Under the Sky
Playing, Working and Enjoying Adventures in the Open Air

A Handbook for Parents, Carers and Teachers

Sally Schweizer

Softbound

$25.00

Sally Schweizer presents a fresh world of possibilities for children in both urban and rural areas, opening doors to expanded experiences of life in the open air. Packed with anecdotes, games and practical activities, Under the Sky is a vibrant resource for parents, teachers and carers.

What can children do outside? How about singing, whittling, chatting, climbing, digging, and making dens? They can build, run, watch small creatures, count tree rings, listen to stories, perform puppet plays, learn woodworking, and investigate the many forms of bark. Outside, children can enjoy quiet conversations or make a big noise, be alone or be with others. And that's just the beginning ...

Under the Sky is an invaluable guide for everyone who wants to help children cultivate play and imagination. It features ideas for planning expeditions and adventures, toys and equipment, and activities for the four seasons and the four elements! It includes plans, tips and advice on child-friendly outdoor design, materials, surfaces, seating, gardening, pets, wildlife—even campfires, picnics and train journeys. Under the Sky also includes a chapter on how educators can work toward formal “early years” government goals.

Well, I Wonder
Childhood in the Modern World

A Handbook for Parents, Carers, and Teachers

Sally Schweizer

Softbound

$27.00

In our modern world, imagination, play, wonder, and even fun itself are in danger of being left behind. We have surrounded children with technology and early learning, television and computer games, and then top that off with premature intellectualization, early reading, and tests.

Sally Schweizer calls for a reevaluation of childhood and an awakening to the real needs of children. Being a mother of four and having spent more thirty years in education (as a kindergarten teacher, teacher trainer, and advisor), she is qualified to ask the hard questions and offer real solutions. Well, I Wonder is packed with practical suggestions, anecdotes, humor, and delightful quotes from Schweizer’s students. Her approach is based on the study and practice of Rudolf Steiner’s educational philosophy, as well as personal, firsthand knowledge gained from long experience.

The author guides us through the stages of childhood development, explaining children’s need for daily rhythm, movement, and play. She emphasizes the importance of guarding children’s imagination and the significance of festivals and celebrations. She offers helpful tips and wise advice throughout this well-illustrated book, which also features an eight-page color section on the evolution of children’s drawings.

The Temperaments and the Adult-Child Relationship

Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND

$35.00

In addition to being a wonderfully useful and helpful guidebook for adults seeking to understand and help the children in their care, Kristie Burns' book is joyous good reading.

She brings to each page a deep understanding that is infused with a happy enthusiasm for children and humanity in general. For her, there seems to be nothing that is quite so interesting as the personality types that are characterized by the four temperaments, and nothing quite so alchemical as what happens when disparate temperaments are brought into the close relationships of adult and child.

The end result for those of us who are lucky enough to read her book is that through her eyes and open heart we are able to learn to love and care for all the temperaments, and to come to understand at a very non-trivial level how we can help children use the temperament they have to develop into the adults they long to become.

I can't imagine a classroom or home that won't be better for working with the material Kristie offers (which includes stories for each temperament, too - like getting dessert after each chapter!).

Contents:

The Temperaments

• The Melancholic
• The Phlegmatic
• The Sanguine
• The Choleric

The Relationships

• The Melancholic Adult and the Melancholic Child
• The Melancholic Adult and the Phlegmatic Child
• The Melancholic Adult and the Sanguine Child
• The Melancholic Adult and the Choleric Child
  
  
• The Phlegmatic Adult and the Phlegmatic Child
• The Phlegmatic Adult and the Melancholic Child
• The Phlegmatic Adult and the Sanguine Child
• The Phlegmatic Adult and the Choleric Child
  
  
• The Sanguine Adult and the Sanguine Child
• The Sanguine Adult and the Melancholic Child
• The Sanguine Adult and the Phlegmatic Child
• The Sanguine Adult and the Choleric Child
  
  
• The Choleric Adult and the Choleric Child
• The Choleric Adult and the Melancholic Child
• The Choleric Adult and the Phlegmatic Child
• The Choleric Adult and the Sanguine Child

Adventures in Parenting
a support guide for parents

Rachel C Ross

$16.00

Adventures in Parenting is such a lovely book. It is like having a wise grandmother at hand, one who answers so many of the perplexing questions that young parents find themselves puzzling over as they raise their children.

Rachel Ross beautifully discusses the joys and concerns almost all new parents experience and goes on to discuss everything from parenting styles and the patterning we carry from our own parents to discipline and boundaries, developmental issues, and how to create a home that fully nurtures your children while it also nurtures you.

I want to add that her section on developmental issues is brilliant (Rachel is an remedial movement/eurythmy teacher). Her list of difficulties and solutions is unlike anything I've ever seen in print - I think if this were the only thing in the book, it would still be a treasure of priceless worth and will be comforting and liberating to parents everywhere.

Awakening to Child Health - Vol. I
Holistic Child and Adolescent Development

Raoul Goldberg MD

Hardbound

$30.00

Awakening to Child Health - Vol. 1, is an exquisitely beautiful and warm portrait of child development and the health-giving impact of a warm and nurturing environment on the emerging human being. I should be clear that this is *not* a home medical care guidebook. It is something that I've always that was very needed - an exploration (in clear and common English) of the nature of childhood with lots of examples and considered discussions.

In other words, this is a book about children, who and what they are, what they need to develop into healthy adults, what they need to be healthy and strong as they grow. The knowledge, warmth and wisdom of Awakening to Child Health is truly life enhancing, at every level.

This book is wonderful - the sort you'll read, explore and be grateful to have known for years and years to come.

Contents:

1. Meeting Children and Your Inner Child
2. The Prenatal Journey of the Incarnating Child
3. Body, Soul, and Spirit and the Three Births of Childhood
4. The Heavenly Years from Birth to Three
5. The Golden Years from Three to Seven
6. The Beautiful and Healthy Years from Seven to Fourteen
7. Puberty to Adulthood
8. Seven Life Processes, Four Temperaments, Three Physical Types and Seven Character Types
9. Awakening to the Self and Identity

First Grade Readiness
Resources, Insights, and Tools for Waldorf Educators

Nancy Blanning, Editor

Spiralbound

$21.00

Some history first:

In my more than 30 years involvement with Waldorf Education, I have not encountered a topic that generated more interest, anxiety, misunderstanding and bewilderment than the question of what really constitutes first grade readiness in a child.

In the early days, there was a tendency for educators to draw a line in the sand in relation to a child's age. Which line it was varied from school to school ("must be age 7," "must turn 7 in the first semester," "must turn 7 by the end of summer" and so forth). There was also "must have begun the change of teeth."

Of course, all of this missed a couple of very important points. The first was that Rudolf Steiner never once said that children are ready to learn to read "at age 7." What he said was that "sometime during the 7th year" they become ready - this means anytime after the 6th birthday, not after the 7th birthday. Then, there is the modern fact that (in my opinion) our lives have created conditions wherein child development has become a bit chaotic: children can begin to lose their teeth at, say, 4 years old, but don't seem to mature mentally so far as grammar school readiness is concerned until 7 or 8 years of age. While there are beautiful ways to pull this development together, it did leave the adults in a predicament of not knowing where to look for criteria that would offer the child the best possibilities of sound education.

Later on, there were a variety of coordination and drawing criteria that were sometimes applied, but understood by only a few and contested by others. Given that each school (and sometimes each teacher) had different requirements and assessments, it's small wonder that parents often looked at the process as arbitrary and poorly substantiated, regardless of everyone's best intentions.

Now, my review of this GREAT book:

Happily, all of this is changing through more research and broader understandings of child development needs. I have recently seen in the mainstream press many articles on the needs of young children that would have been at home only in a Waldorf school 30 years ago. And, with increased knowledge and awareness, it has become possible for a true flowering of understanding to arise within the Waldorf movement.

It is a flowering of understanding that Nancy Blanning has brought together in First Grade Readiness. This book is packed with the most comprehensive, detailed, sound and wholesome guidance about what first grade readiness really is and what teachers and parents should look for when considering whether or not a given child is ready to move into the world of abstract learning.

First Grade Readiness is both healing and inspiring. My feeling is that both educators and parents will be heard to sigh with warm relief upon reading it, it offers so much loving common sense and light-filled wisdom.

Read it, use it, share it.

Contents:

• Foreword
• Part One
  • Reflections on First Grade Readiness - Nancy Blanning
  • First Grade Readiness - Joan Almon
  • Some Guidelines for First Grade Readiness - Nancy Foster
  • School Readiness: A School Doctor's Perspective - Bettina Lohn, MSc
  • What are the signs that my child is ready for school? - Michaela Glöckler, MD and Wolfgang Goebel, MD
  • The Transition to Elementary School Learning: When is the right time?
  • School Entry and the Consolidation of Developmental Processes - Audrey E McAllen
  • The Development of Memory and the Transformation of Play - Louise deForest
  • Creating Partnerships with Parents in First Grade Readiness Decisions - Ruth Ker
  • Carrying the Transition to First Grade - Janet Klaar
  • A Transition Group at the Edinburgh Steiner School - Melissa Borden
  • Building the Bridge to the First Grade: How a Class Teacher Can Lead Children Gently into the Grade School - Kim Holscher
  • The Lowering of School Age and the Changes in Childhood: An Interim Report - Claudia McKeen, MD; Rainer Patzlaff; Martyn Rawson
• Part Two
  • Introduction
  • Developing Our Observation Skills for Understanding First Grade Readiness - Ruth Ker
  • The Red Queen: A First Grade Assessment Story - Valerie Poplawski, Celia Riahi, and Randi Stein
    • First Grade Assessment Form
    • The Red Queen Materials List
    • Reverence List for The Red Queen
  • A Therapeutic Educator's Approach: Keeping It Imaginative and Playfully Objective - Nancy Blanning
    • First Grade Readiness Observation Form
    • Equipment List
    • Activities to Support Healthy Sensory Development
  • Observation Forms for the Documentation of Development and Learning
    • Observation Form for Early Childhood Educators
  • Contributors

The Therapeutic Eye
How Rudolf Steiner Observed Children

Peter Selg

Softbound

$15.00

Rudolf Steiner’s extraordinary ability to perceive the inner nature and development of children provided insights at many levels and areas of the creative learning process. He spoke of this ability as a precondition for all forms of healthy childhood education—including special education—and suggested that teachers should develop such a capacity within themselves.

This process involves the recreation of the child within oneself, based on what we are able to observe in the child’s physical appearance, temperament, ways of moving, and environment. In The Therapeutic Eye, Dr. Peter Selg discusses Steiner’s views on childhood development, how teachers can look at children, and ways that these approaches can be used to develop lessons and classroom activities to deal with behavioral extremes and learning challenges.

The Therapeutic Eye is a valuable resource for teachers and parents - well worth studying again and again.

Why Children Don't Listen
A Guide for Parents and Teachers

Monika Kiel-Hinrichsen

Softbound

$19.95

What can you do when a child just won't listen? How we speak to one another is at the very heart of human relationships. Children are frequently much better than adults at reading between the lines and deciphering the messages we send out through body language and our tone of voice.

Here is an invaluable handbook for parents and teachers on how to communicate better with children. It covers all aspects of talking and listening to children, including speaking to children of different ages, the effect your voice has, and understanding the wider situation in which the conversation is taking place.

The author translates the theory into practical, everyday solutions. She argues that it's not what we say, but how we say it—and more important, how well we listen to the answers—that matters.

You're Not the Boss of Me!
Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation

Ruth Ker, Editor

Spiral Bound

$32.00

There are few parents and, I think, no kindergarten teachers who have not heard the title of this book shouted at them in fury by children between five and seven years old. In fact, some of us can remember, however dimly, our own frustrated rage as we ourselves shouted these words when we were that age. Perhaps there's something on the human genome that over the millenia has imprinted "You're not the boss of me!" as the inconic phrase human beings must utter before leaving their infancy behind.

Of course, in the face of this imperative resistance, we adult teachers and parents are often left perplexed and frustrated ourselves. When the subject was raised at a WECAN conference, it was joined with such acclaimation that a work group was formed to explore the phenomenon and ways of helping children move positively across this threshold.

The result is You're Not the Boss of Me! - a colleciton of articles and excerpts by kindergarten teachers, sensory integration experts, and medical doctors. It is wonderful! Teachers in schools and homeschools will find so much to help them meet the needs of the six-to-seven-year-olds as they also find ways to take joy in those children who stand at this threshhold. Parents can gain new understanding and lots and lots of friently help and highly useful advice.

Thank you to the WECAN work group for bringing us such a needed book!!

Understanding Children's Drawings
Tracing the Path of Incarnation

Michaela Strauss

Hardbound

$30.00

Michaela Strauss's landmark book was first published in 1978, and sold out so quickly that if you blinked, you missed it. The same thing happened to the 1988 reprinting. Since that time, the only copies available have been used copies handed down, or worn out xerox copies. Which is tragic, considering the wealth of wisdom Strauss shares about how to see children's developmental progress and well-being in the way they create their drawings.

Happily, we now have another edition available, this time in a format that makes the picture presentation a bit clearer. Hopefully, it will stay available long enough to impart Strauss's wisdom to another generation of parents and teachers.

It is a deep pleasure to be able to offer this wonderful book to you - it is the sort of book that, once read, can live in your heart and awareness through your life.

Developmental Signatures
Core Values and Practices in Waldorf Education for Children Ages 3-9

Rainer Patzlaff, Wolfgang Sassmannshausen, et al.

Softbound

$20.00

Developmental Signatures is the result of studies commissioned by the the German Association of Waldorf Schools (Bund) and carried out by a team of teachers, doctors, parents, and scholars. You'll find the developmental stages of Waldorf education as related to State educational requirements in Germany, and which can be applied in kind if not specifically to Waldorf education as it is practiced in schools and homes throughout the world. These first two parts of a three-part study are concerned with children from three to nine years old and the conditions required for successful schooling. The results of this study offer an opportunity for teachers and parents to reflect and renew their understanding and practice of Steiner's pedagogy.

Baby's First Year

Growth and Development from 0 to 12 Months

Paulien Bom and Machteld Huber

Softbound

$20.00

A baby's first year presents parents with many different challenges. The initial excitement of pregnancy is followed by the child's birth and subsequent development, but many parents feel the need for significant support and information related to the everyday areas of life, such as nutrition and health.

This practical guide takes a holistic approach to the growth and development of a baby. Written by doctors qualified in both allopathic and anthroposophically extended medicine, it deals with all aspects of caring for a small child up to the age of twelve months.

Divided into short comprehensive chapters that cover the various stages of development, Baby’s First Year discusses subjects such as feeding and growth, diet and weaning, and bathing and sleeping. It includes sections on physical and spiritual development and presents an overview of childhood vaccinations.

Baby’s First Year is an ideal reference for people embarking on parenthood for the first time, or as a refresher for those having a second or subsequent baby. Veteran parents in particular may find its holistic approach refreshing and inspiring in comparison to standard baby-rearing texts.

The First Seven Years
Physiology of Childhood

Edmond Schoorel

Softbound

$24.00

Bob and I have always believed that Steiner delivered the seminar, known in English as Foundations of Human Experience or Study of Man, as information and insights to be used. It is, therefore, deeply exciting to come upon a book such as Schoorel's The First Seven Years, written as it is from someone who has been doing precisely that: using and applying and developing a living understanding for the material Steiner shared with the teachers of the original Waldorf School.

Schoorel's approach is wonderful - he takes a particular topic, describes it thoroughly then moves on to relate it to physiology and environment. So, for instance, when he discusses "the birth of the etheric body", he not only offers a clear and meaningful picture of what that means for the developing human being, but then discusses what physiological changes mark this process as well as how environment affects it.

For anyone interested in or working with young children, this book is a treasure to be turned to again and again. It fosters understanding as it also gives much food for the sort of thought that deepens and enlightens. The First Seven Years is a gift to teachers, parents and most especially to our children.

Phases of Childhood

Bernard C J Lievegoed

Softbound

$19.95

A new edition of Bernard Lievegoed's classic work of child development.

Every age has its philosophy and way of bringing up children. Today's educational approach depends largely on materialistic, nineteenth-century ideas derived from the notion of "knowledge as power." The education of children in beauty, wisdom, and culture forms only a very small part of the modern curriculum. When we consider a child's full humanity of body, soul, and spirit, however, we emerge with a very different balance in our approach to education.

The author of this book tells us that our children cannot become happy, wise, and skilled adults unless their education—from the very beginning—take into consideration the development of body, soul, and spirit. Drawing on the educational ideas and philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, Goethe, and Schiller, the author describes the three main stages of child development and the genetic and biographical potential revealed at each stage. He goes on to explore the practical application of these insights as an educational method in harmony with the child's developing relationship with the surrounding world.

This is the essential, classic resource for all parents, teachers, and care givers.

At the Source
The Incarnation of the Child and the Development of a Modern Pedagogy

Harlan Gilbert

Softbound

$16.00

Harlan Gilbert has written a highly readable, interesting and thorough book that will guide parents and teachers toward a deeper and more practical understanding of children, their developmental stages and how to create a pedagogy meets children where they are.

Perhaps the most exiciting aspect of At the Source (to me at any rate) is the author's grade-by-grade descriptions that include sections on how the child of a given age sees the world, the educational methodology that best meets the child's understanding, and what curricula are appropriate, even necessary, at the given stage. These are short and sweet descriptions that nonetheless manage to go straight to the heart of the question and succeed in increasing the reader's understanding by leaps and bounds. The passages are so rich with deep understanding and so simply and straightforwardly conveyed, that reading them becomes a window to a much wider understanding that the surface of the subject matter would imply. Really great stuff!

Children and Their Temperaments

Marieke Anschütz

$15.95

One of the best and most accessible resources on the subject of the four temperaments and children. Anschütz gives us a guide to children's different temperaments and their role in child character, health and personality development. She illustrates her ideas with examples from home and school, using the context of the Waldorf/Steiner school classroom, and discusses how to use these insights in managing and relating to groups and individuals. This is an fascinating journey that will be enlightening and invigorating to both parents and teachers.

On Reading and Writing
towards a phenomenology and pathology of literacy

Karl König

Softbound

$34.95

In these meditations on hand and eye, attention and uprightness, light and sound, death and resurrection, Karl König attempts to reveal the phenomena out of which writing and reading manifest - or fail to develop.

König's observations lead directly to pathways of education. He notes correctly that the extreme modern pressures on children to achieve types of literacy can often stunt the development of healthy imagination, feeling and willing. All teachers and interested parents will want to read this remarkable book -- it's depth and accessiblity will not only increase your awareness of the phenomena of reading and writing, I believe you'll find that König's presentation will open your heart as well. This is an amazing work.

The Well Balanced Child
Movement and early learning

Sally Goddard Blythe

Softbound

$24.95

Sally Goddard Blythe thoroughly explains why movement is so important for the healthy development of babies and young children. She describes movement, balance, reflexes, learning, and behavior in early education and how music affects brain development. The book includes songs, games and, activities that encourage learning at key stages of development.

Here is a unique and holistic approach to the senses, movement, the brain, play, and movement. It is also a valuable resource for helping parents and professionals assess children with learning difficulties and for dealing with learning and behavioral problems through movement.

This one is highly recommended for all early education teachers and parents of young children.

Sally Goddard Blythe is director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, which researches the effects of neurological dysfunction in specific learning difficulties, and devises effective remedial programs. She is the author of Reflexes Learning and Behaviour as well as numerous professional papers and articles.

The Developing Child
The First Seven Years

The Gateways Series 3

Compiled from articles published in the Newsletter of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America

Softbound

$21.00

WECAN has produced another wonderful collection of past Gateways articles, this time focusing on child development from birth to age 7. Some of the best and most insightful experts in the field are now all gathered in one place, offering their wisdom and guidance together. I am especially pleased to see articles explaining kindergarten and first grade readiness guidelines. The Developing Child is an outstanding contribution to the world of early childhood education; and a resource that can bring a wealth of experience right into your living room or classroom.

Contents:

Stages of Development in the First Seven Years

• The Laws of Childhood - Dr. Helmut von Kügelgen
• Stages of Development in Early Childhood - Freya Jaffke
• The Young Child form Birth to Seven - Dennis Klocek

Birth, Infancy and the First Years of Life

• Child Development: Conception to Birth Embryology
• Making Sense of Uprightness - Bonnie & William RiverBento
• The Wonder of Acquiring Speech - Dr. Michaela Glöckler
• Movement, Gesture and Language in the Life of the Young Child - Bronja Zahlingen
• Supporting the Development of the Human Hand - Ingun Schneider
• Toward Human Development: The Physiological Basis of Sleep - Lisa Gromicko
• Laying the Physical Foundation of the Consciousness Soul - Dr. Jenny Josephson

The Development of Consciousness: Imitation, Play and Learning

• Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy: Understanding the Dream Consciousness of the Young Child - Dr. Michaela Glöckler
• The Vital Role of Play in Childhood - Joan Almon
• The Genius of Play - Sally Jenkinson
• Understanding Imitation - Joop van Dam

Readiness for Kindergarten and School

• Kindergarten Readiness - Dr. Elizabeth Jacobi
• The Birth of the Etheric: Transformation of Growth Forces into Thinking Forces - Dr. Michaela Glöckler
• First Grade Readiness - Joan Almon
• Some Guidelines for First Grade Readiness - Nancy Foster

Childhood
A Study of the Growing Child

Caroline von Heydebrand

$14.95

Caroline von Heydebrand was one of the most beloved teachers at the original Waldorf School in Stuttgart, someone Rudolf Steiner looked to as a guiding light for the children. Childhood is the fruit of her twenty years experience teaching children and studying anthroposophy, and the book is filled with stories, examples, anecdotes - all couched in her deep love of nature and people. Some of the topics she addresses are: child development, the four temperaments, the growth of consciousness, and the development of moral, imaginative and other capacities. Highly recommended.

Eternal Childhood

Karl König

Softbound

$24.95

In the essays and lectures gathered in this little book, Karl König presents a viable basis for understanding childhood, and traces its expression in detailed pictures of the phases for both mother and child: conception, birth at 9 months, ability to name objects at 18 months, ability to reason comparatively at 27 months and the ability to say 'I' at 36 months. Practical advice is interwoven with history, science, religion and anthroposophy.

Difficult Children
there is no such thing

An appeal for the transformation of educational thinking

Henning Köhler

Softbound

$18.00

Köhler's unceasingly heart-filled account appears at a time when, on the one hand, we face rising numbers of children whose classroom behavior classifies them as "educationally difficult," and on the other hand seem to find ourselves painted into a corner with fewer and fewer means to address this crisis. Köhler eloquent protest is founded in his long and deep experience in working with special needs children, and the success of his approach is beyond dismissal. He challenges these accepted patterns of thought and outlines a spiritually deepened concept of education and upbringing that is truly refreshing. Every parent and teacher will benefit from this book. In fact, I'd go so far as to say every adult human being will benefit from learning to see others through eyes taught to look as Köhler looks. Difficult Children has our highest recommendation!

Star Children
Understanding children who set us special tasks and challenges

Georg Kühlewind

Softbound

$25.00

While working on this book the following happened to me: As I checked in at the airport in Hamburg a young couple was in front of me, and the mother had a three-to-four-month old baby in her arms. All of a sudden the baby turned round, looked me straight in the eye, and I was deeply shaken; for that was not the look of a baby but of a very self-aware adult, a wise one, and he appeared to see right through me.

- Georg Kühlewind

Who are the star children? In recent years, much has been written about “gifted” children with special abilities, sometimes called “indigo children” or “crystal children.” It is said that these children are coming to earth to help humanity in its development. Based on extensive research, Georg Kühlewind confirms that this new generation has been incarnating among us for the past couple of decades. This event, he states, is one of the most important of our age.

Kühlewind gives us the necessary background to follow experientially what he has to say. He takes us consciously and scientifically into the realm from which we all enter the world as babies, “trailing clouds of glory.” We all possess the tools he describes for taking this path: our thoughts, our heart forces, and our willpower. By using these faculties with full attention—by focusing our attentiveness and eliminating everything else—we can enter the realm of the spirit where the prevailing laws are different from those on Earth. The author helps us by closing each chapter with themes for contemplation and meditation.

Star Children is a compelling addition to the literature on the theme of “special children,” offering a unique perspective based on spiritual science and research.

Learning Difficulties
A Guide for Teachers
Waldorf Insights and Practical Approaches

Mary Ellen Willby, editor

Audrey E. McAllen, René Querido, Margret Meyerkort, Ingun Schneider and many other contributors

$23.95

A wonderful book and one for which I have been hoping for many, many years. Learning Difficulties gathers together nearly 300 pages of the best insights, deepest experiences and most successful approaches to learning difficulties by over 30 teachers expert in the field of learning disabilities.

In it you will find eye-opening accounts of the physical/emotional/mental configurations that most fully describe common and uncommon learning difficulties. Paired with these incisive descriptions is a clear and practical account of approaches, therapies, exercises that can be used to counter and heal these conditions. There are also numerous articles giving (often with really good illustrations!) diagnostic exercises that teachers can use to better understand a child's difficulty.

This book is such a grace-filled gift! My hope is that many, many children experience and benefit from the work this book can inspire.

A Healing Education
How Can Waldorf Education Meet the Needs of Children?

Five Lectures

Michaela Glöckler, MD

Softbound

$15.95

These lectures on health in education, given in 1998 at the Waldorf Teachers Conference at Rudolf Steiner College, are a potent support for the work of the Waldorf teacher. As a physician, Dr. Glöckler brings to the fore the physiological foundation of Waldorf Education, moving from clearly observable physical phenomena to the soul-spiritual forces working in them. This physiological approach supports the teachers' striving for sensitive observation of each child and gives new perspectives for their gasp of the complicated nature of the human being. She demonstrates teh difference between human and animal and shows how, in the animal, wisdom and intelligence have formed the physical body and express themselves through instinct.

These lectures appear as increasing numbers of children are being identified as learning disabled and, more subtly, as daily life provides less and less a foundation for health. Dr. Glöckler points out that the understanding that whatever the manifestations are, underlying them are physiological problems and that this understanding is fundamental to Waldorf Education.

The key task of the educator, therefore, is to insure for the child a healthy physical development, for this is the basis for a healthy soul-spiritual development.

The Higher Senses and the Seven Life Processes

Dr. Lotte Sahlmann, Anke Weihs, Rev. Baruch Urieli

Softbound

$16.95

Perhaps at no other time in human history have our senses been so bombarded by the outside world, whether through visual or auditory stimulation (TV, video, computers) or more subtly in the areas of language, ideation and human encounter. The world is simply overflowing with ideas and issues that we have to deal with.

The first part of this book deals with the higher senses - those of word, thought and I - as described by Rudolf Steiner. The authors attempt to further reveal these unrecognised senses and the role played by them in social interaction.

They then go on to consider the workings of seven active forces which affect our everyday lives. These are the seven life processes, which function unconsciously within our organic system, but which can appear as disturbing forces affecting our physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Given our need to understand how we communicate with one another, and how our physical and mental states are affected by our unconscious life, this is a book with a great deal to offer all of us.

Sexual Abuse of Chldren
Understanding, Prevention and Treatment

Dr. Michaela Glöckler

Softbound pamphlet

$5.95

Dr. Glöckler offers a considered response to the increasing incidence of children who have been sexually abused - most often by someone they love and trust. Here is a social overview, with suggestions for the direction of medical, psychological and pedagogical treatment.

Sacred Faces
Physiognomy in the Light of Spiritual Science

A Study of Man for Teachers and Parents

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

A knowledge of physiognomy is essential for the understanding and education of the child.

- Rudolf Steiner

Thus opens Alan Whitehead's fascinating exploration of realms of the human soul that are revealed in our faces. His intent is to increase adult understanding of who the children before us are - and with that understanding, to enable us to teach and raise them in the best way possible.

The author takes the reader on a journey through traditional and anthroposophical interpretations of face structure - a journey that will linger in the mind long after the last page is read. There is much to ponder here and no small amound of insight to be gleaned.

Reading the Face
Understanding a Person's Character through Physiognomy

Norbert Glas, MD

Softbound

$30.00

As a boy traveling to school by streetcar, Norbert Glas often passed the time by studying the faces of his fellow passengers, pondering the significance of the shapes and contours of their noses, eyes, and mouths. Later in life, after becoming a medical doctor and a student of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science, Glas gained greater insight into the mysteries of human physiognomy.

In Reading the Face, the first translation into English of his seminal work, Glas begins by defining the three parts of the human face and explaining the importance of their relative proportions. A face that is more pronounced in any of these areas tends to indicate certain personality traits and specific physiological characteristics. People with a strong mouth and chin, for example, tend to have a strong will and an active, driven, and assertive nature. With the help of many photos and drawings, Glas presents the physiognomy of three basic types and analyses the specifics of the head, forehead, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose.

Reading the Face will be valuable to doctors, teachers, and anyone who wants to better understand, accept, and love others.

Homeopathic Remedies for the Stages of Life
Infancy, Childhood, and Beyond

Didier Grandgeorge, MD

Softbound

$16.95

Highly recommended to teachers and parents for the author's observations of developing human beings. His view does not emerge from Waldorf Education or anthroposophic medicine, but is very harmonious with it.

In addition to bringing us a highly useful and readable guide for addressing many common illnesses, discomforts and crises at different stages of life, Grandgeorge has also painted a detailed and beautiful picture of the unfolding human being, from conception to death. His more than 20 years of experience as a homeopathic practitioner and pediatrician have given him an eye that allows him to spot the connections between developmental landmarks and physical, mental or emotional difficulties. These connections are often far from obvious, but once mentioned they make so much sense that we (or rather, I) wonder why we (I) didn't notice it before. His homeopathic remedial suggestions are doubly useful in that there is an implied nursing and psychological approach couched in most of them as well.

This is one of those little-known books that really deserve more attention than they are getting. Homeopathic Remedies for the Stages of Life has an enormous amount to offer parents, teachers, and healers of all persuasions.

Animals in Translation
Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

Temple Grandin
and Catherine Johnson

Softbound

$15.00

I've read and heard many reviews of this remarkable new book by Temple Grandin. Depending on the reviewer's focus, Animals in Translation has been seen as a groundbreaking revelation of animal behavior and awareness and/or an inspiring revelation of the world seen from within autism. It is both these things, but in my opinion it is also something else - I experienced it as one deep and brilliant insight after another into human nature itself, not just autistic human nature, but all human nature.

Grandin's insight into animals is so uncluttered and straightforward that she penetrates into the recesses of the human heart as well. The descriptions she gives of the sources of many animal behaviors apply unswervingly as well to the things hidden in the depths of the human soul that well up as surprising, irrational or inconsistent reactions.

If you work with children, this book has more to offer you than I can describe in the space of one review. I can, however, give you an example which I think goes to the heart of how this book can be used on behalf of other people, especially young people. On page 145, Temple begins a discussion of Fear-Driven Aggression. She has previously described Assertive Aggression and is now contrasting it with aggression resulting from fear:

Fear-driven aggression causes so much violence and destruction in the animal and human worlds that I've often asked myself, What is rage for?

Why do we have rage circuits at all?

When you look at animals living in the wild, the answer is simple. Rage is about survival, at the most basic brute level. Rage is the emotion that drives the lion being gored to death by the buffalo to fight back; rage drives a zebra being caught by a lion to make one last-ditch effort to escape. I once saw a videotape of a domestic beef cow kicking the living daylights out of an attacking lion. It was some of the hardest kicking I have ever seen. Rage is the ultimate defense all animals draw upon when their lives are in mortal danger.

When it comes to human safety in the presence of animals, fear cuts two ways. Fear can inhibit an animal or a person from attacking, and very often does. Among humans, the most vicious murderers are people who have abnormally low fear. Fear protects you when you're under attack, and keeps you from becoming an attacker yourself.

But fear can also cause a terrified animal to attack, where a less-fearful animal wouldn't. A cornered animal can be extremely aggressive; that's where we get the saying about not getting someone's "back up against the wall." An animal with his back up against a wall is in fear for its life and will feel he has no choice but to attack.

On average, prey species animals like horses and cattle show more fear-based aggression than predatory animals such as dogs. That shouldn't be a surprise, since prey animals spend a lot more time being scared.

I categorize maternal aggression differently from some researchers; I put it in the fear department. I think maternal aggression is fear-driven at heart because over the years I've observed that the high-strung nervous animals will always fight more vigorously to protect her young than will a laid-back, calm animal like a Holstein dairy cow. Many a rancher has told me that the most hotheaded, nervous cow in the herd is the one who is most protective of her calf.

Any mother, nervous or calm, will fight to protect her baby. That's why on farms the human parents always warn their children to stay away from mama animals. But the fact that it's always the most nervous, fearful mother who shows the most maternal aggression makes me think that maternal aggression is driven by fear, even when the animal is calm by nature. When mother animals think their babies are in danger, they feel fear, and their fear leads them to attack. That's my conclusion.

This brings me to the fundamental question you have to ask yourself any time you're trying to solve a problem with aggression: is the aggression coming from fear or dominance? That's important, because punishment will make a fearful animal worse, whereas punishment may be necessary to curb assertive aggression.

Bringing the Best Out in Boys
Communication Strategies for Teachers

Lucinda Neall

Paperbound

$29.95

Although it is true that some of the material in this book is directed especially toward classroom teachers (the parts, for instance, about constructive ways to handle parent meetings), the better portion of the book contains gems that will be valuable to all teachers (whether at home or in the classroom) and parents.

Neall offers time-tested communication strategies that help get the best out of boys. The tips for tackling difficult behavior wil result in more cooperation and learning to the benefit of everyone.

The author works with teachers and schools to identify what helps boys learn. The result is this handbook, packed full of techniques, examples, and tips. Topics include:

• Affirming and channelling boys' energy, so you can get them on your side
• Improving boys' emotional literacy, so they gain in confidence and self-awareness
• Using boundaries and appropriate discipline to calm classes
• How to encourage boys so that they can be at their best
• Getting boys to cooperate without nagging and shouting
• Engaging boys with hmor and playfulness.

I feel strongly that this approach is something almost everyone involved with educating or rearing boys in this world of ours has been longing for - it is clear, practical, warm and, best of all, effective. Very highly recommended!

Developmental Insights
discussions between doctors and teachers

edited by David S. Mitchell

Softbound

$24.00

A wonderful compilation of articles and reports coming out of the First International Conference for Doctors and Teachers, held in Stuttgart, Germany, and sponsored by the Medical Section of the Goetheanum.

Topics covered include

• the role of the school physician
• constitutional types in school-age children
• dental health and development
• therapeutic principles in the curriculum of the arts and crafts lessons
• therapeutic aspects of form drawing
• reading and writing difficulties
• math difficulties
• working with difficult children
• changes with maturity
• opportunities and risks in the third seven-year period
• therapeutic approaches in the high school lessons
• youth and occultism
• media
• prevention of mental illness at school age
• special needs education
• aspects of left-handedness

Child Development and Pedagogical Issues

Waldorf Journal Project #2
August 2003

Compiled and edited by David Mitchell

Spiralbound

$25.00

Here is a collection of translations and supportive articles from German, Swedish, Norwegian, British and American journals that focuses on child development and pedagogical issues from the Waldorf perspective. Valuable for study and useful as resources in striving to truly serve young people.

Working with Anxious, Nervous and Depressed Children
A Spiritual Perspective to Guide Parents

Henning Köhler

Introduction by Philip Incao, MD

Softbound

$18.00

Henning Köhler courageously presents parents and teachers with a practical path of schooling the thinking, heart, and will in selfless devotion to the individual destiny of each child. This is a book every teacher, parent and friend of children will want to read and consider - it offers a way of receiving troubled children into our hearts, into the stream of our love such that healing and forward movement become possible.

Helping Children to Overcome Fear
The Healing Power of Play

Russell Evans

$19.95

Helping Children to Overcome Fear is one of those books that is itself a legacy, reaching out beyond the threshhold of death to those of us still working with others on this teeming planet of ours. Jean Evans was a hospital play leader whose life work was with sick children. Her husband, Russell, has gathered together her stories and pictures that illustrate and teach so beautifully how the healing power of play can help children suffering illness to give voice to their feelings and find security.

Actually, I feel strongly that almost all children can benefit from Jean's wisdom and creativity. In my experience, almost all the young children I meet - and many, many I have known in the past - come into the world afraid. Or perhaps I should say, they come into the world acutely aware that the adults who love them are anxious about . . . well, the children don't know just what the adults are anxious about [you and I do, though], but they feel it and live it. And this is where Jean Evan's shining legacy can do so very much good. As we learn how to heal children's fears through play, we can find ourselves healing; as we also heal from our fears, the world our children live in shines ever more brightly.

This is a powerful, graceful book. I hope it reaches millions of hearts. It is a reminder of what is true, what is everlasting - and it is a pathway toward learning to live within that glorious truth.

Rhythms and Turning Points in the Life of the Child

Eugene Schwartz

Softbound

$12.95

The author examines the importance of rhythms in the child's life and describes the developmental signposts from age nine through adolescence.

The Andover Proceedings
Tapping the Wellsprings of Health in Adolescence

October 2001
Andover, Massachusetts

AWSNA
High School Research
Project #6

Spiral Bound

$24.00

These Proceedings include the work of ninety Waldorf high school teachers researching adolescence and includes four key lectures by Dr. Michaela Glöckler.

Topics include:

• teenagers in the new millenium
• adolescent illness
• forming faculty care groups
• counseling and moral development
• extensive resources, contact information, and research descriptions

Set Free Childhood

Martin Large

Softbound

$18.95

A Parents' survival guide for coping with computers and TV.

Children watch TV and use computers for five hourse daily, on average. But electronic media demands conflict with the needs of children. The result? REcord levels of learning difficulties, obesity, eating disorders, sleep problems, language delay, aggressive behavior, anxiety - and children on fast forward.

Set Free Childhood shows you how to counter screen culture and create a calmer, more enjoyale family life with:

• striking research on how the TV "tunes out" the brain and affects child growth
• why doctors and educators say 'the later the better' for electronic media use
• successful media coping strategies for families to prevent electronic addiction
• countering pester power by making childhood a commercial-free zone

The Children of Cyclops
The Influence of Television Viewing on the Developing Human Brain

Keith Buzzell

Softbound

$14.00

Educators and parents must consider a serious question; Does the experience of watching television negatively affect the cognitive development of a growing child? Recent findings by Keith Buzzell, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Kate Moody, Jerry Mander, and others are frightening. We must understand this new research so we can make intelligent decisions for our children.

This book is concise presentation of the results of current research - an important contribution to our children's health.

The Temperaments and the Arts
Their Relation and Function in Waldorf Pedagogy

Magda Lissau

Softbound

$15.00

Here's a insight-filled yet accessible discussion of the way the arts are used Waldorf Education to teach, guide and foster the whole student. Modern psychologists are currently focussing, once again, on temperament as an indication of soul constitution. This valuable contribution by a veteran Waldorf teacher and teacher-trainer will provide much insight for teachers, parents, and others seeking to better understand the developmental process in education.