabric twice. This will help the items to hold their shape through the weekly washing process. Remember, some of these items will be washed and dried weekly in many various laundry conditions. If they placemats are not pre-shrunk, they often become very unattractive, as the front and back shrink differently and make for a sloppy place setting.

PRESHRINK THE FABRIC by getting it wet and drying it in a hot dryer.

PRESHRINK THE FABRIC AGAIN. Yes, really, again. Just do it.

Stop! Did you preshrink your fabric ... twice? Good!

CALIFORNIA IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS FOR

K – 12 TH GRADE GRADE K-12 Admission (7th-12th)8

(including transitional kindergarten)

NUMBER OF DOSES REQUIRED OF EACH IMMUNIZATION1, 2, 3 4 Polio4

5 DTaP5

K-12 doses

3 Hep B6

2 MMR7

2 Varicella

+ 1 Tdap

7th Grade Advancement9,10

1 Tdap8

1. Requirements for K-12 admission also apply to transfer pupils.

2. Combination vaccines (e.g., MMRV) meet the requirements for individual component vaccines. Doses of DTP count towards the DTaP requirement.

3. Any vaccine administered four or fewer days prior to the minimum required age is valid.

4. Three doses of polio vaccine meet the requirement if one dose was given on or after the 4th birthday.

5. Four doses of DTaP meet the requirement if at least one dose was given on or after the 4th birthday. Three doses meet the requirement if at least one dose of Tdap, DTaP, or DTP vaccine was given on or after the 7th birthday (also meets the 7th-12th grade Tdap requirement. See fn. 8.)

2 Varicella10

One or two doses of Td vaccine given on or after the 7th birthday count towards the K-12 requirement.

6. For 7th grade admission, refer to Health and Safety Code section 120335, subdivision (c).

7. Two doses of measles, two doses of mumps, and one dose of rubella vaccine meet the requirement, separately or combined. Only doses administered on or after the 1st birthday meet the requirement.

8. For 7th-12th graders, at least one dose of pertussis-containing vaccine is required on or after the 7th birthday.

9. For children in ungraded schools, pupils 12 years and older are subject to the 7th grade advancement requirements.

10. The varicella requirement for seventh grade advancement expires after June 30, 2025.

DTaP/Tdap = diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis vaccine Hep B = hepatitis B vaccine MMR = measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine Varicella = chickenpox vaccine

INSTRUCTIONS: California schools are required to check immunization records for all new student admissions at TK /Kindergarten through 12th grade and all students advancing to 7th grade before entry. Students entering 7th grade who had a personal beliefs exemption on file must meet the requirements for TK/K-12 and 7th grade. See shotsforschool.org for more information.

UNCONDITIONALLY ADMIT a pupil whose parent or guardian has provided documentation of any of the following for each immunization required for the pupil’s age or grade as defined in table above: • Receipt of immunization.

• A permanent medical exemption.* • A personal beliefs exemption (filed in CA prior to 2016); this is valid until enrollment in the next grade span, typically at TK/K or 7th grade.† CONDITIONALLY ADMIT any pupil who lacks documentation for unconditional admission if the pupil has: • Commenced receiving doses of all the vaccines required for the pupil’s grade (table above) and is not currently due for any doses at the time of admission (as determined by intervals listed in Conditional Admission Schedule, column entitled “EXCLUDE IF NOT GIVEN BY”), or • A temporary medical exemption from some or all required immunizations.* IMM-231 (1/21)

California Department of Public Health • Immunization Branch • ShotsForSchool.org

CALIFORNIA IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS FOR K-12TH GRADE (continued)

CONDITIONAL ADMISSION SCHEDULE FOR GRADES K-12 Before admission a child must obtain the first dose of each required vaccine and any subsequent doses that are due because the period of time allowed before exclusion has elapsed.

DOSE

EARLIEST DOSE MAY BE GIVEN

EXCLUDE IF NOT GIVEN BY

Polio #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

Polio #31

4 weeks after 2nd dose

12 months after 2nd dose

Polio #4

6 months after 3rd dose

12 months after 3rd dose

DTaP #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

DTaP #32

4 weeks after 2nd dose

8 weeks after 2nd dose

DTaP #4

6 months after 3rd dose

12 months after 3rd dose

DTaP #5

6 months after 4th dose

12 months after 4th dose

Hep B #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

Hep B #3

8 weeks after 2nd dose and at least 4 months after 1st dose

12 months after 2nd dose

MMR #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

4 months after 1st dose

Varicella #2

Age less than 13 years: 3 months after 1st dose

4 months after 1st dose

Age 13 years and older: 4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

1

1. Three doses of polio vaccine meet the requirement if one dose was given on or after the fourth birthday. If polio #3 is the final required dose, polio #3 should be given at least six months after polio #2.

2. If DTaP #3 is the final required dose, DTaP #3 should be given at least six months after DTaP #2, and pupils should be excluded if not given by 12 months after second dose. Three doses meet the requirement if at least one dose of Tdap, DTaP, or DTP vaccine was given on or after the seventh birthday. One or two doses of Td vaccine given on or after the seventh birthday count towards the requirement.

Continued attendance after conditional admission is contingent upon documentation of receipt of the remaining required immunizations. The school shall: • review records of any pupil admitted conditionally to a school at least every 30 days from the date of admission, • inform the parent or guardian of the remaining required vaccine doses until all required immunizations are received or an exemption is filed, and • update the immunization information in the pupil’s record.

For a pupil transferring from another school in the United States whose immunization record has not been received by the new school at the time of admission, the school may admit the child for up to 30 school days. If the immunization record has not been received at the end of this period, the school shall exclude the pupil until the parent or guardian provides documentation of compliance with the requirements.

Questions? * In accordance with 17 CCR sections 6050-6051 and Health and Safety Code sections 120370-120372.

See the California Immunization Handbook at ShotsForSchool.org

† In accordance with Health and Safety Code section 120335.

IMM-231 (1/21)

California Department of Public Health • Immunization Branch • ShotsForSchool.org

Marin Waldorf School | 2021-2022 CALENDAR 18 -27 Teacher In-Service Days

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1 Dia de Los Muertos 6 *Harvest Faire Set Up Day 7 *Harvest Faire / Daylight Savings 8 Veteran’s Day Observed 17-19 Parent Teacher Conferences 22 -26 Thanksgiving Break 30 Annual Giving Fund Kickoff

MAY W

6 May Faire/Grandparents and Special Friends Day 9 Teacher In Service Day 30 Memorial Day

*Harvest Faire TBD 3 Advent Spiral

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JUNE

No Classes Parent Association Mtg. Teacher In Service Day – No Classes Special Event Board Meeting

8 Last Day of School 10 Graduation

Early Release Days TIMES TBD Sept.8th 2021 Nov. 17-19th 2021 Dec. 17th 2021 Feb. 18th 2022 Apr. 1 2022 June 8 2022

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Daily Rhythm at Home and Its Lifelong Relevance

by Helle Heckmann

As parents of little children, you are often very tired and you get too little sleep, and when you have too little sleep you also have too little energy and then often you give in when you think you should not have done, or you get angry or irritated so you are not present and when you are not present you lose the children and you do not like yourself. To make it easier for you to deal in the daily life with your children there are three important considerations: • • •

To be flexible To set limits (borders) and To observe the same routine everyday

o become flexible is the result of objective inward observation. You may train your flexibility through an inner work where you learn about yourself. In relation to limits, you have to find out them for yourself.

You have to decide what the limits are for your child in your house: time to go to bed, time to eat, what to eat, what language to use in the family and so on. You have to make up your mind about limits beforehand, so, instead of saying “no, no, no…” and becoming angry, you simply do not allow the children to go beyond the limits. You know this is your decision and do not need to be angry. If you are ahead of the child and you see a certain situation coming, with humor and the right gesture or word, you can move away from the situation, and this will be possible if you train your flexibility. Knowing more about yourself will give you the possibility to also be ahead of yourself. When you catch this tool you can start working with your children in a much freer way, because the limits are set.

The third recommendation, to make a routine which is the same every day, gives the child rhythm. All Waldorf families probably know how the daily life is in the nursery and kindergarten. The children go

2|Page through the day in alternate periods of concentration and expansion, as if in a breathing rhythm where there is inhaling and exhaling.

In the inhaling or breathing‐in phase the child directs his attention to an activity that basically relates him to himself. For little children each breathing‐in period (drawing, water painting, and knitting, eating…) is very short because little children can only concentrate for short periods of time. In the exhaling or breathing‐out period, the child relates mainly to the surrounding world (free play, free running etc.). For each breathing‐in period the child needs a breathing‐out period and so a pattern is established. This rhythm is something that you can bring into your home. You have to try to find out when the children breathes‐in and when they breathe‐out. And when the children are in the breathing‐in period, you have to make sure you are present, so the child feels ah, here I feel my parents, they are there for me. After that, for very short time, you can do what you have to do at home and you can tell your child you have to wait because I need to do this. And this will be all right because you know you have been present with the child. As an example, look at the situation when parents pick up their children from the kindergarten. At the very moment you are picking up your child: Does the cell phone ring and you answer? Do you greet your friends and engage in intense talk? If yes, then you are not present for the child. In my last visit to Mexico I saw very few parents really greeting their children, the majority were talking to other parents or engaged in school affairs or talking in their cell phones, or arriving late or in a hurry.

But, for your child who has been gone for five hours and who really wants you… you are not there. So the child screams I want an ice cream! I want this or that! or he starts running around, or falling, or getting into little conflict because he is confused, because he has not really met you. On the contrary, if you take the time (and it is five seconds perhaps), you bend down, give him a hug and then smell him (so lovely!) and really you are there, his eyes will tell you more than words, how his day was. He cannot tell you with words because he cannot remember, but his eyes will tell you everything. And then you take his hand and walk together (of course in a tempo that the child can follow), and this is really lovely because you are making a new nice situation, a “you and I situation.” Now, if you need to greet people you can do it, very shortly, but together with the child because your child will feel I am where I belong, with my parent.

This was a breathing‐in situation where you were present.

Then you go to the car and go home (breathing‐out) and it is probably time for eating which brings again a breathing‐in situation. How do you eat? Do you sit down together with the child? Or is the child sitting by himself and you are walking around talking on the telephone? If you give yourself the time and sit down with your child you will teach the child manners at the table by your example. Many of the children today do not sit with their parents and they do not learn to hold utensils appropriately. However, this is important, otherwise when they are seven years old they cannot hold a pencil and to learn it at that age is so difficult compared to when they were one or two years old.

In addition, to sit at the table and to have a beginning, a process and an end, is important because this is how you should live the whole of life. Everything has a beginning, a process and an end. It may take you only fifteen minutes to sit appropriately, to check how the child holds and drinks from cup (children from one year onwards do not need a sip cup), to eat with closed mouth, and everything you are given and so on, being, in this way, an example for your child to follow, but more importantly you have taken this short moment to make again a “you and I situation” and at the same time you also help the child to find a social form of how we are when we eat together.

When you finish with the meal you remind the children they need to help with the table so that they also learn that when they are a part of a social environment they also take part in the cleaning up. In this way you have made and create a situation where you have been present and now you can say to the child go and play (breathing‐out) because you have been there, and then you can do what you need to do but you

3|Page have to be visible to your child. This is so, because a little child cannot play by himself if the center is not there and you are the most important person for the child. You are his center, and if you leave the room the little child will follow you.

When you are doing your things, the situation may occur where children will say I am bored. In this case you, of course, don´t turn on the television or music. When you are occupied with other things, you can tell your child now you play by yourself. If you know you have been present you can actually expect them to find something to do themselves. It is very important that you are not afraid of your children not knowing what to do or being bored. It is very important that you feel it is right: I have been there with them now they can be by themselves.

Nowadays, parents often use media or adult‐directed activities for their children because they are afraid of their children being bored and assume that they are not able to do anything themselves. This is a tricky situation. If you think you have to entertain your under‐seven children all the time, with media (films, TV, videogames, computers and so on), after‐school classes, and/or other adult‐directed activities, then they do not learn how to play by themselves. They will not have a moment where they can be in a state of not knowing what to do and from there progress into a state of finding images inwardly and thus creating things from inside out. By letting them to be bored you help them, because being bored represents the opportunity the children will have to go into this process of inner creativity. The fact that children are able to be by themselves, to create their own play without adult direction is of great importance because during the first seven years of the child everything is about being able to create.

If all the activities come from outside (electronic screen, video‐games, adult direction, etc.), then not much happens in the sphere of inward creation. That is why in Waldorf kindergartens, teachers do not sit down and play with the children but do real work, from which the children draw inspiration to use it in their own play. In these kindergartens you may find teachers sweeping, cooking, sawing, tending the vegetable patch, taking care of farm animals, cutting wood, and whatever the particular setting of each school allows to do. Equally, you, as a parent, in the breathing‐out phase, may do your work and the children beside you should be able to do their work (i.e. their own play). This is possible only when the children feel that they have met you in a previous breathing‐in phase.

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The Four-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

The world of the four-year-old begins to expand beyond home and the circle of family. The most intriguing new territory is social. Four-year-olds typically want to be around other children, especially if they do not have siblings. As a result of their new experiences, they may well “bring home” new behaviors and language. Four-year-olds still need regular rhythms and clear boundaries to give them the sense of security out of which to explore new areas and to counter influences that may not be consistent with what is happening at home.

They can participate for longer periods in structured activities, but still need even longer periods of unstructured time. They like to run, can walk longer distances on their own two sturdy legs, and may enjoy riding scooters or balance bikes. The family may have already gone on camping trips, but now the four-year-old can be a fuller participant.

Four-year-olds are ready for more complex stories and are particularly drawn to animal tales, stories with rhymes and repetition, and very simple fairy tales. In Waldorf nursery and preschool classes puppets are often used at story time, which help the children to experience the story more vividly.

While the two-year-old played primarily with things and the three-year-old moved those things around, the four-year-old will still do both and add a dramatic, imaginative element to his or her play.

Creative play, especially with playmates, is what nourishes the child’s development at this stage.

Family life (of both humans and animals), daily activities, and the overcoming of household problems form the greater part of the content of this play. Dramatic play represents a healthy means of processing experiences that the child has witnessed and also of integrating new learning.

Younger fours may need help negotiating differences among play partners and finding “win-win” solutions. At this age, inclusion is an important theme. “There is room for everyone.” “Let’s make our house bigger.” Helpful advice that adults can offer or model to playmates is to knock and ask, “May I please come in?” or “I have brought you a present.”

Four-year-olds can be exuberant about everything, especially at home. They often need guidance in how to express themselves in consideration of others.

While good manners may have been modeled previously, making this a priority at this stage is important. “Please,” “thank you,” “excuse me,” and “I’m sorry” should be family currency. The family meal is the perfect time for social learning and modeling care for others and practicing appropriate mealtime conversation.

Predictability in the environment and in daily rhythms were critical during the earliest years and continue to be, but now, clarity of expectations in social situations is equally as critical for the fouryear-old child. Again, modeling is the best way to teach good manners and consideration of others.

Long-winded preaching falls on seemingly deaf ears.

Challenges for the parents of the four-year-old may resemble those of the previous years and also include some surprises, such as the new behaviors and language learned outside the home or from new playmates.

2|Page he increased capacity of the four-year-old to focus may mean that transitions become tricky again.

Many of the suggestions delineated in the description of the two-year-old will still be helpful, but parents will naturally need to adjust for the increased language skills and other capacities of the older child. Suggestions about limiting choices given for three-year-olds also hold for four- year-olds. That the child’s cooperative spirit in other settings is not always evident at home is what might seem new and puzzling.

and doing so is a privilege, especially if adults carry the same feeling inwardly. Parents have found that both of these expressions can be used very effectively for younger children as well.

Potty talk, name-calling, and images that are developmentally inappropriate, whether from media or other sources, may well find their way into the life of the four-year-old. This requires a calm, evenkeeled response by family members. Over-reacting will often escalate unwanted behaviors. Firm and clear statements beginning with, “In our family, we… (fill in the blank)” are the most effective remedy. This requires considerable self-discipline from parents, but is also an unavoidable yet valuable opportunity to clarify and communicate family values.

The gift of parenting a four-year-old is the opportunity to clarify family values and begin creating the family culture.

Further Reading Parents may need to ask themselves if their fouryear-old has had enough unstructured, self-directed playtime during the course of the day. This need can be well supported by creating both indoor and outdoor play areas that have an array of open-ended play materials that invite inventiveness and creativity. It may also be that the child is looking for more flexibility and playfulness in communications from adults. That may be a tall order at the end of a long workday, but if parents can find the spark of inspiration, the results can be very rewarding.

Modeling good communication and negotiation between parents or with older siblings can also be helpful in building skills in cooperative living.

One expression that engenders socialness is “Let’s,” for example, “Let’s tidy up together.” This takes the sting out of the child’s having to stop their chosen activity to do something that is necessary for the good of the family. Another expression that seems to work magically is, “You may…(fill in the blank).” What is being communicated here is that the children are being allowed to participate in something important,

P. Bradley and B. Patterson, eds., Beyond the Rainbow Bridge (Michaelmas Press, 2000) L. deForest, ed., Tell Me A Story (WECAN 2013) A. Faber and E. Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen& Listen So Kids Will Talk (Scribner 2012) A. Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (Atria Books 2006) R. Long-Breipohl, Supporting Self-directed Play (WECAN 2010) S. Oppenheimer, Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children (Steiner Books 2006) K.J. Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids (Ballantine Books 2010)

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The Five-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

The world of the five-year-old is a fairy tale world.

Imaginative play is now inspired more by archetypal characters and their adventures than by everyday events. While five-year-olds live deeply into their fantasy play, the tide of imagination often carries them quite gracefully along in ordinary life as well.

They are typically more adept and less easily frustrated than during the previous year.

To understand this stage of development, it is helpful to revisit the notion of three distinct periods within the first seven years. (See the introduction to this series.) Between 4 1/2 and 5 years of age, there is a shift towards “thinking-willing.” The child’s thinking is beginning to wake up during the last third of the first seven-year cycle. This new capacity allows five-year-olds to respond not only to environmental stimuli, but also to generate their own pictures and ideas out of which to create and play.

The waking up in the head coincides with increasing control of the limbs. Five-year-olds enjoy participating in gardening, yard work, cooking, baking, sweeping, sewing, simple woodworking, laundry and dish washing. They are excited about participating, but will want to do these tasks with adults or playmates and will benefit from being guided in setting up and following through with

tasks. This is, in fact, as it should be. Observing or working alongside adults helps them learn how to organize materials and create a logical process for the task, in addition to enhancing their fine and gross motor skills. They are physically participating in our thinking processes.

Active fives may enjoy the challenge of learning how to jump rope, scale a climbing wall, or ride a bicycle.

Five-year-olds are quick and eager to learn, but are not yet ready, physically and psychologically, for long periods of sitting at a desk or bookwork. They need to be active and they delight in dressing up in costumes and acting out their beloved stories. The may show signs of stress if their days are not balanced with sufficient physical learning and opportunities for creative, imaginative learning.

As they approach the age of six, children’s play tends to become more goal-oriented. In fact, they may occasionally seem to have fallen out of the imaginative stream. They may say that they are bored. They may spend their playtime talking and planning a game, but never actually playing. The purposeful activities described above can help them through this “dry period” and also show them the possibility of using their creativity in a new way.

After such rich self-directed play, this new stage can come as quite a surprise for parents. The six-year-old will continue to struggle with how to find his or her new place in the real world, as we will see in the following article.

2|Page A major challenge for parents of the five-year-old comes from the outside world.

Five-year-olds are openhearted prey for marketers and media. What the media offers as soul nourishment to children often resembles stereotypes of humanity and human activity, rather than true archetypes. Five-year-olds are more aware of gender differences and these images can have a strong influence that may need to be countered by family values. Is the humor to which they are exposed healthy and good-natured or is it is it meanspirited and insensitive to others? Parents need to be conscious of giving their children ideals that inspire rather than limit their future sense of self and their capacity for empathy.

Five-year-olds are interested in stories about their parents when they were growing up. For both parent and child, bringing back and re-enlivening memories can be both enjoyable and an opportunity for parents to share their views of life and learning. If the tradition of parentcreated tales (see The Three-YearOld Child) has continued, stories will now involve more potential danger and a spirit of adventure, and will contain life lessons, without a moralizing tone, of course.

rhythm can bring a creative element to life at home.

Conscious care of the world of things builds habits that are applicable to future academic success and social skills.

Do parents have a passion or skill that they can share with their children? Children look with respect and admiration at expertise and creativity and are thrilled to be able to engage in an art or craft with a parent.

The gift of parenting the five-year-old is the intimate sharing of both work and play that is the basis of our life in community.

Further Reading B. Patterson and P. Bradley, eds., Beyond the Rainbow Bridge (Michaelmas Press, 2000) A. Faber and E. Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (Scribner 2012) F. Jaffke, Work and Play in Early Childhood (Floris Books 1996) A. Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (Atria Books 2006) R. Long-Breipohl, Supporting Self-directed Play (WECAN 2010) N. Mellon, Storytelling with Children (Hawthorn Press 2013) S. Honigblum, ed., Waldorf Early Childhood Education: An Introductory Reader (WECAN 2017)

A further challenge is related to our modern lifestyle. Do parents have sufficient time to engage in the purposeful activities that are so healthy for the will and sensory development of their children?

Parents may not have time for all of the activities listed above, but being aware of their importance and choosing some to incorporate into the family

S. Oppenheimer, Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children (Steiner Books 2006) K.J. Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids (Ballantine Books, 2010)

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The Six-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

Even before a child’s sixth birthday, parents may begin to notice some surprising changes. Six-yearolds may exhibit a new kind of restlessness, may become suddenly clumsy or indecisive, and are often resistant and argumentative. They appear to be testing the established boundaries with new vigor. It may be more accurate to say, however, that they are really testing their new selves.

Thinking is beginning to awaken in the last one-third of the first seven-year cycle of development, (See the Introduction to this series). If we remember this and we realize how powerful thinking can be, we can imagine that the child’s accustomed way of being in the world could be thrown into chaos. The six-yearold is exploring this new capacity of thinking and trying to integrate it with what is more familiar and comfortable, and in the process, everything has to be reorganized!

At the same time, six-year-olds are more sensitive and vulnerable than indicated by their outward behavior, especially when their ideas do not bear anticipated fruit. They can be silly, emotionally volatile, easily fall apart, or have trouble completing a given task. They may need to talk about what happened to them during the day at meal times or before bed.

They need, above all, to be recognized as the same child, yet NOT the same child as they once were.

They need us to see them with fresh eyes and be sensitive and understanding of the transformation that they are undergoing. This does not mean that parents should let go of their expectations and boundaries. It means that we need to hold on to them in a different way.

Because of their increased capacity for mental picturing, six-year-olds are ready for chapter books, like Winnie-the-Pooh or Mother West Wind and other Stories by Thornton Burgess. The humor and pathos of these characters and their stories are warmly comforting and ring true for the six-year-old.

Ideas are emerging and the six-year-old may strongly identify with an idea as “my idea,” and ride it like a wave toward a growing sense of independence.

Parents are no longer the constant center around which the six-year-old revolves, but the child is becoming his or her own center. In the same vein, six-year-olds also tend to exaggerate and want to do things that they are not yet able to do.

Many six-year-olds actually seem to embrace and play with the chaotic element of this developmental reorganization. This can be difficult for the rest of the family. How we respond can make a difference in how gracefully and quickly they move through this period of change.

The main challenge for the parents of the six-yearold is how to keep an even keel and a steady hand on the tiller of family life while in the uncharted and

2|Page choppy waters of this period, often called “the first adolescence.”

As already mentioned above, unqualified acceptance of and real interest in the emerging aspects of the six-year-old will mean that he or she does not need to keep raising the “notice-me flag” over and over again. Six-year-olds also need protection from their self-initiated chaos. By upholding the consistency of their expectations, parents provide dependable ballast that can mitigate the child’s feeling of upheaval.

calming down after 6 1/2, as your child consolidates these changes and prepares for the new phase of development that begins around the seventh year.

Six-year-olds will cooperate if they are given simple, appropriate reasons for doing so; if requests are communicated with a good dose of humor; if decisions are framed so that they are not an either/or or a yes/no situation. Generally speaking, direct confrontation is not usually an effective strategy. Six-year-olds need some breathing space to process the situation and to feel that they are cooperating out of their own will.

Keeping a positive attitude, although not easy, will help both parent and child navigate more successfully. Modeling the behavior and communications that we want our six-year-olds to choose is still incredibly important.

Finding appropriate channels for the increased energy levels and restlessness is also helpful. Sixyear-olds are duly impressed with skills of adults in homemaking, building, crafts and gardening activities. All of the purposeful activities that were suggested for the five-year-old still hold keen interest for the six-year-old. The six-year-olds, however, are more capable and will be able to do more on their own than when they were five and will respond well if the adults with whom they are working notice their increased skills. Time outside in nature is also a healing and helpful influence during this period of development.

The gift of parenting a six-year-old is the strengthening of one’s own calm center in order to support your child as he or she navigates the changes that herald the end of the first seven-year cycle of growth and development. You may begin to notice a

Further Reading N. Blanning, ed., First Grade Readiness (Second Edition) (WECAN 2009) R. Ker, ed., You’re Not the Boss of Me! Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation (WECAN 2007) R. Louv, Children and Nature: Making Connections (The Myrin Institute 2014) M. Rawson & M. Rose, Ready to Learn: From Birth to School Readiness (Hawthorne Books 2002)

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The Seven-Year-Old Transformation

years, also called the life or etheric forces, are now available for creating on another level, in the area of imagination and mental images. These are the forces required for abstract learning and memory.

Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

From physiology, we know that all of our cells are replaced every seven years. The birth of the child’s life body is the result of the child’s taking hold of his or her physical body during the first seven years of life. Once the child has taken hold of his or her physical body and some of the growth forces are freed up for other creative functions, the child has gained his or her own “protective garment,” usually referred to as the life body or etheric body. Waldorf educators recognize this freeing of some of the creative forces from activities of growth and maintenance, at around seven years of age, as a sign of the birth of the child’s own life body or etheric body. Prior to this subtle “birth,” the child has lived in the “womb-like” protection of the family life.

The child’s first developmental period ends and the second begins around the child’s seventh birthday.

Many of the changes that were mentioned in connection with the six-year-old signal the shift from the first to the second cycle of seven years. In the second seven-year cycle development moves from the predominance of the will to the predominance of feelings, imagination and social life. It is also the beginning of learning about the world from a beloved authority rather than through imitation.

In Waldorf education we speak about the first seven years as the period of time during which the child “takes hold” of his or her physical body. This “taking hold of” gesture includes the change of teeth. The emphasis on teeth comes from the understanding of teeth as the hardest part of the physical body. While the baby teeth are a part of the child’s inherited body, the six-year-old molars are the result of the child’s own activity. The new permanent teeth indicate that the process of taking hold of the body nearing its completion.

One visible sign that seven-year-olds are undergoing significant change is their passion for skipping and jumping. While the child at the beginning of the first seven-year cycle conquered gravity by standing upright, now the child is using gravity to launch him or herself heavenward. We could say that the caterpillar is becoming a butterfly! During the seventh year, the child is trying out his or her transformed physical, social/emotional, and intellectual capacities.

With the eruption of the child’s permanent teeth, some of the growth forces active in the first seven

Parents of the seven-year-old will notice their child’s new capacity for learning and independence, even though they may occasionally see moments of

2|Page hesitation and even regressive behaviors in their child. The seven-year-old change means change for parents, as well. It means being sensitive as to when to step forward and when to step back.

It means recognizing when we might be hanging on to our children, rather than letting them move forward. It means finding new ways to offer support now that our child has entered a new cycle of development.

The gift of life with a seven-year-old is learning to let go enough for your child to sense your confidence in him or her, and at the same time, staying in touch enough to know when more support is needed.

Further Reading N. Blanning, ed., First Grade Readiness (WECAN 2009) R. Ker, ed., You’re Not the Boss of Me! Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation (WECAN 2007) K.J. Payne and Lisa Ross, Simplicity Parenting (Ballantine Books 2010) J. Petrash, Navigating the Terrain of Childhood (Nova Institute Publishing 2004)

Play and its role in the Mental Development of the Child – Lev Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet Belarusian psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and biosocial development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle. Vygotsky's main work was in developmental psychology, and he proposed a theory of the development of higher cognitive functions in children that saw the emergence of the reasoning as emerging through practical activity in a social environment. During the earlier period of his career he argued that the development of reasoning was mediated by signs and therefore contingent on cultural practices and language as well as on universal cognitive processes. First Published: 1933.

In speaking of play and its role in the preschooler’s development, we are concerned with two fundamental questions: first, how play itself arises in development – its origin and genesis; second, the role of this developmental activity, which we call play, as a form of development in the child of preschool age.

Is play the leading form of activity for a child of this age, or is it simply the most frequently encountered form?

It seems to me that from the point of view of development, play is not the predominant form of activity, but is, in a certain sense, the leading source of development in preschool years. Let us now consider the problem of play itself. We know that a definition of play based on the pleasure it gives the child is not correct for two reasons – first, because we deal with a number of activities that give the child much keener experiences of pleasure than play.

For example, the pleasure principle applies equally well to the sucking process, in that the child derives functional pleasure from sucking a pacifier even when he is not being satiated.

On the other hand, we know of games in which the activity itself does not afford pleasure – games that predominate at the end of the preschool and the beginning of school age and that give pleasure only if the child finds the result interesting. These include, for example, sporting games (not just athletic sports but also games with an outcome, games with results). They are very often accompanied by a keen sense of displeasure when the outcome is unfavorable to the child.

Thus, defining play on the basis of pleasure can certainly not be regarded as correct.

Nonetheless, it seems to me that to refuse to approach the problem of play from the standpoint of fulfillment of the child’s needs, his incentives to act, and his affective aspirations would result in a terrible intellectualization of play. The trouble with a number of theories of play lies in their tendency to intellectualize the problem.

I am inclined to give an even more general meaning to the problem; and I think that the mistake of many accepted theories is their disregard of the child’s needs – taken in the broadest sense, from inclinations to interests, as needs of an intellectual nature – or, more briefly, disregard of everything that can come under the category of incentives and motives for action. We often describe a child’s development as the development of his intellectual functions, i.e., every child stands before us as a theoretical being who, according to the higher or lower level of his intellectual development, moves from one age period to another.

Without a consideration of the child’s needs, inclinations, incentives, and motives to act – as research has demonstrated – there will never be any advance from one stage to the next. I think that an analysis of play should start with an examination of these particular aspects.

It seems that every advance from one age period to another is connected with an abrupt change in motives and incentives to act.

What is of the greatest interest to the infant has almost ceased to interest the toddler. This maturing of new needs and new motives for action is, of course, the dominant factor, especially as it is impossible to

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ignore the fact that a child satisfies certain needs and incentives in play; and without understanding the special nature of these incentives, we cannot imagine the uniqueness of that type of activity we call play.

At preschool age special needs and incentives arise that are very important for the whole of the child’s development and that are spontaneously expressed in play. In essence, there arise in a child of this age many unrealizable tendencies and immediately unrealizable desires. A very young child tends to gratify his desires at once. Any delay in fulfilling them is hard for him and is acceptable only within certain narrow limits; no one has met a child under three who wanted to do something a few days hence. Ordinarily, the interval between the motive and its realization is extremely short. I think that if there were no development in preschool years of needs that cannot be realized immediately, there would be no play. Experiments show that the development of play is arrested both in intellectually underdeveloped children and in those who are affectively immature.

From the viewpoint of the affective sphere, it seems to me that play is invented at the point when unrealizable tendencies appear in development. This is the way a very young child behaves: he wants a thing and must have it at once. If he cannot have it, either he throws a temper tantrum, lies on the floor and kicks his legs, or he is refused, pacified, and does not get it.

His unsatisfied desires have their own particular modes of substitution, rejection, etc. Toward the beginning of pre-school age, unsatisfied desires and tendencies that cannot be realized immediately make their appearance, while the tendency to immediate fulfillment of desires, characteristic of the preceding stage, is retained. For example, the child wants to be in his mother’s place, or wants to be a rider on a horse.

This desire cannot be fulfilled right now. What does the very young child do if he sees a passing cab and wants to ride in it no matter what may happen? If he is a spoiled and capricious child, he will demand that his mother put him in the cab at any cost, or he may throw himself on the

ground right there in the street, etc. If he is an obedient child, used to renouncing his desires, he will turn away, or his mother will offer him some candy, or simply distract him with some stronger affect, and he will renounce his immediate desire.

In contrast to this, a child over three will show his own particular conflicting tendencies; on the one hand, many long-lasting needs and desires will appear that cannot be met at once but that nevertheless are not passed over like whims; on the other hand, the tendency toward immediate realization of desires is almost completely retained.

Henceforth play is such that the explanation for it must always be that it is the imaginary, illusory realization of unrealizable desires. Imagination is a new formation that is not present in the consciousness of the very young child, is totally absent in animals, and represents a specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all functions of consciousness, it originally arises from action. The old adage that children’s play is imagination in action can be reversed: we can say that imagination in adolescents and schoolchildren is play without action.

It is difficult to imagine that an incentive compelling a child to play is really just the same kind of affective incentive as sucking a pacifier is for an infant.

It is hard to accept that pleasure derived from preschool play is conditioned by the same affective mechanism as simple sucking of a pacifier. This simply does not fit our notions of preschool development.

All of this is not to say that play occurs as the result of each and every unsatisfied desire: a child wants to ride in a cab, the wish is not immediately gratified, so the child goes into his room and begins to play cabs. It never happens just this way. Here we are concerned with the fact that the child has not only individual, affective reactions to separate phenomena but generalized, unpredesignated, affective tendencies. Let us take the example of a microencephalic child suffering from an acute inferiority complex: he is unable to participate in children’s groups; he has been so teased that he smashes every mirror and pane of glass showing his

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reflection. But when he was very young, it had been very different; then, every time he was teased there was a separate affective reaction for each separate occasion, which had not yet become generalized. At preschool age the child generalizes his affective relation to the phenomenon regardless of the actual concrete situation because the affective relation is connected with the meaning of the phenomenon in that it continually reveals his inferiority complex.

Play is essentially wish fulfillment – not, however, isolated wishes, but generalized affects. A child at this age is conscious of his relationships with adults, and reacts to them affectively; unlike in early childhood, he now generalizes these affective reactions (he respects adult authority in general, etc.).

The presence of such generalized affects in play does not mean that the child himself understands the motives that give rise to a game or that he does it consciously. He plays without realizing the motives of the play activity. In this, play differs substantially from work and other forms of activity. On the whole it can be said that motives, actions, and incentives belong to a more abstract sphere and become accessible to consciousness only at the transitional age. Only an adolescent can clearly determine for himself the reason he does this or that.

We shall leave the problem of the affective aspect for the moment – considering it as given – and shall now examine the development of play activity itself.

I think that in finding criteria for distinguishing a child’s play activity from his other general forms of activity it must be accepted that in play a child creates an imaginary situation. This is possible on the basis of the separation of the fields of vision and meaning that occurs in the preschool period.

This is not a new idea, in the sense that imaginary situations in play have always been recognized; but they have always been regarded as one of the groups of play activities. Thus the imaginary situation has always been classified as a secondary symptom. In the view of earlier writers, the

imaginary situation was not the criterial attribute of play in general, but only an attribute of a given group of play activities.

I find three main flaws in this argument. First, there is the danger of an intellectualistic approach to play. If play is to be understood as symbolic, there is the danger that it may turn into a kind of activity akin to algebra in action; it may be transformed into a system of signs generalizing actual reality. Here we find nothing specific in play, and look upon the child as an unsuccessful algebraist who cannot yet write the symbols on paper, but depicts them in action. It is essential to show the connection with incentives in play, since play itself, in my view, is never symbolic action, in the proper sense of the term.

Second, I think that this idea presents play as a cognitive process. It stresses the importance of the cognitive process while neglecting not only the affective situation but also the circumstances of the child’s activity.

Third, it is vital to discover exactly what this activity does for development, i.e., how the imaginary situation can assist in the child’s development.

Let us begin with the second question, as I have already briefly touched on the problem of the connection with affective incentives. We observed that in the affective incentives leading to play there are the beginnings not of symbols, but of the necessity for an imaginary situation; for if play is really developed from unsatisfied desires, if ultimately it is the realization in play form of tendencies that cannot be realized at the moment, then elements of imaginary situations will involuntarily be included in the affective nature of play itself.

Let us take the second instance first – the child’s activity in play. What does a child’s behavior in an imaginary situation mean? We know that there is a form of play, distinguished long ago and relating to the late preschool period, considered to develop mainly at school age, namely, the development of games with rules. A number of investigators, although not at all belonging to the camp of dialectical materialists, have approached this area along the lines recommended by Marx when he said that “the

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anatomy of man is the key to the anatomy of the ape.” They have begun their examination of early play in the light of later rule-based play and have concluded from this that play involving an imaginary situation is, in fact, rule-based play. It seems to me that one can go even further and propose that there is no such thing as play without rules and the child’s particular attitude toward them.

Let us expand on this idea. Take any form of play with an imaginary situation. The imaginary situation already contains rules of behavior, although this is not a game with formulated rules laid down in advance.

The child imagines herself to be the mother and the doll a child, so she must obey the rules of maternal behavior. This was very well demonstrated by a researcher in an ingenious experiment based on Sully’s famous observations. The latter described play as remarkable in that children could make the play situation and reality coincide. One day two sisters, aged five and seven, said to each other: “Let’s play sisters.” Here Sully was describing a case in which two sisters were playing at being sisters, i.e., playing at reality. The above mentioned experiment based its method on children’s play, suggested by the experimenter, that dealt with real relationships. In certain cases I have found it very easy to evoke such play in children. It is very easy, for example, to make a child play with its mother at being a child while the mother is the mother, i.e., at what is, in fact, true. The vital difference in play, as Sully describes it, is that the child in playing tries to be a sister. In life the child behaves without thinking that she is her sister’s sister. She never behaves with respect to the other just because she is her sister – except perhaps in those cases when her mother says, “Give in to her.” In the game of sisters playing at “sisters,” however, they are both concerned with displaying their sisterhood; the fact that two sisters decided to play sisters makes them both acquire rules of behavior.

(I must always be a sister in relation to the other sister in the whole play situation.) Only actions that fit these rules are acceptable in the play situation.

In the game a situation is chosen that stresses the fact that these girls are sisters: they are dressed alike, they walk about holding hands – in short, they enact whatever emphasizes their relationship as sisters vis-avis adults and strangers. The elder, holding the younger by the hand, keeps telling her about other people: “That is theirs, not ours.” This means: “My sister and I act the same, we are treated the same, but others are treated differently.” Here the emphasis is on the sameness of everything that is concentrated in the child’s concept of a sister, and this means that my sister stands in a different relationship to me than other people. What passes unnoticed by the child in real life becomes a rule of behavior in play. If play, then, were structured in such a way that there were no imaginary situation, what would remain? The rules would remain. The child would begin to behave in this situation as the situation dictates.

Let us leave this remarkable experiment for a moment and turn to play in general. I think that whenever there is an imaginary situation in play, there are rules – not rules that are formulated in advance and change during the course of the game, but rules stemming from the imaginary situation. Therefore, to imagine that a child can behave in an imaginary situation without rules, i.e., as he behaves in a real situation, is simply impossible. If the child is playing the role of a mother, then she has rules of maternal behavior. The role the child plays, and her relationship to the object if the object has changed its meaning, will always stem from the rules, i.e., the imaginary situation will always contain rules. In play the child is free. But this is an illusory freedom.

Although initially the investigator’s task was to disclose the hidden rules in all play with an imaginary situation, we have received proof comparatively recently that the so-called pure games with rules (played by school children and late preschoolers) are essentially games with imaginary situations; for just as the imaginary situation has to contain rules of behavior, so every game with rules contains an imaginary situation. For example, what does it mean to play chess? To create an

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imaginary situation. Why? Because the knight, the king, the queen, and so forth, can move only in specified ways; because covering and taking pieces are purely chess concepts; and so on. Although it does not directly substitute for real-life relationships, nevertheless we do have a kind of imaginary situation here. Take the simplest children’s game with rules. It immediately turns into an imaginary situation in the sense that as soon as the game is regulated by certain rules, a number of actual possibilities for action are ruled out.

Just as we were able to show at the beginning that every imaginary situation contains rules in a concealed form, we have also succeeded in demonstrating the reverse – that every game with rules contains an imaginary situation in a concealed form. The development from an overt imaginary situation and covert rules to games with overt rules and a covert imaginary situation outlines the evolution of children’s play from one pole to the other.

All games with imaginary situations are simultaneously games with rules, and vice versa. I think this thesis is clear.

However, there is one misunderstanding that may arise, and must be cleared up from the start. A child learns to behave according to certain rules from the first few months of life. For a very young child such rules – for example, that he has to sit quietly at the table, not touch other people’s things, obey his mother – are rules that make up his life. What is specific to rules followed in games or play? It seems to me that several new publications can be of great aid in solving this problem. In particular, a new work by Piaget has been extremely helpful to me. This work is concerned with the development in the child of moral rules. One part is specially devoted to the study of rules of a game, in which, I think, Piaget resolves these difficulties very convincingly.

Piaget distinguishes what he calls two moralities in the child – two distinct sources for the development of rules of behavior.

This emerges particularly sharply in games. As Piaget shows, some rules come to the child from the one-sided influence upon him of an adult.

Not to touch other people’s things is a rule taught by the mother, or to sit quietly at the table is an external law for the child advanced by adults. This is one of the child’s moralities. Other rules arise, according to Piaget, from mutual collaboration between adult and child, or among children themselves. These are rules the child himself participates in establishing.

The rules of games, of course, differ radically from rules of not touching and of sitting quietly. In the first place, they are made by the child himself; they are his own rules, as Piaget says, rules of self-restraint and self-determination. The child tells himself: I must behave in such and such a way in this game. This is quite different from the child’s saying that one thing is allowed and another thing is not. Piaget has pointed out a very interesting phenomenon in moral development – something he calls moral realism. He indicates that the first line of development of external rules (what is and is not allowed) produces moral realism, i.e., a confusion in the child between moral rules and physical rules. The child confuses the fact that it is impossible to light a match a second time and the rule that it is forbidden to light matches at all, or to touch a glass because it might break: all “don’ts” are the same to a very young child, but he has an entirely different attitude toward rules he makes up himself.

Let us turn now to the role of play and its influence on a child’s development. I think it is enormous.

I shall try to outline two basic ideas. I think that play with an imaginary situation is something essentially new, impossible for a child under three; it is a novel form of behavior in which the child is liberated from situational constraints through his activity in an imaginary situation.

To a considerable extent the behavior of a very young child – and, to an absolute extent, that of an infant – is determined by the conditions in which the activity takes place, as the experiments of Lewin and others have shown. Lewin’s experiment with the stone is a famous example. This is a real illustration of the extent to which a very young child is bound in every action by situational constraints. Here we find a highly characteristic feature of a very young child’s behavior in the sense of his

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attitude toward the circumstance at hand and the real conditions of his activity. It is hard to imagine a greater contrast to Lewin’s experiments showing the situational constraints on activity than what we observe in play. In the latter, the child acts in a mental, not a visible, situation. I think this conveys accurately what occurs in play. It is here that the child learns to act in a cognitive, rather than an externally visible, realm, relying on internal tendencies and motives, not on incentives supplied by external things. I recall a study by Lewin on the motivating nature of things for a very young child; in it Lewin concludes that things dictate to the child what he must do: a door demands to be opened and closed, a staircase to be run up, a bell to be rung. In short, things have an inherent motivating force in respect to a very young child’s actions and determine the child’s behavior to such an extent that Lewin arrived at the notion of creating a psychological topology, i.e., of expressing mathematically the trajectory of the child’s movement in a field according to the distribution of things with varying attracting or repelling forces.

What is the root of situational constraints on a child? The answer lies in a central fact of consciousness that is characteristic of early childhood: the union of affect and perception. At this age perception is generally not an independent feature, but an initial feature of a motor-affective reaction, i.e., every perception is in this way a stimulus to activity. Since a situation is always communicated, psychologically through perception, and perception is not separated from affective and motor activity, it is understandable that with his consciousness so structured, the child cannot act otherwise than as constrained by the situation – or the field – in which he finds himself.

In play, things lose their motivating force. The child sees one thing but acts differently in relation to what he sees. Thus, a situation is reached in which the child begins to act independently of what he sees. Certain braindamaged patients lose the ability to act independently of what they see; in considering such patients one can begin to appreciate that the freedom of action we adults and more mature children enjoy is not acquired in a

flash, but has to go through a long process of development.

Action in a situation that is not seen, but only conceived on an imagined level and in an imaginary situation, teaches the child to guide his behavior not only by immediate perception of objects or by the situation immediately affecting him but also by the meaning of this situation.

Experiments and day-to-day observation clearly show that it is impossible for very young children to separate the field of meaning from the visible field. This is a very important fact. Even a child of two, when asked to repeat the sentence “Tanya is standing up” when Tanya is actually sitting in front of him, will change it to “Tanya is sitting down.” In certain diseases we are faced with exactly the same situation. Goldstein and Geib have described a number of patients who were unable to state something that was not true. Gelb has data on one patient who was lefthanded and incapable of writing the sentence “I can write well with my right hand.” When looking out of the window on a fine day he was unable to repeat “The weather is nasty today,” but would say, “The weather is fine today.” Often we find that a patient with a speech disturbance is incapable of repeating senseless phrases – for example, “Snow is black” – whereas other phrases equally difficult in their grammatical and semantic construction can be repeated.

In a very young child there is such an intimate fusion between word and object, and between meaning and what is seen, that a divergence between the meaning field and the visible field is impossible.

This can be seen in the process of children’s speech development. You say to the child, “clock.” He starts looking and finds the clock, i.e., the first function of the word is to orient spatially, to isolate particular areas in space; the word originally signifies a particular location in a situation.

It is at preschool age that we first find a divergence between the fields of meaning and vision. It seems to me that we would do well to restate the notion of the investigator who said that in play activity thought is

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separated from objects, and action arises from ideas rather than from things.

Thought is separated from objects because a piece of wood begins to be a doll and a stick becomes a horse. Action according to rules begins to be determined by ideas, not by objects. This is such a reversal of the child’s relationship to the real, immediate, concrete situation that it is hard to evaluate its full significance. The child does not do this all at once.

It is terribly difficult for a child to sever thought (the meaning of a word) from object. Play is a transitional stage in this direction. At that critical moment when a stick – i.e., an object – becomes a pivot for severing the meaning of horse from a real horse, one of the basic psychological structures determining the child’s relationship to reality is radically altered.

The child cannot yet sever thought from object; he must have something to act as a pivot. This expresses the child’s weakness; in order to imagine a horse, he needs to define his actions by means of using the horse in the stick as the pivot. But nevertheless, the basic structure determining the child’s relationship to reality is radically changed at this crucial point, for his perceptual structure changes. The special feature of human perception – which arises at a very early age – is so-called reality perception. This is something for which there is no analogy in animal perception. Essentially it lies in the fact that I do not see the world simply in color and shape, but also as a world with sense and meaning. I do not see merely something round and black with two hands, I see a clock; and I can distinguish one thing from another. There are patients who say, when they see a clock, that they are seeing something round and white with two thin steel strips, but they do not know that this is a clock; they have lost real relationship to objects. Thus, the structure of human perception could be figuratively expressed as a fraction in which the object is the numerator and the meaning is the denominator; this expresses the particular relationship of object and meaning that arises on the basis of speech. This means that all human perception is not made up of isolated perceptions,

but of generalized perceptions. Goldstein says that this objectively formed perception and generalization are the same thing. Thus, for the child, in the fraction object-meaning, the object dominates, and meaning is directly connected to it. At the crucial moment for the child, when the stick becomes a horse, i.e., when the thing, the stick, becomes the pivot for severing the meaning of horse from a real horse, this fraction is inverted and meaning predominates, giving meaning/object.

Nevertheless, properties of things as such do have some meaning: any stick can be a horse, but, for example, a postcard can never be a horse for a child. Goethe’s contention that in play any thing can be anything for a child is incorrect. Of course, for adults who can make conscious use of symbols, a postcard can be a horse. If I want to show the location of something, I can put down a match and say, “This is a horse.” And that would be enough. For a child it cannot be a horse: one must use a stick.

Therefore, this is play, not symbolism. A symbol is a sign, but the stick is not the sign of a horse. Properties of things are retained, but their meaning is inverted, i.e., the idea becomes the central point. It can be said that in this structure things are moved from a dominating to a subordinate position.

Thus, in play the child creates the structure meaning/object, in which the semantic aspect – the meaning of the word, the meaning of the thing – dominates and determines his behavior. To a certain extent meaning is freed from the object with which it was directly fused before. I would say that in play a child concentrates on meaning severed from objects, but that it is not severed in real action with real objects.

A highly interesting contradiction therefore arises in which the child operates with meanings severed from objects and actions, but in real action with real objects operates with them in fusion. This is the transitional nature of play, which makes it an intermediary between the purely situational constraints of early childhood and thought that is totally free of real situations.

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In play a child deals with things as having meaning. Word meanings replace objects, and thus an emancipation of word from object occurs. (A behaviorist would describe play and its characteristic properties in the following terms: the child gives ordinary objects unusual names and ordinary actions unusual designations, despite the fact that he knows the real ones.) Separating words from things requires a pivot in the form of other things. But the moment the stick – i.e., the thing – becomes the pivot for severing the meaning of “horse” from a real horse, the child makes one thing influence another in the semantic sphere. (He cannot sever meaning from an object or a word from an object except by finding a pivot in something else, i.e., by the power of one object to steal another’s name.) Transfer of meanings is facilitated by the fact that the child accepts a word as the property of a thing; he does not see the word, but the thing it designates. For a child the word “horse” applied to the stick means, “There is a horse,” i.e., mentally he sees the object standing behind the word.

Play is converted to internal processes at school age, going over to internal speech, logical memory, and abstract thought. In play a child operates with meanings severed from objects, but not in real action with real things. To sever the meaning of horse from a real horse and transfer it to a stick (the necessary material pivot to keep the meaning from evaporating) and really acting with the stick as if it were a horse is a vital transitional stage to operating with meanings. A child first acts with meanings as with objects and later realizes them consciously and begins to think, just as a child, before he has acquired grammatical and written speech, knows how to do things but does not know that he knows, i.e., he does not realize or master them voluntarily. In play a child unconsciously and spontaneously makes use of the fact that he can separate meaning from an object without knowing he is doing it; he does not know that he is speaking in prose just as he talks without paying attention to the words.

Hence we come to a functional definition of concepts, i.e., objects, and hence to a word as part of a thing. And so I should like to say that the creation of an imaginary situation is not a fortuitous fact in a child’s life; it

is the first effect of the child’s emancipation from situational constraints.

The first paradox of play is that the child operates with an alienated meaning in a real situation. The second is that in play he adopts the line of least resistance, i.e., he does what he feels like most because play is connected with pleasure. At the same time, he learns to follow the line of greatest resistance; for by subordinating themselves to rules, children renounce what they want, since subjection to rule and renunciation of spontaneous impulsive action constitute the path to maximum pleasure in play.

The same thing can be observed in children in athletic games. Racing is difficult because the runners are ready to start off when one says, “Get ready, get set ...” without waiting for the “go.” It is evident that the point of internal rules is that the child does not act on immediate impulse.

Play continually creates demands on the child to act against immediate impulse, i.e., to act according to the line of greatest resistance.

I want to run off at once – this is perfectly clear – but the rules of the game order me to wait. Why does the child not do what he wants, spontaneously and at once? Because to observe the rules of the play structure promises much greater pleasure from the game than the gratification of an immediate impulse. In other words, as one investigator puts it, recalling the words of Spinoza: “An affect can be overcome only by a stronger affect.” Thus, in play a situation is created in which, as Nohl puts it, a dual affective plan occurs. For example, the child weeps in play as a patient, but revels as a player. In play the child renounces his immediate impulse, coordinating every act of his behavior with the rules of the game. Groos describes this brilliantly. He thinks that a child’s will originates in, and develops from, play with rules. Indeed, in the simple game of sorcerer as described by Groos, the child must run away from the sorcerer in order not to be caught, but at the same time he must help his companion and get him disenchanted. When the sorcerer has touched him, he must stop. At every step the child is faced with a conflict between the rule of the game and what he would do if he could suddenly act

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spontaneously. In the game he acts counter to what he wants. Nohi showed that a child’s greatest self-control occurs in play. He achieves the maximum display of willpower in the sense of renunciation of an immediate attraction in the game in the form of candy, which by the rules of the game the children are not allowed to eat because it represents something inedible. Ordinarily a child experiences subordination to a rule in the renunciation of something he wants, but here subordination to a rule and renunciation of acting on immediate impulse are the means to maximum pleasure.

Thus, the essential attribute of play is a rule that has become an affect.

“An idea that has become an affect, a concept that has turned into a passion” – this ideal of Spinoza’s finds its prototype in play, which is the realm of spontaneity and freedom. To carry out the rule is a source of pleasure. The rule wins because it is the strongest impulse. (Cf. Spinoza’s adage that an affect can be overcome by a stronger affect.) Hence it follows that such a rule is an internal rule, i.e., a rule of inner self-restraint and self-determination, as Piaget says, and not a rule the child obeys as a physical law. In short, play gives the child a new form of desires, i.e., teaches him to desire by relating his desires to a fictitious “I” – to his role in the game and its rules. Therefore, a child’s greatest achievements are possible in play – achievements that tomorrow will become his average level of real action and his morality.

Now we can say the same thing about the child’s activity that we said about things. Just as we have the fraction object/meaning, we also have the fraction action/meaning.

Whereas action dominated before, this structure is inverted, meaning becoming the numerator, and action taking the place of the denominator.

It is important to realize how the child is liberated from actions in play. An action, for example, is realized as finger movements instead of real eating – that is, the action is completed not for the action itself, but for the meaning it carries. At first, in a child of preschool age, action dominates over meaning and is incompletely understood; a child is able to do more

than he can understand. It is at preschool age that there first arises an action structure in which meaning is the determinant; but the action itself is not a sideline or subordinated feature: it is a structural feature. Nohl showed that children, in playing at eating from a plate, performed actions with their hands reminiscent of real eating, but all actions that did not designate eating were impossible. Throwing one’s hands back instead of stretching them toward the plate turned out to be impossible, that is, such action would have a destructive effect on the game. A child does not symbolize in play, but he wishes and realizes his wishes by letting the basic categories of reality pass through his experience, which is precisely why in play a day can take half an hour, and a hundred miles be covered in five steps. The child, in wishing, carries out his wishes; and in thinking, he acts. Internal and external action are inseparable: imagination, interpretation, and will are internal processes in external action.

The meaning of action is basic, but even by itself action is not neutral.

At an earlier age the position was the reverse: action was the structural determinant, and meaning was a secondary, collateral, subordinated feature. What we said about severing meaning from object applies equally well to the child’s own actions. A child who stamps on the ground and imagines himself riding a horse has thus accomplished the inversion of the fraction action/meaning to meaning/action.

Once again, in order to sever the meaning of the action from the real action (riding a horse, without having the opportunity to do so), the child requires a pivot in the form of an action to replace the real one. But once again, whereas before action was the determinant in the structure “actionmeaning,” now the structure is inverted and meaning becomes the determinant. Action retreats to second place and becomes the pivot; meaning is again severed from action by means of another action. This is a repetition of the point leading to operations based solely on the meanings of actions, i.e., to volitional choice, a decision, a conflict of motives, and to other processes sharply separated from fulfillment: in short, to the development of the will. Just as operating with the meanings of things

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leads to abstract thought, in volitional decision the determining factor is not the fulfillment of the action, but its meaning. In play an action replaces another action just as an object replaces another object. How does the child “float” from one object to another, from one action to another? This is accomplished by movement in the field of meaning – not connected with the visible field or with real objects – which subordinates all real objects and actions to itself. This movement in the field of meaning predominates in play: on the one hand, it is movement in an abstract field (a field that thus appears before voluntary operation with meanings), but the method of movement is situational and concrete (i.e., it is not logical, but affective, movement). In other words, the field of meaning appears, but action within it occurs just as in reality; herein lies the main genetic contradiction of play.

I have three questions left to answer: first, to show that play is not the predominant feature of childhood, but is a leading factor in development; second, to show the development of play itself, i.e., the significance of the movement from the predominance of the imaginary situation to the predominance of rules; and third, to show the internal transformations brought about by play in the child’s development.

I do not think that play is the predominant type of child activity. In fundamental, everyday situations a child behaves in a manner diametrically opposed to his behavior in play. In play, action is subordinated to meaning; but in real life, of course, action dominates over meaning.

Thus we find in play – if you will – the negative of a child’s general, everyday behavior. Therefore, to consider play the prototype of his everyday activity and its predominant form is completely without foundation. This is the main flaw in Koffka’s theory. He regards play as the child’s other world. According to Koffka, everything that concerns a child is play reality, whereas everything that concerns an adult is serious reality. A given object has one meaning in play, and another outside it. In a child’s world the logic of wishes and of satisfying urges dominates, not

real logic. The illusory nature of play is transferred to life. This would be true if play were indeed the predominant form of a child’s activity. But it is hard to envisage the insane picture that a child would bring to mind if the form of activity we have been speaking of were to become the predominant form of his everyday activity – even if only partially transferred to real life.

Koffka gives a number of examples to show how a child transfers a situation from play into life. But the real transference of play behavior to real life can be regarded only as an unhealthy symptom. To behave in a real situation as in an illusory one is the first sign of delirium.

As research has shown, play behavior in real life is normally seen only in the type of game in which sisters play at “sisters,” i.e., when children sitting at dinner can play at having dinner, or (as in Katz’s example) when children who do not want to go to bed say, “Let’s play that it’s nighttime and we have to go to sleep.” They begin to play at what they are in fact doing, evidently creating associations that facilitate the execution of an unpleasant action.

Thus, it seems to me that play is not the predominant type of activity at preschool age. Only theories maintaining that a child does not have to satisfy the basic requirements of life, but can live in search of pleasure, could possibly suggest that a child’s world is a play world.

Is it possible to suppose that a child’s behavior is always guided by meaning, that a preschooler’s behavior is so and that he never behaves with candy as he wants to simply because he thinks he should behave otherwise? This kind of subordination to rules is quite impossible in life, but in play it does become possible; thus, play also creates the zone of proximal development of the child. In play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself. As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form; in play it is as though the child were trying to jump above the level of his normal behavior.

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The play-development relationship can be compared with the instruction-development relationship, but play provides a background for changes in needs and in consciousness of a much wider nature. Play is the source of development and creates the zone of proximal development.

Action in the imaginative sphere, in an imaginary situation, the creation of voluntary intentions and the formation of real-life plans and volitional motives – all appear in play and make it the highest level of preschool development.

The child moves forward essentially through play activity. Only in this sense can play be termed a leading activity that determines the child’s development.

The second question is: How does play develop? It is a remarkable fact that the child starts with an imaginary situation when initially this imaginary situation is so very close to the real one. A reproduction of the real situation takes place. For example, a child playing with a doll repeats almost exactly what her mother does with her; the doctor looks at the child’s throat, hurts her, and she cries; but as soon as the doctor has gone, the child immediately thrusts a spoon into the doll’s mouth. This means that in the original situation, rules operate in a condensed and compressed form. There is very little of the imaginary in the situation. It is an imaginary situation, but it is comprehensible only in the light of a real situation that has just occurred, i.e., it is a recollection of something that has actually happened. Play is more nearly recollection than imagination – that is, it is more memory in action than a novel imaginary situation. As play develops, we see a movement toward the conscious realization of its purpose.

It is incorrect to conceive of play as activity without purpose; play is purposeful activity for a child. In athletic games one can win or lose; in a race one can come first, second, or last. In short, the purpose decides the game; it justifies all the rest. Purpose as the ultimate goal determines the child’s affective attitude toward play. When running a race, a child can be highly agitated or distressed; and little may remain of pleasure, because

he finds it physically painful to run, and if he is overtaken, he will experience little functional pleasure. In sports the purpose of the game is one of its dominant features without which there would be no point – it would be like examining a piece of candy, putting it in one’s mouth, chewing it, and then spitting it out.

In play the object, to win, is recognized in advance.

At the end of play development, rules emerge; and the more rigid they are, the greater the demands on the child’s application, the greater the regulation of the child’s activity, the more tense and acute play becomes.

Simply running around without purpose or rules of play is a dull game that does not appeal to children.

Nohl simplified the rules of croquet for children and showed how this demagnetized the game, for the child lost the sense of the game in proportion to the simplification of the rules. Consequently, toward the end of development in play, what was originally embryonic has a distinct form, finally emerging as purpose and rules. This was true before, but in an undeveloped form. One further feature has yet to come, essential to sporting games; this is some sort of record, which is also closely connected with purpose.

Take chess, for example. For a real chess player it is pleasant to win and unpleasant to lose a game. Nohl says that it is as pleasing to a child to come first in a race as it is for a handsome person to look at himself in a mirror; there is a certain feeling of satisfaction.

Consequently, a complex of originally undeveloped features comes to the fore at the end of play development – features that were secondary or incidental in the beginning occupy a central position at the end, and vice versa.

Finally, the third question: What sort of changes in a child’s behavior can be attributed to play? In play a child is free, i.e., he determines his own actions, starting from his own “I.” But this is an illusory freedom. His actions are in fact subordinated to a definite meaning, and he acts according to the meanings of things.

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A child learns to consciously recognize his own actions and becomes aware that every object has a meaning.

From the point of view of development, the fact of creating an imaginary situation can be regarded as a means of developing abstract thought. I think that the corresponding development of rules leads to actions on the basis of which the division between work and play becomes possible, a division encountered as a fundamental fact at school age.

I should like to mention just one other aspect: play is really a particular feature of preschool age.

As figuratively expressed by one investigator, play for a child under three is a serious game, just as it is for an adolescent, although, of course, in a different sense of the word; serious play for a very young child means that he plays without separating the imaginary situation from the real one.

For the schoolchild, play begins to be a limited form of activity, predominantly of the athletic type, which fills a specific role in the schoolchild’s development, but lacks the significance of play for the preschooler.

Superficially, play bears little resemblance to what it leads to, and only a profound internal analysis makes it possible to determine its course of movement and its role in the preschooler’s development.

At school age play does not die away, but permeates the attitude toward reality. It has its own inner continuation in school instruction and work (compulsory activity based on rules). All examinations of the essence of play have shown that in play a new relationship is created between the semantic and the visible – that is, between situations in thought and real situations.

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Dear Kindergarten Parents, We take great delight in welcoming your family to our kindergarten community. We eagerly look forward to introducing you to our kindergartens as we begin our time together.

Creating a bridge between home and school through a common picture of what is important for healthy childhood is essential to Waldorf education. It is our hope that we can work together to deepen our understanding of how to nurture and support your children during their first seven years of life.

We begin the year with a parent orientation evening in the late summer (dates to be determined) and follow up with regularly scheduled parent evenings throughout the year. It is our expectation that every family attend these evenings. This is vital to maintain communication and to build a healthy community of parents and teachers.

If you are transitioning into Marin Waldorf School or are new to Waldorf education, you will find that we strive to provide and promote a quality environment for the developing young child. We hope that you will use these summer days as an opportunity to take up or renew your commitment to minimizing screen time and encouraging healthy habits of connection with nature, the outdoors and each other. We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of freeing the children from media influence in order for the children to fully benefit from this education. Our ideal is no media!

In this folder you will find the following: ● ● ● ● ●

Items Needed for Kindergarten Sewing Instructions 2020-2021 Calendar (Draft) Immunization Requirements Articles (for new kindergarten families): “Play and its role in the Mental Development of the Child” “The Four-Year-Old-Child” “The Five-Year-Old Child” “The Six-Year-Old Child” “The Seven-Year-Old Transformation” “Daily Rhythm at Home and its Lifelong Relevance

If you have any questions over the summer, please feel free to contact our front office staff at 415479-8190, or email Robin Boynosky, front office manager, at office@marinwaldorf.org with

general questions, or Julie Meade, registrar, at registrar@marinwaldorf.org, for questions about immunizations, aftercare, and school records.

You may contact us by emailing Marieke Duijneveld at mariekeduijneveld@marinwaldorf.org or Nicole Mathers at nicolemathers@marinwaldorf.org, and we will get back to you at our earliest convenience.

With Warm Regards, Marieke Duijneveld (Morning Glory), Nicole Mathers (Hollyhock), and Greta Jee (Manzanita) Kindergarten Teachers

Things to Know for Kindergarten 2021 Food (Allergies, Lunches) Every day in the kindergarten, we prepare a fresh, warm snack in the classroom and eat it at the tables together. If your child has allergies or special dietary needs, please let the teachers know in writing as soon as possible. Depending on the foods that are restricted, it may be necessary to provide alternative snacks for your child to eat during our shared snack time.

Lunch should be healthy and substantial. Please do not send candy, chocolate, or sugary prepackaged foods such as bars, kettle corn, fruit yogurts etc. We ask that you use reusable containers whenever possible. Please label your containers.

Birthdays We celebrate birthdays as close to the actual day as possible. Parents are invited to participate in the celebration. The birthday ceremony includes a story highlighting events from your child’s life or qualities of the development of your child’s individuality. You will receive more detailed information as your child’s birthday approaches.

To minimize any social difficulties, arrangements for non-school celebrations should be handled outside of school and with sensitivity. Also, please send invitations in the mail; do not deliver them at school. Personal gift-giving among the children should also be done outside of school.

Health & Illness In accordance with the school policy, and for everyone’s well being, children with contagious diseases, fevers, streaming noses, nausea, diarrhea, etc., need to stay home until fully recovered (usually one full day free of symptoms). Sick children will be sent home.

Please notify the office if your child has been diagnosed with a contagious disease, including strep throat, pink eye, and hand, foot, and mouth.

Media We value the creative imagination of childhood and to that extent encourage all families to strive towards an environment where the child can explore, wonder and experience wholesome activities without the use of electronic media.

Dress Code Kindergarten children are required to follow the all school dress code. (Please refer to the Parent Handbook, available from the front office, for more information.) In addition, please see the “play clothes” section of the Items Needed for Kindergarten.

Items Needed for Kindergarten Your child will need the following items, all labeled your with child’s name. Please read on for more detailed descriptions of each item. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Shoes – Inside & Outside Hats – Sun & cold weather Raingear – Ideally a rainsuit or raincoat, hat/hood, boots, and rain pants Backpack (like REI Tarn 12 or similar) Water bottle Clothes bag (sewing instructions included) An entire change of clothes in clothes bag (socks, underwear, short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirt, shorts, and pants) 2 place mats and 2 napkins (sewing instructions included)

Inside Shoes It is very important that the children wear appropriate inside shoes. The children wear them when inside the classroom. After trying many styles throughout the years, we can strongly recommend slip-on, rubbersoled shoes like Keds.

Sturdy Outside Shoes We run, jump, climb, hike, and play hard. Our ability to move freely is of utmost importance in the kindergarten. Shoes need to be easy to get on and off as well as sturdy enough so that your child can comfortably participate in all kindergarten activities. High-topped sneakers, shoes with commercial characters, sling-back sandals, clogs, dress-up shoes, light-up shoes, and anything flimsy are not appropriate.

The children’s shoes play a crucial role in supporting motor development, so please choose them with care. A basic, sturdy sneaker is ideal. Laced shoes are also ideal, both for support and for the opportunity they provide to practice tying bows. This is a wonderful way to establish the kind of motor skills needed for writing and other fine motor skills in the future. We expect all 6-year-olds to be capable of properly tying their shoes, and ask you to help in teaching them.

Raingear: Raincoat, Hat or Hood, Boots, and Rain Pants Our daily rhythm provides ample outside time, even in the rainy season. One-piece rain suits by companies like Tuffo or Oki work best. They are easy to put on and take off and are incredibly compact so they can fit in our cubbies. If you need to make another choice, know that raingear should fit properly and snap or button comfortably. Many hooded raincoats don’t fit well around the neck, so check when

purchasing. Please don’t send umbrellas to school with the children. We have found that snow boots are not good rainy-weather protection for the children’s feet. Rubber or plastic rain boots are essential on rainy days, as is warmth, so dress the children in multiple layers as well as rainwear. We can strongly recommend the following as good options: ● ● ● ●

Tuffo Muddy Buddy - tuffo.com Oaki - oaki.com Puddlegear - puddlegear.com Biddle and Bop - biddleandbop.com/pages/rain-gear-helps

Clothes Bag On the first day of school, please bring your child’s change of clothes and inside shoes as well as placemats, napkins, apron, towel and bandana. If sewing is a fearful proposition, please let us know and we will do our best to find a fellow parent to assist you.

Please make these according to the specifications provided. See instructions in this packet.

Play Clothes Please choose sturdy clothing for your child’s school wardrobe. Children need to be able to move comfortably and keep warm. Logos and media characters on the children’s clothes are not acceptable.

Refer to the all school dress code found in our Parent Handbook or available from the front office. In the kindergarten it is especially important that the children have free access to their own imaginations and not be distracted by their clothes. Please don’t send your child to school in jewelry, watches, or tattoos, and keep hair accessories simple and functional. These things do not add to the quality of play and are a distraction.

Natural fibers such as cotton, silk, linen and wool are ideal as they absorb moisture and hold body temperature well. We have found that many light layers are far superior to heavy jackets, which tend to be worn open so that the chest and abdomen are cold, and the arms are hot; healthy movement is also impeded. A fleece or wool vest over layers is a much better solution for proper warmth in our changeable California weather. Hats for warmth in winter and sun protection in summer are essential.

Enough can’t be said about the impact that the environment has on the development of young children.

The more care we take with what the children eat, wear, touch, see, hear and do, the stronger and healthier they will become. Of course you needn’t go out and spend a lot of money on a new wardrobe, but as you are looking to buy new things over the summer or course of the year, keep these parameters in mind.

Please leave all toys, money, jewelry, “little treasures” and valued items at home.

Labels or Name Tags All the children’s clothing and personal items need to be properly labeled. Please get in the habit of labeling, in an easy to find place, everything that comes to school. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LABEL EVERYTHING!

Kindergarten Sewing Instructions 2021-2022

You will make: 2 single-layer napkins, 15" square 2 double-sided placemats, 12" by 16" 1 double-sided apron (*apron not required for all K classes—please check with your teacher) 1 single-layer bandanna, 24" square 1 cubby bag for a change of clothes 16" square wash cloth with a handmade loop for hanging Purchase: 2 and½ yads of cotton calico, at least 45" wide in a pattern appropriate for kindergarten ¾ yard of coordinating solid color cotton, at least 45" wide, of similar weight 3 ½ yards of 5/8" grosgrain ribbon in a coordinating color Terry cloth or fabric wash cloth

Preshrinking the cotton fabric You will preshrink the fabric twice. This will help the items to hold their shape through the weekly washing process. Remember, some of these items will be washed and dried weekly in many various laundry conditions. If they placemats are not pre-shrunk, they often become very unattractive, as the front and back shrink differently and make for a sloppy place setting.

PRESHRINK THE FABRIC by getting it wet and drying it in a hot dryer.

PRESHRINK THE FABRIC AGAIN. Yes, really, again. Just do it.

Stop! Did you preshrink your fabric ... twice? Good!

CALIFORNIA IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS FOR

K – 12 TH GRADE GRADE K-12 Admission (7th-12th)8

(including transitional kindergarten)

NUMBER OF DOSES REQUIRED OF EACH IMMUNIZATION1, 2, 3 4 Polio4

5 DTaP5

K-12 doses

3 Hep B6

2 MMR7

2 Varicella

+ 1 Tdap

7th Grade Advancement9,10

1 Tdap8

1. Requirements for K-12 admission also apply to transfer pupils.

2. Combination vaccines (e.g., MMRV) meet the requirements for individual component vaccines. Doses of DTP count towards the DTaP requirement.

3. Any vaccine administered four or fewer days prior to the minimum required age is valid.

4. Three doses of polio vaccine meet the requirement if one dose was given on or after the 4th birthday.

5. Four doses of DTaP meet the requirement if at least one dose was given on or after the 4th birthday. Three doses meet the requirement if at least one dose of Tdap, DTaP, or DTP vaccine was given on or after the 7th birthday (also meets the 7th-12th grade Tdap requirement. See fn. 8.)

2 Varicella10

One or two doses of Td vaccine given on or after the 7th birthday count towards the K-12 requirement.

6. For 7th grade admission, refer to Health and Safety Code section 120335, subdivision (c).

7. Two doses of measles, two doses of mumps, and one dose of rubella vaccine meet the requirement, separately or combined. Only doses administered on or after the 1st birthday meet the requirement.

8. For 7th-12th graders, at least one dose of pertussis-containing vaccine is required on or after the 7th birthday.

9. For children in ungraded schools, pupils 12 years and older are subject to the 7th grade advancement requirements.

10. The varicella requirement for seventh grade advancement expires after June 30, 2025.

DTaP/Tdap = diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, and acellular pertussis vaccine Hep B = hepatitis B vaccine MMR = measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine Varicella = chickenpox vaccine

INSTRUCTIONS: California schools are required to check immunization records for all new student admissions at TK /Kindergarten through 12th grade and all students advancing to 7th grade before entry. Students entering 7th grade who had a personal beliefs exemption on file must meet the requirements for TK/K-12 and 7th grade. See shotsforschool.org for more information.

UNCONDITIONALLY ADMIT a pupil whose parent or guardian has provided documentation of any of the following for each immunization required for the pupil’s age or grade as defined in table above: • Receipt of immunization.

• A permanent medical exemption.* • A personal beliefs exemption (filed in CA prior to 2016); this is valid until enrollment in the next grade span, typically at TK/K or 7th grade.† CONDITIONALLY ADMIT any pupil who lacks documentation for unconditional admission if the pupil has: • Commenced receiving doses of all the vaccines required for the pupil’s grade (table above) and is not currently due for any doses at the time of admission (as determined by intervals listed in Conditional Admission Schedule, column entitled “EXCLUDE IF NOT GIVEN BY”), or • A temporary medical exemption from some or all required immunizations.* IMM-231 (1/21)

California Department of Public Health • Immunization Branch • ShotsForSchool.org

CALIFORNIA IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS FOR K-12TH GRADE (continued)

CONDITIONAL ADMISSION SCHEDULE FOR GRADES K-12 Before admission a child must obtain the first dose of each required vaccine and any subsequent doses that are due because the period of time allowed before exclusion has elapsed.

DOSE

EARLIEST DOSE MAY BE GIVEN

EXCLUDE IF NOT GIVEN BY

Polio #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

Polio #31

4 weeks after 2nd dose

12 months after 2nd dose

Polio #4

6 months after 3rd dose

12 months after 3rd dose

DTaP #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

DTaP #32

4 weeks after 2nd dose

8 weeks after 2nd dose

DTaP #4

6 months after 3rd dose

12 months after 3rd dose

DTaP #5

6 months after 4th dose

12 months after 4th dose

Hep B #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

Hep B #3

8 weeks after 2nd dose and at least 4 months after 1st dose

12 months after 2nd dose

MMR #2

4 weeks after 1st dose

4 months after 1st dose

Varicella #2

Age less than 13 years: 3 months after 1st dose

4 months after 1st dose

Age 13 years and older: 4 weeks after 1st dose

8 weeks after 1st dose

1

1. Three doses of polio vaccine meet the requirement if one dose was given on or after the fourth birthday. If polio #3 is the final required dose, polio #3 should be given at least six months after polio #2.

2. If DTaP #3 is the final required dose, DTaP #3 should be given at least six months after DTaP #2, and pupils should be excluded if not given by 12 months after second dose. Three doses meet the requirement if at least one dose of Tdap, DTaP, or DTP vaccine was given on or after the seventh birthday. One or two doses of Td vaccine given on or after the seventh birthday count towards the requirement.

Continued attendance after conditional admission is contingent upon documentation of receipt of the remaining required immunizations. The school shall: • review records of any pupil admitted conditionally to a school at least every 30 days from the date of admission, • inform the parent or guardian of the remaining required vaccine doses until all required immunizations are received or an exemption is filed, and • update the immunization information in the pupil’s record.

For a pupil transferring from another school in the United States whose immunization record has not been received by the new school at the time of admission, the school may admit the child for up to 30 school days. If the immunization record has not been received at the end of this period, the school shall exclude the pupil until the parent or guardian provides documentation of compliance with the requirements.

Questions? * In accordance with 17 CCR sections 6050-6051 and Health and Safety Code sections 120370-120372.

See the California Immunization Handbook at ShotsForSchool.org

† In accordance with Health and Safety Code section 120335.

IMM-231 (1/21)

California Department of Public Health • Immunization Branch • ShotsForSchool.org

Marin Waldorf School | 2021-2022 CALENDAR 18 -27 Teacher In-Service Days

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1 Dia de Los Muertos 6 *Harvest Faire Set Up Day 7 *Harvest Faire / Daylight Savings 8 Veteran’s Day Observed 17-19 Parent Teacher Conferences 22 -26 Thanksgiving Break 30 Annual Giving Fund Kickoff

MAY W

6 May Faire/Grandparents and Special Friends Day 9 Teacher In Service Day 30 Memorial Day

*Harvest Faire TBD 3 Advent Spiral

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JUNE

No Classes Parent Association Mtg. Teacher In Service Day – No Classes Special Event Board Meeting

8 Last Day of School 10 Graduation

Early Release Days TIMES TBD Sept.8th 2021 Nov. 17-19th 2021 Dec. 17th 2021 Feb. 18th 2022 Apr. 1 2022 June 8 2022

1|Page

Daily Rhythm at Home and Its Lifelong Relevance

by Helle Heckmann

As parents of little children, you are often very tired and you get too little sleep, and when you have too little sleep you also have too little energy and then often you give in when you think you should not have done, or you get angry or irritated so you are not present and when you are not present you lose the children and you do not like yourself. To make it easier for you to deal in the daily life with your children there are three important considerations: • • •

To be flexible To set limits (borders) and To observe the same routine everyday

o become flexible is the result of objective inward observation. You may train your flexibility through an inner work where you learn about yourself. In relation to limits, you have to find out them for yourself.

You have to decide what the limits are for your child in your house: time to go to bed, time to eat, what to eat, what language to use in the family and so on. You have to make up your mind about limits beforehand, so, instead of saying “no, no, no…” and becoming angry, you simply do not allow the children to go beyond the limits. You know this is your decision and do not need to be angry. If you are ahead of the child and you see a certain situation coming, with humor and the right gesture or word, you can move away from the situation, and this will be possible if you train your flexibility. Knowing more about yourself will give you the possibility to also be ahead of yourself. When you catch this tool you can start working with your children in a much freer way, because the limits are set.

The third recommendation, to make a routine which is the same every day, gives the child rhythm. All Waldorf families probably know how the daily life is in the nursery and kindergarten. The children go

2|Page through the day in alternate periods of concentration and expansion, as if in a breathing rhythm where there is inhaling and exhaling.

In the inhaling or breathing‐in phase the child directs his attention to an activity that basically relates him to himself. For little children each breathing‐in period (drawing, water painting, and knitting, eating…) is very short because little children can only concentrate for short periods of time. In the exhaling or breathing‐out period, the child relates mainly to the surrounding world (free play, free running etc.). For each breathing‐in period the child needs a breathing‐out period and so a pattern is established. This rhythm is something that you can bring into your home. You have to try to find out when the children breathes‐in and when they breathe‐out. And when the children are in the breathing‐in period, you have to make sure you are present, so the child feels ah, here I feel my parents, they are there for me. After that, for very short time, you can do what you have to do at home and you can tell your child you have to wait because I need to do this. And this will be all right because you know you have been present with the child. As an example, look at the situation when parents pick up their children from the kindergarten. At the very moment you are picking up your child: Does the cell phone ring and you answer? Do you greet your friends and engage in intense talk? If yes, then you are not present for the child. In my last visit to Mexico I saw very few parents really greeting their children, the majority were talking to other parents or engaged in school affairs or talking in their cell phones, or arriving late or in a hurry.

But, for your child who has been gone for five hours and who really wants you… you are not there. So the child screams I want an ice cream! I want this or that! or he starts running around, or falling, or getting into little conflict because he is confused, because he has not really met you. On the contrary, if you take the time (and it is five seconds perhaps), you bend down, give him a hug and then smell him (so lovely!) and really you are there, his eyes will tell you more than words, how his day was. He cannot tell you with words because he cannot remember, but his eyes will tell you everything. And then you take his hand and walk together (of course in a tempo that the child can follow), and this is really lovely because you are making a new nice situation, a “you and I situation.” Now, if you need to greet people you can do it, very shortly, but together with the child because your child will feel I am where I belong, with my parent.

This was a breathing‐in situation where you were present.

Then you go to the car and go home (breathing‐out) and it is probably time for eating which brings again a breathing‐in situation. How do you eat? Do you sit down together with the child? Or is the child sitting by himself and you are walking around talking on the telephone? If you give yourself the time and sit down with your child you will teach the child manners at the table by your example. Many of the children today do not sit with their parents and they do not learn to hold utensils appropriately. However, this is important, otherwise when they are seven years old they cannot hold a pencil and to learn it at that age is so difficult compared to when they were one or two years old.

In addition, to sit at the table and to have a beginning, a process and an end, is important because this is how you should live the whole of life. Everything has a beginning, a process and an end. It may take you only fifteen minutes to sit appropriately, to check how the child holds and drinks from cup (children from one year onwards do not need a sip cup), to eat with closed mouth, and everything you are given and so on, being, in this way, an example for your child to follow, but more importantly you have taken this short moment to make again a “you and I situation” and at the same time you also help the child to find a social form of how we are when we eat together.

When you finish with the meal you remind the children they need to help with the table so that they also learn that when they are a part of a social environment they also take part in the cleaning up. In this way you have made and create a situation where you have been present and now you can say to the child go and play (breathing‐out) because you have been there, and then you can do what you need to do but you

3|Page have to be visible to your child. This is so, because a little child cannot play by himself if the center is not there and you are the most important person for the child. You are his center, and if you leave the room the little child will follow you.

When you are doing your things, the situation may occur where children will say I am bored. In this case you, of course, don´t turn on the television or music. When you are occupied with other things, you can tell your child now you play by yourself. If you know you have been present you can actually expect them to find something to do themselves. It is very important that you are not afraid of your children not knowing what to do or being bored. It is very important that you feel it is right: I have been there with them now they can be by themselves.

Nowadays, parents often use media or adult‐directed activities for their children because they are afraid of their children being bored and assume that they are not able to do anything themselves. This is a tricky situation. If you think you have to entertain your under‐seven children all the time, with media (films, TV, videogames, computers and so on), after‐school classes, and/or other adult‐directed activities, then they do not learn how to play by themselves. They will not have a moment where they can be in a state of not knowing what to do and from there progress into a state of finding images inwardly and thus creating things from inside out. By letting them to be bored you help them, because being bored represents the opportunity the children will have to go into this process of inner creativity. The fact that children are able to be by themselves, to create their own play without adult direction is of great importance because during the first seven years of the child everything is about being able to create.

If all the activities come from outside (electronic screen, video‐games, adult direction, etc.), then not much happens in the sphere of inward creation. That is why in Waldorf kindergartens, teachers do not sit down and play with the children but do real work, from which the children draw inspiration to use it in their own play. In these kindergartens you may find teachers sweeping, cooking, sawing, tending the vegetable patch, taking care of farm animals, cutting wood, and whatever the particular setting of each school allows to do. Equally, you, as a parent, in the breathing‐out phase, may do your work and the children beside you should be able to do their work (i.e. their own play). This is possible only when the children feel that they have met you in a previous breathing‐in phase.

1|Page

The Four-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

The world of the four-year-old begins to expand beyond home and the circle of family. The most intriguing new territory is social. Four-year-olds typically want to be around other children, especially if they do not have siblings. As a result of their new experiences, they may well “bring home” new behaviors and language. Four-year-olds still need regular rhythms and clear boundaries to give them the sense of security out of which to explore new areas and to counter influences that may not be consistent with what is happening at home.

They can participate for longer periods in structured activities, but still need even longer periods of unstructured time. They like to run, can walk longer distances on their own two sturdy legs, and may enjoy riding scooters or balance bikes. The family may have already gone on camping trips, but now the four-year-old can be a fuller participant.

Four-year-olds are ready for more complex stories and are particularly drawn to animal tales, stories with rhymes and repetition, and very simple fairy tales. In Waldorf nursery and preschool classes puppets are often used at story time, which help the children to experience the story more vividly.

While the two-year-old played primarily with things and the three-year-old moved those things around, the four-year-old will still do both and add a dramatic, imaginative element to his or her play.

Creative play, especially with playmates, is what nourishes the child’s development at this stage.

Family life (of both humans and animals), daily activities, and the overcoming of household problems form the greater part of the content of this play. Dramatic play represents a healthy means of processing experiences that the child has witnessed and also of integrating new learning.

Younger fours may need help negotiating differences among play partners and finding “win-win” solutions. At this age, inclusion is an important theme. “There is room for everyone.” “Let’s make our house bigger.” Helpful advice that adults can offer or model to playmates is to knock and ask, “May I please come in?” or “I have brought you a present.”

Four-year-olds can be exuberant about everything, especially at home. They often need guidance in how to express themselves in consideration of others.

While good manners may have been modeled previously, making this a priority at this stage is important. “Please,” “thank you,” “excuse me,” and “I’m sorry” should be family currency. The family meal is the perfect time for social learning and modeling care for others and practicing appropriate mealtime conversation.

Predictability in the environment and in daily rhythms were critical during the earliest years and continue to be, but now, clarity of expectations in social situations is equally as critical for the fouryear-old child. Again, modeling is the best way to teach good manners and consideration of others.

Long-winded preaching falls on seemingly deaf ears.

Challenges for the parents of the four-year-old may resemble those of the previous years and also include some surprises, such as the new behaviors and language learned outside the home or from new playmates.

2|Page he increased capacity of the four-year-old to focus may mean that transitions become tricky again.

Many of the suggestions delineated in the description of the two-year-old will still be helpful, but parents will naturally need to adjust for the increased language skills and other capacities of the older child. Suggestions about limiting choices given for three-year-olds also hold for four- year-olds. That the child’s cooperative spirit in other settings is not always evident at home is what might seem new and puzzling.

and doing so is a privilege, especially if adults carry the same feeling inwardly. Parents have found that both of these expressions can be used very effectively for younger children as well.

Potty talk, name-calling, and images that are developmentally inappropriate, whether from media or other sources, may well find their way into the life of the four-year-old. This requires a calm, evenkeeled response by family members. Over-reacting will often escalate unwanted behaviors. Firm and clear statements beginning with, “In our family, we… (fill in the blank)” are the most effective remedy. This requires considerable self-discipline from parents, but is also an unavoidable yet valuable opportunity to clarify and communicate family values.

The gift of parenting a four-year-old is the opportunity to clarify family values and begin creating the family culture.

Further Reading Parents may need to ask themselves if their fouryear-old has had enough unstructured, self-directed playtime during the course of the day. This need can be well supported by creating both indoor and outdoor play areas that have an array of open-ended play materials that invite inventiveness and creativity. It may also be that the child is looking for more flexibility and playfulness in communications from adults. That may be a tall order at the end of a long workday, but if parents can find the spark of inspiration, the results can be very rewarding.

Modeling good communication and negotiation between parents or with older siblings can also be helpful in building skills in cooperative living.

One expression that engenders socialness is “Let’s,” for example, “Let’s tidy up together.” This takes the sting out of the child’s having to stop their chosen activity to do something that is necessary for the good of the family. Another expression that seems to work magically is, “You may…(fill in the blank).” What is being communicated here is that the children are being allowed to participate in something important,

P. Bradley and B. Patterson, eds., Beyond the Rainbow Bridge (Michaelmas Press, 2000) L. deForest, ed., Tell Me A Story (WECAN 2013) A. Faber and E. Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen& Listen So Kids Will Talk (Scribner 2012) A. Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (Atria Books 2006) R. Long-Breipohl, Supporting Self-directed Play (WECAN 2010) S. Oppenheimer, Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children (Steiner Books 2006) K.J. Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids (Ballantine Books 2010)

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The Five-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

The world of the five-year-old is a fairy tale world.

Imaginative play is now inspired more by archetypal characters and their adventures than by everyday events. While five-year-olds live deeply into their fantasy play, the tide of imagination often carries them quite gracefully along in ordinary life as well.

They are typically more adept and less easily frustrated than during the previous year.

To understand this stage of development, it is helpful to revisit the notion of three distinct periods within the first seven years. (See the introduction to this series.) Between 4 1/2 and 5 years of age, there is a shift towards “thinking-willing.” The child’s thinking is beginning to wake up during the last third of the first seven-year cycle. This new capacity allows five-year-olds to respond not only to environmental stimuli, but also to generate their own pictures and ideas out of which to create and play.

The waking up in the head coincides with increasing control of the limbs. Five-year-olds enjoy participating in gardening, yard work, cooking, baking, sweeping, sewing, simple woodworking, laundry and dish washing. They are excited about participating, but will want to do these tasks with adults or playmates and will benefit from being guided in setting up and following through with

tasks. This is, in fact, as it should be. Observing or working alongside adults helps them learn how to organize materials and create a logical process for the task, in addition to enhancing their fine and gross motor skills. They are physically participating in our thinking processes.

Active fives may enjoy the challenge of learning how to jump rope, scale a climbing wall, or ride a bicycle.

Five-year-olds are quick and eager to learn, but are not yet ready, physically and psychologically, for long periods of sitting at a desk or bookwork. They need to be active and they delight in dressing up in costumes and acting out their beloved stories. The may show signs of stress if their days are not balanced with sufficient physical learning and opportunities for creative, imaginative learning.

As they approach the age of six, children’s play tends to become more goal-oriented. In fact, they may occasionally seem to have fallen out of the imaginative stream. They may say that they are bored. They may spend their playtime talking and planning a game, but never actually playing. The purposeful activities described above can help them through this “dry period” and also show them the possibility of using their creativity in a new way.

After such rich self-directed play, this new stage can come as quite a surprise for parents. The six-year-old will continue to struggle with how to find his or her new place in the real world, as we will see in the following article.

2|Page A major challenge for parents of the five-year-old comes from the outside world.

Five-year-olds are openhearted prey for marketers and media. What the media offers as soul nourishment to children often resembles stereotypes of humanity and human activity, rather than true archetypes. Five-year-olds are more aware of gender differences and these images can have a strong influence that may need to be countered by family values. Is the humor to which they are exposed healthy and good-natured or is it is it meanspirited and insensitive to others? Parents need to be conscious of giving their children ideals that inspire rather than limit their future sense of self and their capacity for empathy.

Five-year-olds are interested in stories about their parents when they were growing up. For both parent and child, bringing back and re-enlivening memories can be both enjoyable and an opportunity for parents to share their views of life and learning. If the tradition of parentcreated tales (see The Three-YearOld Child) has continued, stories will now involve more potential danger and a spirit of adventure, and will contain life lessons, without a moralizing tone, of course.

rhythm can bring a creative element to life at home.

Conscious care of the world of things builds habits that are applicable to future academic success and social skills.

Do parents have a passion or skill that they can share with their children? Children look with respect and admiration at expertise and creativity and are thrilled to be able to engage in an art or craft with a parent.

The gift of parenting the five-year-old is the intimate sharing of both work and play that is the basis of our life in community.

Further Reading B. Patterson and P. Bradley, eds., Beyond the Rainbow Bridge (Michaelmas Press, 2000) A. Faber and E. Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (Scribner 2012) F. Jaffke, Work and Play in Early Childhood (Floris Books 1996) A. Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishment to Love and Reason (Atria Books 2006) R. Long-Breipohl, Supporting Self-directed Play (WECAN 2010) N. Mellon, Storytelling with Children (Hawthorn Press 2013) S. Honigblum, ed., Waldorf Early Childhood Education: An Introductory Reader (WECAN 2017)

A further challenge is related to our modern lifestyle. Do parents have sufficient time to engage in the purposeful activities that are so healthy for the will and sensory development of their children?

Parents may not have time for all of the activities listed above, but being aware of their importance and choosing some to incorporate into the family

S. Oppenheimer, Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children (Steiner Books 2006) K.J. Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids (Ballantine Books, 2010)

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The Six-Year-Old Child Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

Even before a child’s sixth birthday, parents may begin to notice some surprising changes. Six-yearolds may exhibit a new kind of restlessness, may become suddenly clumsy or indecisive, and are often resistant and argumentative. They appear to be testing the established boundaries with new vigor. It may be more accurate to say, however, that they are really testing their new selves.

Thinking is beginning to awaken in the last one-third of the first seven-year cycle of development, (See the Introduction to this series). If we remember this and we realize how powerful thinking can be, we can imagine that the child’s accustomed way of being in the world could be thrown into chaos. The six-yearold is exploring this new capacity of thinking and trying to integrate it with what is more familiar and comfortable, and in the process, everything has to be reorganized!

At the same time, six-year-olds are more sensitive and vulnerable than indicated by their outward behavior, especially when their ideas do not bear anticipated fruit. They can be silly, emotionally volatile, easily fall apart, or have trouble completing a given task. They may need to talk about what happened to them during the day at meal times or before bed.

They need, above all, to be recognized as the same child, yet NOT the same child as they once were.

They need us to see them with fresh eyes and be sensitive and understanding of the transformation that they are undergoing. This does not mean that parents should let go of their expectations and boundaries. It means that we need to hold on to them in a different way.

Because of their increased capacity for mental picturing, six-year-olds are ready for chapter books, like Winnie-the-Pooh or Mother West Wind and other Stories by Thornton Burgess. The humor and pathos of these characters and their stories are warmly comforting and ring true for the six-year-old.

Ideas are emerging and the six-year-old may strongly identify with an idea as “my idea,” and ride it like a wave toward a growing sense of independence.

Parents are no longer the constant center around which the six-year-old revolves, but the child is becoming his or her own center. In the same vein, six-year-olds also tend to exaggerate and want to do things that they are not yet able to do.

Many six-year-olds actually seem to embrace and play with the chaotic element of this developmental reorganization. This can be difficult for the rest of the family. How we respond can make a difference in how gracefully and quickly they move through this period of change.

The main challenge for the parents of the six-yearold is how to keep an even keel and a steady hand on the tiller of family life while in the uncharted and

2|Page choppy waters of this period, often called “the first adolescence.”

As already mentioned above, unqualified acceptance of and real interest in the emerging aspects of the six-year-old will mean that he or she does not need to keep raising the “notice-me flag” over and over again. Six-year-olds also need protection from their self-initiated chaos. By upholding the consistency of their expectations, parents provide dependable ballast that can mitigate the child’s feeling of upheaval.

calming down after 6 1/2, as your child consolidates these changes and prepares for the new phase of development that begins around the seventh year.

Six-year-olds will cooperate if they are given simple, appropriate reasons for doing so; if requests are communicated with a good dose of humor; if decisions are framed so that they are not an either/or or a yes/no situation. Generally speaking, direct confrontation is not usually an effective strategy. Six-year-olds need some breathing space to process the situation and to feel that they are cooperating out of their own will.

Keeping a positive attitude, although not easy, will help both parent and child navigate more successfully. Modeling the behavior and communications that we want our six-year-olds to choose is still incredibly important.

Finding appropriate channels for the increased energy levels and restlessness is also helpful. Sixyear-olds are duly impressed with skills of adults in homemaking, building, crafts and gardening activities. All of the purposeful activities that were suggested for the five-year-old still hold keen interest for the six-year-old. The six-year-olds, however, are more capable and will be able to do more on their own than when they were five and will respond well if the adults with whom they are working notice their increased skills. Time outside in nature is also a healing and helpful influence during this period of development.

The gift of parenting a six-year-old is the strengthening of one’s own calm center in order to support your child as he or she navigates the changes that herald the end of the first seven-year cycle of growth and development. You may begin to notice a

Further Reading N. Blanning, ed., First Grade Readiness (Second Edition) (WECAN 2009) R. Ker, ed., You’re Not the Boss of Me! Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation (WECAN 2007) R. Louv, Children and Nature: Making Connections (The Myrin Institute 2014) M. Rawson & M. Rose, Ready to Learn: From Birth to School Readiness (Hawthorne Books 2002)

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The Seven-Year-Old Transformation

years, also called the life or etheric forces, are now available for creating on another level, in the area of imagination and mental images. These are the forces required for abstract learning and memory.

Excerpted from Child Development Year by Year ©WECAN 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

From physiology, we know that all of our cells are replaced every seven years. The birth of the child’s life body is the result of the child’s taking hold of his or her physical body during the first seven years of life. Once the child has taken hold of his or her physical body and some of the growth forces are freed up for other creative functions, the child has gained his or her own “protective garment,” usually referred to as the life body or etheric body. Waldorf educators recognize this freeing of some of the creative forces from activities of growth and maintenance, at around seven years of age, as a sign of the birth of the child’s own life body or etheric body. Prior to this subtle “birth,” the child has lived in the “womb-like” protection of the family life.

The child’s first developmental period ends and the second begins around the child’s seventh birthday.

Many of the changes that were mentioned in connection with the six-year-old signal the shift from the first to the second cycle of seven years. In the second seven-year cycle development moves from the predominance of the will to the predominance of feelings, imagination and social life. It is also the beginning of learning about the world from a beloved authority rather than through imitation.

In Waldorf education we speak about the first seven years as the period of time during which the child “takes hold” of his or her physical body. This “taking hold of” gesture includes the change of teeth. The emphasis on teeth comes from the understanding of teeth as the hardest part of the physical body. While the baby teeth are a part of the child’s inherited body, the six-year-old molars are the result of the child’s own activity. The new permanent teeth indicate that the process of taking hold of the body nearing its completion.

One visible sign that seven-year-olds are undergoing significant change is their passion for skipping and jumping. While the child at the beginning of the first seven-year cycle conquered gravity by standing upright, now the child is using gravity to launch him or herself heavenward. We could say that the caterpillar is becoming a butterfly! During the seventh year, the child is trying out his or her transformed physical, social/emotional, and intellectual capacities.

With the eruption of the child’s permanent teeth, some of the growth forces active in the first seven

Parents of the seven-year-old will notice their child’s new capacity for learning and independence, even though they may occasionally see moments of

2|Page hesitation and even regressive behaviors in their child. The seven-year-old change means change for parents, as well. It means being sensitive as to when to step forward and when to step back.

It means recognizing when we might be hanging on to our children, rather than letting them move forward. It means finding new ways to offer support now that our child has entered a new cycle of development.

The gift of life with a seven-year-old is learning to let go enough for your child to sense your confidence in him or her, and at the same time, staying in touch enough to know when more support is needed.

Further Reading N. Blanning, ed., First Grade Readiness (WECAN 2009) R. Ker, ed., You’re Not the Boss of Me! Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation (WECAN 2007) K.J. Payne and Lisa Ross, Simplicity Parenting (Ballantine Books 2010) J. Petrash, Navigating the Terrain of Childhood (Nova Institute Publishing 2004)