Meeting the Needs of the Child Today:

The development of the child from pre-birth to age seven

The development of the adult caring for and educating the young child

A World Conference for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators 

with

Dr. Michaela Gloeckler, Dornach

Dr. Johanna Steegmans, Seattle, USA

Renate Long-Breipohl, Ph.D., Sydney, Australia

2. – 6. August 2008

Wilton, New Hampshire, USA

FURTHER INFORMATION FOLLOWS: 

INVITATION LETTER

SCHEDULE

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

FOR REGISTRATION, GO TO:

  https://www.regonline.com?eventID=197722&rTypeID=112683

INVITATION LETTER

Dear colleagues in Waldorf early childhood programs and kindergartens throughout the world,

The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) and the International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education (IASWECE) are pleased to invite you to our 2008 International Early Childhood Conference in Wilton, New Hampshire, USA.

The theme of the conference is Meeting the Needs of the Child Today. We will look at the wholeness of the first seven-year period of development, the child's need for continuity of care based on human relationships, and our roles as both educator and caregiver in working with children, their parents and each other.

This conference will offer opportunities for Waldorf early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers and caregivers from around the world to explore the development of the young child and the development of the educator/care-giver.

Our keynote speakers include Dr. Michaela Gloeckler from the Medical Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Dr. Johanna Steegmans from the Sound Circle Center in Seattle, Washington, and Renate Long-Breipohl, PhD, from Parsifal College in Sydney, Australia.

We suggest the following resources for study preparation. These publications and others will also be available for purchase at the conference.

Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 6 in The Child's Changing Consciousness

Rudolf Steiner, Self-Education in the Light of Spiritual Science, Berlin, March 14, 1912 (Mercury Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1995)

M. Glöckler, S. Langhammer, C. Wiechert, Education — Health for Life (Medical and Pedagogical Sections at the Goetheanum, Dornach, 2006)

The conference will include singing together each morning, keynote lectures, discussion groups, mini-sessions, practical/artistic workshops, reports on early childhood activities in North America and around the world, and evening events such as American folk-dancing, excursions to the hills or the ocean, puppetry and marionettes, and skits by participants. The primary conference language will be English. In addition, there will be translations and workshops in German and Spanish, and possibly other languages, according to need.

The conference will take place on the beautiful wooded campuses of the High Mowing School (a Waldorf boarding high school) and Pine Hill Waldorf School (kindergarten through grade 8) in Wilton, New Hampshire, USA, 90 minutes northwest of Boston. Bring your swimsuit – the school also has an outdoor swimming pool!

We look forward to seeing you!

With warm wishes,

Susan Howard

on behalf of the IASWECE Council and the WECAN Board

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

WORKSHOPS

Workshops will meet on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 – 5 PM.  Please choose one from the following. (Note: the primary language is the first listed) 

1. Nurturing and Nourishing — Elements of Care for Children and Caregivers                ENGLISH

Hands-on experiences with various nurturing activities including hand massages, footbaths, moist face cloths, homemaking activities of cleaning and caring for the space, and some interactive music or games for adults and children. We will also view a slide show of home arts.

Cynthia Aldinger, Norman, Oklahoma, is the founder of LifeWays North America, an organization dedicated to the development of healthy childcare and parenting practices. A former Waldorf kindergarten teacher, she trains and mentors child care providers and is a member of the WECAN Board.

2. Preserving the Urge to Play                                                             ENGLISH/GERMAN

Play is one of the essential elements of life for which children have an innate urge — similar to eating, drinking, and sleeping. Yet play is rapidly disappearing from the lives of children in the technologically-advanced countries. This has serious implications for the child, for their life as adults, and for their societies. We will examine all of this and discuss how to restore play to children’s lives.  Presentation and conversation with some hands-on experiences.

Joan Almon, Silver Spring, Maryland, is a former Waldorf kindergarten teacher and co-chair of WECAN. She is currently director of the US Alliance for Childhood, an advocacy group that brings together educators, health professionals and others to restore creative play and other healthy essentials to children’s lives.

3. The Therapeutic Value of Nursery Rhymes in Rhythm, Speech, and Movement       ENGLISH

Nursery rhymes offer children rhythm to support etheric health, linguistic richness to encourage speech and future literacy skills, and endless possibilities for imaginative movement to create healthy senses.  This workshop will highlight these areas, also sharing nursery-rhyme-inspired movement possibilities for our classrooms.

Nancy Blanning, Denver, Colorado, has been a Waldorf early childhood educator for 25-plus years.  She is currently a therapeutic support teacher focusing on creating healthy developmental movement for young children. Nancy is a member of the WECAN Board, a Regional representative, and co-author with Laurie Clark of Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures.

4. Movement Adventures Through the Seasons                                                                     ENGLISH

Movement that helps to integrate and engage the young child is brought through lively circle adventures. We will experience the circles and discuss how the movement supports the four foundational senses.

Laurie Clark, Denver, Colorado, is in her 26th year of teaching as a Waldorf kindergarten teacher. She is a conference presenter, teacher trainer, mentor and consultant, and is a WECAN Regional representative. She is mother to three daughters and grandmother to one granddaughter. Laurie co-authored Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures with Nancy Blanning.

5. Meeting the Other: Parents and Teachers/Educators as Partners          ENGLISH/SPANISH

    Encontrando al Otro: Maestras y Padres en Colaboración

Our parent-teacher conferences and class meetings are wonderful opportunities for forming community and for collaboration between teachers and parents for the benefit of the children. Working together we can do so much more than we could ever do individually! We will explore ways to enliven our class meetings, to address difficult subjects in an experiential way and make our parent-teacher conferences more meaningful and productive.

Louise deForest, New York, has been a kindergarten teacher for many years and is an active mentor and teacher trainer in the United States and Mexico. She is a member of the WECAN board, the IASWECE Council, and is actively involved in the Older Child Working Group of IASWECE. She is the Pedagogical Director of the Early Childhood Program at the Rudolf Steiner Waldorf School in New York, NY.

6. The Meaningful Joy of Puppet Theater                                                                            ENGLISH

When the soul is alive in the unfolding of it's motor abilities and skills then one feeling penetrates it; that of joy. We can say the sense of movement is the Mother of Joy. — Karl Koenig

We want to ensoul our puppet work with movement that reflects archetypes, so that truth will shine out and be received rightly by the children's soul. A young girl will stand, walk, skip with levity.  The old shoemaker will move with kind intent and interest in his work.  Snow White will move with more quiet than Rose Red whose movement will be imbued with energy. We are supporting the developing sense of movement, home of soul joy.  In this workshop we will celebrate our opportunity to look at puppet movement in this light. 

Suzanne Down, Victoria, British Columbia, is the founder and director of Juniper Tree School of Story and Puppetry Arts which will start a new training series in summer 2009.  Her website is www.junipertreepuppets.com. She is on the educational committee of Puppeteers of America, and World Chair of the International Puppets for Peace Day.  Her Puppets for World Change Institute researches and implements puppetry as a bridge to healthy change for social and community issues.  She lives on Vancouver Island near her three grown children.

7. Die sanfte Eingewöhnung  - langsam, gemeinsam mit den Eltern!        GERMAN/ENGLISH

   Gently Settling Into Nursery/Kindergarten/Childcare – slowly, together with the parents!

Toddlers need a close, stable relationship with an adult caregiver. Based on our study of attachment research, we have worked out a step-by-step method to integrate the child into daycare.

Eva Fuchs, Vienna, Austria, is a social worker and Waldorf kindergarten teacher who has led a nursery group of children ages 1 ½ - 3 since 2001. She is a member of the Worldwide Initiative for Early Childhood Care (WWIECC) and teaches in the childcare provider training course, Accompanying the Child into Life. She is married with four children.

8. Salutogenesis in Early Childhood Education: The Mystery of Age-Specific Learning and Development                                                                                                                  ENGLISH/GERMAN

In this workshop, we will explore questions around the healthy development of the young child between birth and school entrance.

Michaela Glöckler, MD, Dornach, Switzerland, is the leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach. A former pediatrician and school doctor, she is actively involved with the Waldorf school movement worldwide as a lecturer and is the author of many books on child development.

9. Der heilende Einfluß des einfachen Puppenspiels, das die Kinder mit einbezieht   

    The healing value of simple puppetry involving children                          GERMAN/ENGLISH

Sharing of simple puppet plays on the floor, on your lap or on the table and conversation. Where is the healing impulse?

 Brigitte Goldmann, Vienna, Austria, is a member of the IASWECE Council. She has worked for many years as a kindergarten teacher, trainer of kindergarten teachers and mentor in Austria, Eastern Europe and South Africa. She is the leader of the IASWECE Working Group on Training. When not traveling, she spends time with her children and grandchildren in Vienna.

10. Schwierige Zeiten – besondere Kinder: Warum Elternarbeit so wichtig ist         GERMAN/

     Challenging times – special children: Why parent work is so important               ENGLISH

Work with the parents represents one of the most important ways of mediating between institutions and family setting for the benefit of the child. Especially when children appear difficult or raise concerns, awareness between professionals and parents is called for How can we on the one hand learn to perceive and describe the needs of the children, and on the other, to formulate possibilities and aims of the institution?  In addition to brief introductory presentations and video examples, the workshop intends to be mainly a practice seminar about the inner attitude towards parents and children.

Claudia Grah-Wittich, Frankfurt, is an early childhood development specialist. She works with parents and teaches courses in early childhood education and learning to see children in new ways at “der Hof” near Frankfurt. She is also a member of the German and international working groups on Birth to Three, the Worldwide Initiative for Early Childhood Care (WWIECC).

Stefan Krauch, Frankfurt, is a carpenter, educator, therapeutic educator and painter. He works in early childhood development as an adult educator and advises parents.

11. Working with Mixed Ages in Early Childhood Education                                                   ENGLISH

How do we work out of the model "home" in our kindergarten with the mixed-aged groups of children? This workshop will include watching a video, doing movement exercises, and sharing in discussion.

Helle Heckmann, Copenhagen, Denmark, is a longtime Waldorf kindergarten teacher who has worked with a wide range of ages in her Danish kindergarten, Nokken. Helle is the author of  Nokken and a new book and DVD, Childhood’s Garden, about her work. She is a member of the International Association (IASWECE) Council and is a founding member of the Worldwide Initiative for Early Childhood Care (WIECC). Helle travels widely throughout the world, lecturing, offering workshops, mentoring and training kindergarten teachers and child care providers.

12. Developing a Creative Spirit Worthy of Imitation                                                           ENGLISH

If we aspire to educate the young child, we must be models of creative will, worthy of the child’s imitation. Stone carving, woodcarving and other arts and crafts offer opportunities for us to develop our creative will. In this workshop, a variety of materials – stone, wood, clay, sand and grains – will be introduced and explored as mediums for fostering our own creative spirit and for stimulating creative play in children.

Michael Howard, Amherst, Massachusetts, is an artist, adult educator and writer. He has taught in the early childhood training courses at Sunbridge College for 20 years. Author of Educating the Will and Art as Spiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner’s Contributions to the Visual Arts, he is currently active at Life Form Studio in Amherst and travels throughout North America lecturing, offering workshops and mentoring teachers and artists.

13. How Can We Awaken to the Elementals?                                                                      ENGLISH

How are these emissaries of the spiritual active in the processes in nature, in ourselves and in our classroom? We will explore these questions symbolically, artistically and practically through presentation and sharing as well as hands on experiences.

Barbara Klocek, Sacramento, California, has been teaching a mixed aged kindergarten for many years at the Sacramento Waldorf School. During that time she has also worked professionally as an artist and art therapist.  Her love of art early led her to a Master of Fine Arts degree from Temple University.  Her three sons, now grown, were educated at the Waldorf School. 

14. String Stories for the Kindergarten                                                      ENGLISH

Many 5- and 6-year olds enjoy playing cat’s cradle and learning string figures. I developed these stories to emphasize the imaginative pictures behind the forms and the unfolding of one form into another. Some are simple enough for even the 4-year-olds and others are challenging enough for the oldest children. A fine-motor activity that tickles the fancy as well as the fingers, thumbs and sometimes the knees and toes! This will be a hands-on workshop; we will watch, try out, practice and make up our own stories.  We will discuss how and when to use them, how to introduce them, the making and care of the strings as well as what this activity can bring to the children.

Holly Koteen-Soule, Seattle, Washington, has been a Waldorf kindergarten teacher for many years. She founded the Bright Water School and is active in adult education and early childhood training at the Sound Circle Center. Holly leads the WECAN Task Force on Early Childhood Training.

15. “You’re Not the Boss of Me!” — Understanding the 6/7 Year Old Transformation                                                                                                                                                                              ENGLISH

The child from age 51/2 to 7 undergoes tremendous changes. In these two sessions we will look at these changes, including issues around readiness for class one and creative ways to approach the joys and challenges of working with the older child in the kindergarten. Presentation, discussion, and activities.

Ruth Ker, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, is a kindergarten teacher at the Sunrise Waldorf School, a WECAN board member, and is active in training early childhood educators at the West Coast Institute in British Columbia. She is the founder of the WECAN Working Group on the Older Child, and a contributor and editor of You’re Not the Boss of Me!

16. The Task of the Educator in the Context of the Self-directed Play of the Child   ENGLISH                                                                                                                                                                              

Rudolf Steiner speaks of the benefits of the well-guided and yet self-initiated/self-directed play of the young child. We as educators have to understand what this guidance means in the context of free play. This question will be explored and discussed using examples and insights gained in a play research project which is currently undertaken by Renate together with Steiner early childhood educators in Australia.

Renate Long-Breipohl, Sydney, Australia, holds a doctorate in theology and a BEd in early childhood education. Before migrating to Australia in 1985 she lectured on early childhood in Germany. In Australia she taught kindergarten for 10 years; in 1997 she moved to Sydney to take up a position at Parsifal College, as director of the Waldorf early childhood courses. She lectures widely and has taught, mentored and coordinated Waldorf training courses in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. She is a member of the Council of the International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education and a member of its Working Group on Early Childhood Training.

17. Wachstumskräfte und Denkkäfte — der Doppelaspekt des Ätherischen            

      Growth Forces and Thinking Forces – the Twofold Nature of the Etheric      GERMAN/ENGLISH

Medical and anthroposophical aspects of the metamorphosis of growth forces into forces of thinking and consciousness, with special consideration given to school readiness. How can we better understand and accompany the children’s transition from kindergarten to school? This transformation in the 6th/7th year can only be really understood in the context of the whole developmental process. This workshop will be held in German, with some translation into English.

Dr. Claudia McKeen, Stuttgart, has been active for years as a medical doctor working with educators on questions of school readiness and child development. She is a member of the working group that has published guidelines for the education of children from age 3 to 9 in Germany, recently translated into English as Developmental Signatures.

18. The Anthroposophical day nursery: Surrounding the child with health-giving sheaths and nurturing the life of the family                                                                                                      ENGLISH

Today’s modern family has needs that are different to the family of yesteryear. It is becoming almost commonplace that very small children will be cared for in out-of-home environments. How can we best fulfill the needs of these little ones and at the same time provide an example for the family? Presentation with pictures and time for conversation.

Bernadette Raichle, Havelock North, New Zealand, has been active in the Early Childhood realm for over 25 years. A former Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher, she pioneered the first childcare centre in New Zealand based on a Steiner/Waldorf understanding, developing practices that not only supported the needs of infants and young children, but also those of the family. She has been the Director of Awhina Day Nursery and Kindergarten for 12 years and presently travels to Japan, Canada and the USA as a consultant. Her new book, Creating a Home for Body, Soul and Spirit, will be published by WECAN in summer 2008.

19. Der Schulungsweg und das Leben mit dem kleinen Kind                                  GERMAN/ENGLISH

      The Path of Inner Development in Living with the Small Child

If we pay sensitive attention to the small child, we quickly notice that the moment we perceive the child’s needs, great demands are placed upon our own soul lives — for equanimity, selflessness, perseverance, humility, presence of mind ... the list is long and encompasses the pre-requisites for inner development described by many spiritual streams. In this workshop, we will create a space to describe these qualities to one another, as well as the educational crises that show us that we have not yet attained our goals. We will also work with passages from Rudolf Steiner’s How to Know Higher Worlds.

Philipp Reubke, Colmar, France, has been active for many years in the kindergarten. He is a member of the Council and Board of the IASWECE and plays an active role in its conferences and publications. He is married; his children attended the Waldorf School in Colmar.

20. Kinder Cottage: Re-discovering early childhood beyond the landscape of the Waldorf School

                                                                                                                                                                ENGLISH