Articles on Toddler Conflict

Dear Families,

As I mentioned in class, I have no intention of swamping parents with reading material.  It happens that I have had a number of meaningful questions and comments from parents that remind me of articles to distribute.

Here are two articles about conflict among young children.  The first comes from Sophia's Hearth, in Keene, NH. 

Sophia's Hearth (named to remind us of the wisdom that comes from domestic activities such as baking and cleaning in the heart of the house) was founded by Susan Weber, a Waldorf kindergarten teacher who wanted to help bring the gifts of Waldorf early childhood education to very young children.  The story goes that Weber, along with kindergarten teachers Cynthia Aldinger and Rena Osmer traveled the country in an old station wagon (some of these details are probably getting embellished with years), looking at infant and toddler care centers and parent & child programs.  Finally, they arrived in Los Angeles and the RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) classes of Magda Gerber.  Instantly they felt a connection could be made.  Weber went on to train with Gerber (and at Loczy in Budapest, Hungary, where Gerber picked her up wisdom) and to create Sophia's Hearth as a place to train parents and teachers, hold Waldorf parent & child classes, and to create a model childcare center for children birth to three.  Weber makes a clear link with the work of RIE in all her literature.  I find a number of the other articles on the Sophia's Hearth website helpful.

The second article about conflict is by RIE instructor Beverly Kovach.  Her article is addressed to caregivers (adults working children in larger group situations).  In our mixed age parent & child classes, we have more adults and children of different ages, so our careful observation may inspire us to intervene more than a caregiver might in the classroom described by Kovach.


Kovach was one of my instructors when I took my RIE 1 training in Los Angeles.  The Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library has a number of books by RIE founder Magda Gerber.  1, 2, 3 . . . The Toddler Years, also in the library, has helped many parents of young children through times of biting, hitting, separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, and the like.  Many elements of Gerber's work resonate with what we provide in the Waldorf classroom; there are some variations.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde