A gold mine for every Waldorf teacher and parent.This book shows that the first seven years of childhood should be a free space, without concern for the future. During these years, everything is provisional. The child and his or her caregivers are preparing the seeds for the child's future and the future of the world. This book gives the background of the singularity of this period. It is meant to be read by preschool teachers, parents, grandparents, and all others who want to know more about the laws and secrets of the first seven years.

A few of the topics addressed:

• The Importance of the First Seven Years for the Rest of Life
• Becoming Human: Walking-Speaking-Thinking
• Education of the will: imitation and habits
• reverence and imagination
• Individualization
• childhood diseases: a transformation of heredity
• naughtiness and curiosity
• forgetting and remembering

Edmond Schoorel is a pediatrician in The Netherlands. He treats children in a community hospital and in his own practice, where he works with other therapists who follow an anthroposophical approach. Dr. Schoorel has a special interest in the interaction between what, in child development, comes from the environment, what comes from heredity, and what comes from the child him- or herself.