Nurturing Potential in the Kindergarten Years

Quick Look

• Helps parents and teachers understand the concept of children's 'life forces' or etheric bodies
• Provides practical ways to nurture children through their early developmental years, drawing on the ether body of the teacher or parent
• An inspiring and empowering book for anyone involved with young children

Helps parents and teachers understand children's learning processes, and provides practical ways to nurture them in the first seven years, using teachers' own etheric bodies.

Description

The kindergarten years, when children are aged between about three and seven years, can be some of the most formative in their development. At the heart of early years Steiner-Waldorf education is the concept of 'life forces', or an 'ether body'. For a child to grow into a healthy adult, fulfilling their potential, these forces must be recognised and properly nurtured. Teachers in particular must understand and work with their own ether bodies, to best help the children develop.

This book, which is essential reading for any teacher, and equally insightful for parents, offers accessible ways to understand and visualise the difficult concept of the 'ether body'. It also provides practical examples of how to nurture them at different educational stages, through particular issues faced by Waldorf kindergartens.

Although it addresses challenging ideas, this book will be both inspiring and empowering for anyone involved with young children.

Reviews

'I have been pleased to discover that this new book (...) reflects on work with under seven year olds in a way which I found fresh and illuminating...This book offers coherent sections of short chapters that are ideal for study and include "research questions" to make it easy for a group of an individual to use...I recommend this book to kindergarten teachers first of all, as they will instantly appreciate the illumination thrown on our work by this approach. Kindergarten trainees and parents will also find it very interesting and will find plenty to work on here. I would like to see it used on training courses and a source of study material for practicing teachers. It also has value for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Rudolf Steiner's four-fold picture of the human being by shining a fresh light on the normally unconscious world of etheric forces.'
-- Jill Tina Taplin, New View

Author

Cornelis Boogerd was born in 1952 in the Netherlands, and studied social sciences at Driebergen. Since 1990 he has helped establish Steiner-Waldorf schools and teacher training in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.