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| Preface to the Revised Edition | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| You Are Your Child's First Teacher | |
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| A Unique Opportunity | |
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| Parents' Dilemma Today | |
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| Cultural Dilemmas | |
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| Lack of Support for Mothering | |
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| Children Are Not Tiny Adults! | |
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| The Child's Changing Consciousness | |
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| The Role of the Child's Individuality | |
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| How Children | |
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| Learn in the First Seven Years | |
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| Our Task as First Teachers | |
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| Trusting Ourselves | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Home Life as the Basis for All Learning | |
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| Home Life Is Undervalued in Our Culture | |
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| Why Is It So Difficult to Be Home with Children Today? | |
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| Consciously Creating a Home | |
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| Four Levels of Home Life | |
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| Home Life as the Curriculum for the Young Child | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Birth to Three: Growing Down and Waking Up | |
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| Growing into the Body | |
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| What Is Your Baby Like Between Six Weeks and Eight Months of Age? | |
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| Learning to Walk | |
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| The Second Year: Mastering Language | |
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| The Emergence of Thinking | |
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| The Young Child's Senses | |
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| The Emerging Sense of Self | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Helping Your Baby's Development | |
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| Stimulating and Protecting the Sensitivity of the Newborn | |
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| What Is It Like Being with a Newborn? | |
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| What Is It Like from Months Two to Twelve? | |
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| Physical Development | |
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| The Development of Intelligence | |
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| Emotional Development | |
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| Language Development | |
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| Toys for the First Year | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Helping Your Toddler's Development | |
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| Encouraging Balanced Development | |
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| Dealing with Negative Behavior | |
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| Encouraging the Development of Language and Understanding | |
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| The Beginnings of Imaginative Play | |
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| Providing a Rich Environment for Your Toddler | |
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| Toys and Equipment | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Rhythm in Home Life | |
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| Creating Rhythm in Daily Life | |
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| The Rhythm of the Week | |
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| Celebrating Festivals and the Rhythm of the Year | |
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| Celebrating Birthdays | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Discipline and Other Parenting Issues | |
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| The Question of Discipline | |
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| Why Does Parenting Take So Much Energy? | |
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| Can You Work toward Rhythm with an Infant? | |
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| What about Weaning? | |
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| Crying Babies | |
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| What about Going Back to Work? | |
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| How Long Do Children's Senses Need Protecting? | |
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| Toilet Training | |
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| Separation Anxiety and "Helicopter Parenting" | |
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| Cabin Fever | |
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| Other Parenting Issues | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Nourishing Your Child's Imagination and Creative Play | |
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| Three Stages of Play | |
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| Experiencing the World through Play | |
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| The Importance of Play in Intellectual Development | |
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| Ways to Encourage Your Child's Creative Play | |
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| Nourishing Your Child's Imaginative Play through Stories | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Developing Your Child's Artistic Ability | |
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| Understanding Children's Drawings and Development | |
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| The Experience of Color | |
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| Watercolor Painting with Young Children | |
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| Metamorphosis in Later Stages of Life | |
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| Modeling with Beeswax | |
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| Making Things with Your Children | |
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| Freeing Your Own Inner Artist | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Encouraging Your Child's Musical Ability | |
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| Make a Joyful Noise | |
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| Music and Cognitive Development | |
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| Singing with Your Child | |
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| Movement Games and Fingerplays | |
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| Pentatonic Music and the "Mood of the Fifth" | |
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| What about Music and Dance Lessons? | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Cognitive Development and Early Childhood Education | |
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| Academic vs. Play-Based Learning | |
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| Why Not Introduce Academics Early? | |
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| The Value of Preschool | |
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| Evaluating Early Childhood Programs | |
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| LifeWays and Waldorf Early Childhood Programs | |
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| LifeWays and Waldorf in the Home | |
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| The Value of Mixed-Age Programs | |
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| When Is Your Child Ready for First Grade? | |
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| What Happens Around Age Seven? | |
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| Beginning Academic Work: The Waldorf Approach | |
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| What about the Advanced or Gifted Child? | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Common Parenting Questions: From Television to Immunizations | |
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| Preparation for Life | |
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| Computers | |
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| Balanced Development | |
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| Television | |
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| Toys | |
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| Video Games | |
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| Immunizations and Childhood Illnesses | |
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| The Sick Child | |
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| What Makes Children So Different from One Another? | |
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| Religion and Young Children | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Help for the Journey | |
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| Conscious Parenting Is a Process | |
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| In Conclusion | |
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| Appendix: Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf Education | |
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| Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |