You Are Your Child's First Teacher: Encouraging Your Child's Natural Development from Birth to Age Six (Paperback, 3, Revised)

Preface to the Revised Edition

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1
You Are Your Child’s First Teacher
A Unique Opportunity • Parents’ Dilemma Today • Cultural Dilemmas • Lack of Support for Mothering • Children Are Not Tiny Adults! • The Child’s Changing Consciousness • The Role of the Child’s Individuality • How Children Learn in the First Seven Years • Our Task as First Teachers • Trusting Ourselves • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 2
Home Life as the Basis for All Learning
Home Life Is Undervalued in Our Culture • Why Is It So Difficult to Be Home with Children Today? • Consciously Creating a Home • Four Levels of Home Life • Home Life as the Curriculum for the Young Child • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 3
Birth to Three: Growing Down and Waking Up
Growing into the Body • What Is Your Baby Like Between Six Weeks and Eight Months of Age? • Learning to Walk • The Second Year: Mastering Language • The Emergence of Thinking • The Young Child’s Senses • The Emerging Sense of Self • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 4
Helping Your Baby’s Development
Stimulating and Protecting the Sensitivity of the Newborn • What Is It Like Being with a Newborn? • What Is It Like from Months Two to Twelve? • Physical Development • The Development of Intelligence • Emotional Development • Language Development • Toys for the First Year • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 5
Helping Your Toddler’s Development
Encouraging Balanced Development • Dealing with Negative Behavior • Encouraging the Development of Language and Understanding • The Beginnings of Imaginative Play • Providing a Rich Environment for Your Toddler • Toys and Equipment • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 6
Rhythm in Home Life
Creating Rhythm in Daily Life • The Rhythm of the Week • Celebrating Festivals and the Rhythm of the Year • Celebrating Birthdays • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 7
Discipline and Other Parenting Issues
The Question of Discipline • Why Does Parenting Take So Much Energy? • Can You Work toward Rhythm with an Infant? • What about Weaning? • Crying Babies • What about Going Back to Work? • How Long Do Children’s Senses Need Protecting? • Toilet Training • Separation Anxiety and “Helicopter Parenting” • Cabin Fever • Other Parenting Issues • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 8
Nourishing Your Child’s Imagination and Creative Play
Three Stages of Play • Experiencing the World through Play • The Importance of Play in Intellectual Development • Ways to Encourage Your Child’s Creative Play • Nourishing Your Child’s Imaginative Play through Stories • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 9
Developing Your Child’s Artistic Ability
 
Children’s Drawings and Development • The Experience of Color • Watercolor Painting with Young Children • Metamorphosis in Later Stages of Life • Modeling with Beeswax • Making Things with Your Children • Freeing Your Own Inner Artist • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 10
Encouraging Your Child’s Musical Ability
Make a Joyful Noise • Music and Cognitive Development • Singing with Your Child • Movement Games and Fingerplays • Pentatonic Music and the “Mood of the Fifth” • What about Music and Dance Lessons? • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 11
Cognitive Development and Early Childhood Education
Academic vs. Play-Based Learning • Why Not Introduce Academics Early? • The Value of Preschool • Evaluating Early Childhood Programs • LifeWays and Waldorf Early Childhood Programs • LifeWays and Waldorf in the Home • The Value of Mixed-Age Programs • When Is Your Child Ready for First Grade? • What Happens Around Age Seven? • Beginning Academic Work: The Waldorf Approach • What about the Advanced or Gifted Child? • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 12
Common Parenting Questions: From Television to Immunizations
Preparation for Life • Computers • Balanced Development • Television • Toys • Video Games • Immunizations and Childhood Illnesses • The Sick Child • What Makes Children So Different from One Another? • Religion and Young Children • Recommended Resources
 
CHAPTER 13
Help for the Journey
Conscious Parenting Is a Process  • In Conclusion
 
Appendix: Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf Education
Notes
Bibliography
Index