CHILDCARE IN A NEW LIGHT
Cynthia Kruis Aldinger

The Mission of LIFEWAYS NORTH AMERICA

" LifeWays North America is devoted to developing healthy childcare, parent-infant and parent-child programs, and training programs for caregivers and parent educators. These activities are inspired by the works of Rudolf Steiner and the experience of Waldorf education and are supported by contemporary early childhood research as well as common sense and wisdom of many generations of parents."

What do children need above all things?
According to Drs. T. Berry Brazelton and Stanley Greenspan in their book Irreducible Needs of Children, the number one need of children is for ongoing nurturing relationships. Yet, current news headlines about the possible damage to children in childcare affirm that many children's needs are simply not being met. Children are in childcare for extended periods of time each day, often in less than adequate programs. Thousands of children are in centers that shift them from one childcare teacher to another frequently creating a negative impact on bonding.

At the same time, parents who stay at home with their children, as well as those who work outside of the home, are looking for support in developing healthy family practices and in learning about child development. Some neighborhoods are virtually empty during the day and the extended family that once taught parenting skills to the next generation is not always available.

LifeWays' response is an innovative relationship-based vision for childcare and practical, hands-on programs for parents and grandparents to support and strengthen the growing child and family.
LifeWays is a multi-service organization providing consulting and training for family childcare providers, childcare centers and parents caring for children ages Birth to 6 years.
LifeWays' national center is located in the Caldwell Early Life Center at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. We are members of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, the Alliance for Childhood and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Won't you join us in our quest to provide children with a healthy childhood whether at home or in childcare?

Dear Friends,
Do you teach young children? If you are a parent, childcare provider, grandparent, doctor, guardian, uncle, aunt, or anyone else who is around young children, the answer is 'yes'. The old saying that little children are like sponges is based on a true picture of the developing child. They drink in everything and everyone around them. Who you are, what you think, how you speak and act are all part of a child's daily curriculum.

Along with the impression people make on children is the impact of the environment in which the child lives and plays. Currently, we have an epidemic of institutional settings for the care of the young child. Most childcare centers look more like schools or entertainment centers than homes. Where are the cozy couch, the dining room table, the chests of drawers, and lamps? Children's days are filled with "activities" that leave little time for self-actualization. Grouped with same-aged children with caregivers that are frequently changing does not come close to imitating a natural, home environment or life experience.

Even "stay-at-home" children are often on the go, leaving only rare opportunities for pushing through the "boredom" of "nothing to do" to that marvelous place of self-discovery - that place that sows the seeds of creative thinking and healthy intellectual and emotional growth.

The LifeWays approach to the care of young children is reflected in this little story:

William, 18-months old, was rubbing his eyes when his mommy carried him into the living room bundled in his jacket with a blanket wrapped around him. The family had had a wonderful weekend, and now the new week was beginning. Tired and a little fussy, suddenly his eyes lit up when Jodi came into his view. Reaching his arms out to her, he snuggled into her neck and rested his head on her shoulder, a contented smile on his face. His mommy and Jodi talked about the weekend, then with a kiss good-bye mommy went to work and William began his day with his beloved caregiver and the other children in her care. He played by himself and with others, ate his snacks and meals family-style with his childcare "siblings", brushed his teeth and brushed his hair, helped with the household chores, sang songs, spent a lot of time outside exploring, had a nice footbath, slept in his cozy bed, studied the wondrous skills of the older children, laughed a lot and cried a little, and grew a little more. At the end of the day, his face lit up again and his body trembled with delight when his mommy and daddy appeared to pick him up and take him home.

Is it always that serene? What do you think? Life is not always a lullaby. Sometimes it plays the blues. And knowing that that is the case, we want to provide children with the security, consistency and nurturing that supports both the up days and the down days.

Whether your child is in childcare or at home, we want to support your decision to provide a healthy, nurturing environment. We provide courses and trainings in parenting and childcare and are establishing childcare homes and centers and parenting programs in North America. Please drop us a note and tell us about your work and life with young children. Let's work together to protect our children's childhood.

Warm regards,
Cynthia Aldinger


The Development of LifeWays North America
Several years ago when Rena Osmer and Cynthia Aldinger were researching child care programs for the Waldorf Early Childhood Association, the name "LifeWays" arose from the realization that what young children need most is the routine activities of a healthy home life, bathed in the warmth of secure relationships - whether they are at home or in childcare. They contacted and received the blessing to use the name from Gudrun Davy, Bons Voors, Patti Smith and Signe Schaefer (editors of the Lifeways books) and Lee Sturgeon-Day, who uses the name in her biography and counseling work. With their blessing in place, the first LifeWays Center was opened in Wisconsin in September 1998 as a pilot childcare project for children three months to six years old and host to the first LifeWays training.
Since that time, LifeWays has become a multi-service organization providing consulting and training for family childcare providers, childcare centers and parents caring for children ages Birth to 6 years. LifeWays suggests that too often the missing ingredients are consistency, warmth, and long lasting relationships revolving around the care of young children in a community of mutual support for the adults who care for them. LifeWays contributes a powerful voice to the early care arena by focusing on nurturing infants, young children and families in mixed-age, family style childcare settings. The heart of LifeWays childcare is the "Family Suite" in which children and caregivers develop long term relationships in an environment that protects childhood and enhances optimal physical, socio-emotional and cognitive growth and health.

LifeWays practices are based upon healthy sense development; continuity of care; development of mind and body; an enlivened experience of the domestic, nurturing, and creative arts; and the development of healthy social interactions. These guiding principles can be applied in childcare centers as well as childcare homes and offer practical applications for parents and parenting groups. These practices are inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner and the 80-year experience of Waldorf Education and are supported by contemporary early childhood research, as well as the common sense wisdom of many generations of parents.

The LifeWays approach is being implemented in in-home programs, childcare centers and parent-child programs throughout the country and is attracting interest abroad. We invite you to read the principles and suggested child care practices and join us if they resonate with what you are doing or want to see happening with young children. By uniting our efforts, we can become a potent force for healthy change in the lives of young children, their families and caregivers.

The current working group, LifeWays North America, has been meeting since 2001 to expand the work of LifeWays. We are pleased that the Caldwell Early Life Center at Rudolf Steiner College will provide a home for LifeWays North America and in the future will open a teaching center embodying these impulses. The work is now ready to expand to include members such as you working both locally and on a regional and national level. Particularly in the world of childcare and parent education, a recognizable name or approach often helps parents feel more secure in their decision to place their children in the care of another. We hope, through an association with LifeWays, that the families you work with will come to appreciate the ideals and principles represented by that name.



Coordinating Team
Cynthia Kruis Aldinger
Executive Director, LifeWays North America
Early Childhood Educator and Consultant
International Lecturer on Child Development
Board Member of Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
Rosario Villasana-Ruiz
LifeWays Training Consultant/Child Development Specialist
Bilingual (English/Spanish)
Instructor at City College of San Francisco
Children's Council of San Francisco Family Childcare
Consultation for Home-Based Childcare
Individual Child Consultation
Rahima Baldwin Dancy
LifeWays Consultant
Midwife, Early Childhood and Parenting Educator &
Author of You are Your Child's First Teacher
Founder/Director of Informed Family Life and Conference Organizer


Consultation
LifeWays North America provides professional consultation to childcare centers, home-based providers and parent educators. Consultants work with emerging programs as well as established initiatives and offer assistance in a wide range of issues from community development, licensing and regulation, hiring and supporting childcare providers to the essential questions of how to bring LifeWays principles and practices into being.

We are pleased to announce the development of the LifeWays Introductory Seminar - a two-day course introducing the fundamental principles and practices of LifeWays childcare and parent support. This is a traveling seminar that will come to your area. It is a great opportunity for a group of caregivers, parent educators and parents to come together for an inspirational learning experience. We can only book a few of these a year, so put in your request now. Please call 405-447-2365 to see what dates are still available to bring us to you!

The LifeWays Child Care and Human Development Training is a specialized program developed specifically for this new approach to child care and parent education. Along with the study of child development from pre-birth to young adult, there is an emphasis on the training of the caregiver's speech, voice and movement skills, handwork, and domestic arts, as well as social exercises dealing with cultural diversity, personal development and adult relationships. There is also a component on government regulations and requirements for both in-home and center locations. Ongoing continuing-education programs enhance the initial training.


Training Centers
LifeWays Child Care and Human Development Training
(located in the beautiful countryside of Wisconsin)
contact: Cynthia Aldinger
403 Piney Oak
Norman, OK 73072
405-447-2365
email: cynthia@lifeways-center.org

Care Provider Course Series
Rudolf Steiner College
9200 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Attn: Rena Osmer
(916) 961-8727
email: rena@steinercollege.edu

The Introduction to LifeWays Seminar - a two-day course introducing the fundamental principles and practices of LifeWays childcare and parent support. This is a traveling seminar that will come to your area. It is a great opportunity for a group of caregivers, parent educators and parents to come together for an inspirational learning experience. We can only book a few of these a year, so put in your request now. Please call to see what dates are still available to bring us to you!
.Click here to email us for locations and times of training

Because of your concern for young children, we want to invite you to join in forming and making known a new vision of childcare and parent education that can transform the care of young children. Called LifeWays, it incorporates the insights of Rudolf Steiner with current research of Joseph Chilton Pearce, Jane Healy, Barry Sanders, David Elkind, Stanley Greenspan, Berry Brazelton and the work of the late Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikler. In LifeWays, care focuses around the importance of relationship, continuity of care, and taking the home and nurturing arts as a foundation. LifeWays North America provides the opportunity for individuals, parent educators, childcare homes and centers, to join in support of young children and their families in a variety of ways:

Join the LifeWays Network
If you feel that your work is in alignment with the LifeWays ideals and principles and wish to have your program listed on our website, please send your information to us for posting. Though self-affiliation does not involve a direct endorsement from LifeWays North America, we will encourage families to contact the listed individuals and centers to see for themselves how they manifest the LifeWays approach.
Sponsorship of The Introduction to LifeWays Seminar in Your Area
We are pleased to announce the development of the LifeWays Introductory Seminar - a two-day course introducing the fundamental principles and practices of LifeWays childcare and parent support. This is a traveling seminar that will come to your area. It is a great opportunity for a group of caregivers, parent educators and parents to come together for an inspirational learning experience. We can only book a few of these a year, so put in your request now. Please call 405-447-2365 to see what dates are still available to bring us to you!

Become an Exemplary LifeWays Center
We are also interested in shepherding the development of a few child care homes and centers that can serve as exemplars and carry the name LifeWays in their title if they choose. Consulting and criteria are being developed to help these endeavors stand as examples and mentors to others wanting to work out of the LifeWays ideals and principles. Therefore, we respectfully ask that you not use the name LifeWays in your title without contacting us for an evaluation. But we encourage you to use "LifeWays" to describe the type of care you are providing - the articulation of this approach is designed to serve you as caregivers/teachers and your families.
To join us in the work download an Action Form. Fill it out and mail it to us
Click here to email us for more information.
LifeWays North America

Rudolf Steiner College
9200 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
(916)961-8727
email: info@lifeways-center.org

Cynthia Aldinger, Executive Director
403 Piney Oak
Norman, Oklahoma 73072
405-447-2365
email: cynthia@lifeways-center.org

LifeWays ChildCare & Family Center
3147 West Main Street
East Troy, WI 53120
(262)642-5001
http://www.lifeways-center.org/

A LIFE WAYS introductory training will be sponsored by the Los Angeles Alliance for Childhood in the beginning of 2004. Let us know if you are interested in participating, and we gladly mail you more information.