Parent Talk Wednesday at 5pm, Library

Dear Dewdrop and Rosebud Families,

My hope is that many of you have received invitations for my talk this Wednesday from 5 to 6pm at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School on supporting young children when conflict arises. If you have not, I am providing a description below. (It has not been uncommon for parents to bring a child slightly older than babe in arms to a parent & child talk in the past. While we welcome babes in arm at our talks, because some many parents may find interest in this topic from our nursery and kindergarten and beyond, it is possible that the room could be crowded, and you may find it hard to have an alert and active child present.)

Stepping in Where Archangels Fearlessly Tread:

Supporting young children when conflicts arise.

Butterfly Classroom, Whidbey Island Waldorf School
Wednesday, January 20, 2009, 5-6pm

Speaker William Dolde will bring together observations from Emmi
Pikler, Magda Gerber, and experienced Waldorf early childhood teachers
to help us find a helpful way to respond when very young children tug,
pull, wrestle, argue, and the like. In addition, he will present a
summary of Rudolf Steiner's description of angels, archangels, and
ostensibly challenging and esoteric concepts such as planetary
evolution. For Steiner, the reason to seek spiritual insight was to
be of service to the people we interact with every day. William will
show a way to use Steiner's images and insights to help ground us as
we support our children in what can be trying circumstances. As such,
the talk will be not only a nuts and bolts description for how respond
to conflict; it will also be an introduction to what might seem
obscure or confusing elements of Rudolf Steiner's work and will
suggest a way to make such thoughts both more accessible and useful.

William recommends attendees read the following two articles as
preparation for the talk.

1.Toddler Conflict: A Closer Look
http://sophiashearth.org/?p=toddlerconflict&all
2.Assisting Toddlers and Caregivers During Conflict Resolutions

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Assisting+toddlers+and+caregivers+during+conflict+resolutions:...-a021230415


For new families, please know that I try to distribute most of my information in a paperless format. We do have the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library, an excellent parent library in our lobby upstairs from the Butterfly Room. As members of our Dewdrop and Rosebud classes, you are welcome to check out books. Please talk to me if you have any questions.

Over the session, I will recommend books from the library. Here are some to start (books in the library are arranged alphabetically by title):

Your Child's Self-Esteem by Dorothy Corkille Briggs has excellent chapters on jealousy, genuine encounter, nonjudgment. This was one of the few books Magda Gerber recommends.

Your Self-Confident Baby by Magda Gerber describes her work with Emmi Pikler at Loczy and describes Gerber's philosophy of caring for infants and toddlers with respect.

Emmi Pikler from the Sensory Awareness Bulleting. This thin pamphlet is one of the few translations of Pikler's work into English. Pikler started the Loczy orphanage in Budapest, Hungary. Years later, researchers discovered that children who had lived in that orphanage were thriving when compared to an average citizen. Many European researchers went to study with Pikler, and she wrote a number of books that were widely read in languages other than English. Dr. Benjamin Spock was so popular in America that no publisher thought it worthwhile to put out a translation of Pikler's work into English.

We have 3 copies of this pamphlet. Let me know if you can't find a copy; we have had some discussions about where best to place them (in E for Emmi, P for Pikler, or S for Sensory).

If you do find and read this work, know that Pikler can seem stern and judgmental at time (indeed, the story is that mothers in Budapest used Magda Gerber as a messenger because Gerber was so much more approachable). If you stick with it and read to the end, you will read--perhaps with the relief that I did--where Pikler tells us not to worry about mistakes but to do our best to raise our children.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde