Rahima Baldwin Dancy's Blog, page 5
November 28, 2011
New Edition of You Are Your Child's First Teacher
We are pleased to announce that a revised and updated edition of You are Your Child's First Teacher will be available in the summer of 2012. (The second edition--with the pink cover--will still be available until then).
In the third edition I've updated all the references (including web addresses) and added two chapters that have grown out of my work with parents and with LifeWays over the past five years. The new chapters are on "Home Life as the Basis for All Learning" and "Rhythm in Home Life."
I'm excited that the editors at Celestial Arts contacted me to do a new edition at a time when I had been working with 1-5 year olds and their families through Rainbow Bridge LifeWays Program in Boulder. I'm excited about reaching an expanded audience with this new version!
Check out the new table of contents:
CHAPTER 1
You Are Your Child's First
Teacher
~ A Unique Opportunity ~ Parents' Dilemma Today ~ Cultural Dilemmas ~ Lack
of Support for Mothering ~ A Way of
Seeing Children's Development: Children Are Not Tiny Adults! ~ The Child's
Changing Consciousness ~ Whose Consciousness Is Changing? ~ Our Task as First
Teachers ~ Trusting Ourselves ~ Recommended Resources ~
CHAPTER 2
Home Life as the Basis for All
Learning
~ Having an Adult Life to Imitate ~ "Homemaking 101 for Busy Parents" ~
Life as the Curriculum for the Young Child ~ Four Levels of Home Life ~
Resources on Conscious Home Making ~
CHAPTER 3
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 ~ Stimulating and Protecting the Young Child's Senses
~ The Emerging Sense of Self ~ Recommended Reading
CHAPTER 4
Helping Your Baby's Development
in the First Year
~ Who Is This "Intimate
Stranger?" ~ The Sensitivity of the Newborn ~ What Is It Like Being with a
Newborn? ~ What Is It Like from Months 2-12? ~ Physical Development ~ The
Development of Intelligence ~ The Development of Intelligence ~ Toys for the
First Year ~ Recommended Resources ~
CHAPTER 5
Helping Your Toddler's
Development
~ Encouraging Balanced Development ~ De ing 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 ~ The Rhythm
of the Year ~ Celebrating Festivals and the Course 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? ~ What About Immunizations? ~ Do the
Toddler's Senses Still Need Protecting? ~ What Makes Children So Different from
One Another? ~ Toilet Training ~ Separation Anxiety and "Helicopter Parenting"
~ Cabin Fever ~ 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 ~ Ways to Encourage Your Child's Creative Play ~ Nourishing Your Child's Imagination through
Stories ~ Recommended Resources ~
CHAPTER 9
Developing Your Child's
Artistic Ability: Coloring, Painting and Beeswax Modeling
~ Understanding 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
Your Child's Musical Ability:
Songs, Nursery Rhymes and Circle
Games
~ 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? ~
CHAPTER 11
Cognitive Development and Early
Childhood Education
~ Academic vs. Play-Based Approaches ~ 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
More Parenting Issues
~ Preparation for Life ~ Computers ~ Balanced Development ~ Television
~ Toys ~ Video Games ~ Immunizations and Childhood Illnesses ~ The Sick Child ~
Religion and Young Children ~ Conscious Parenting ~ Recommended Resources ~
November 26, 2010
Igniting the Inner Life (book)
Book by Regina Sara Ryan
The inner life is the intrinsic spiritual dimension of existence. To ignite it is to make a pilgrimage within--to move from "out there" to "in here" in the orientation of life, work, choices and relationships. This book is immensely practical and is directed to anyone with a focus on spirituality, self-understanding, contemplative prayer, God or the awakening of the heart's knowledge regardless of the religious tradition they follow.
Regina has been a keynote speaker at our conference on "Mothering and Spirituality" and led a teleseminar with us around the chapters of her book The Woman Awake. She will be a featured presented, along with Rahima Baldwin Dancy at a workshop in February, 2011 on "Igniting the Inner Life through Parenting."
From the table of contents of Igniting the Inner Life:
• Love in the Time of Terror
• The Inner Life
• Self Observation, First and Always
• The Prayer Alternative
• The Art of the Heart
• Barriers to the Inner Life
• Pilgrimage and the Inner Life
• Kill Your Darlings--On Attachments
• Broken, Everything
• Practices and Prayers
August 9, 2010
Home Away from Home
Book by Cynthia Aldinger and Mary O'Connell
Have you heard about LifeWays and want to learn more? The LifeWays approach to childcare could--and should--revolutionize childcare in North America. LifeWays, founded by Cynthia Aldinger and based on the work of Rudolf Steiner and others, fosters relationship-based care that takes home as the model. Children in mixed-age groups stay with the same care giver from infancy through age 5, providing the continuity and caring of an extended family unit. This approach is adaptable to large centers, such as those run by Mary O'Connell in Wisconsin, as well as to small, in-home programs. Because it is based on what children need for healthy development, it also provides many valuable insights for parents.
Home Away from Home describes the many nurturing elements of LifeWays programs, including the Living Arts, creating a rich environment, and creating daily and weekly rhythms. Practical aspects of LifeWays training and opening an in-home program or even a center are also considered in detail.
Anyone involved in the care of young children should read this book--it is clearly written, well illustrated with photos, and holds the reader's interest throughout. Chapters include:
1. What is LifeWays Child Care?
2. The Many Faces of LifeWays
3. Other Facets of LifeWays (playgroups, forest kindergarten, preschool and parenting)
4. Home Away from Home--Rhythms, Routines and the Living Arts
5. Finding Your Colleagues
6. Protection: The Safety and Health of Children in Relationship-based Care
7. Creating Your Community of Care
8. Regulatory Bodies and Professional Support
9. Business Questions
10. Supporting You in Your Work--LifeWays North America
May 28, 2010
"Babies" ~ Raising Children in 4 Cultures
I recently saw the film "Babies" and highly recommend it! There is a book called Birth in Four Cultures, and this film could be called "birth through walking in four cultures." The filmmakers follow four children, in Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo and San Francisco.
Some things that jumped off the screen and caused me to ponder:
Namibia:
The baby is worn while the mother works, but once the child has learned to walk, the training shifts: he or she (I forget which) is getting tired. The mother, instead of picking him up, leans down and nurses him standing, for a moment of "I care, and here's a shot of energy," and then continues walking with him (you probably often need to keep walking in this culture. And now we know what long, dangling breasts are good for!).
I was impressed by the health and vigor (of those who survive high infant mortality rates) in a culture that can't shy away from dirt.
The culture of women: the two women seem to be mother and daughter. If so, I wonder about the culture of this tribe, as many women throughout the world must leavve their own women-folk and join their husband's family. The brood of children they tend is probably a mix of both of theirs, as it isn't uncommon for mothers and oldest daughters to be having babies at the same time. The men aren't visible at all--probably off with the older boys and taking care of business. Many interesting questions left unanswered!
Mongolia:
At the end, we see what this family has probably received for their year of troubles: the family in their yurt, gathered around a computer screen.
The brother, perhaps 2-3 years older, takes frequent opportunities to whomp on the baby. Both children often look at at the cameraman as if to say, "Why isn't this adult doing something?"
The two boys play with a bucket of water and make a mess on the floor. The mother returns and the older one skips out, leaving the toddler to take the heat. Because we don't understand the language, we are much like the baby, who doesn't have a clue why this source of all love is suddenly angry and rejecting him.
The relationship to animals: functional and unsentimental. As in Namibia, the slaughtering of a sheep or goat is matter-of-fact, with the mother doing the work while the toddler plays with the innerds.
Tokyo:
What a westernized, hip culture!
The well-known predicament of trying to talk on the phone or do anything while the baby is around.
The role of "classes" in bringing experiences to the children and creating community for the adults.
The frustration of the baby at "play time."
San Francisco:
The emphasis on books.
As in Tokyo, the role of classes.
When the mother sees her baby is occupied in the jumper, she tries to quietly disappear in the kitchen--the 24-hour-a-dayness of it.
If it comes to your area, see it--or catch the Netflix version.
