Meet Donna from The Waldorf Connection and a Lovely Giveaway

Please join me in welcoming Donna from The Waldorf Connection.
Donna will be sharing a post with us today titled, ‘Balancing Those Early Years’.

Natural Suburbia: Donna, please tell us a little about The Waldorf Connection:

Donna:
The Waldorf Connection is quickly becoming the “hub” that homeschoolers, parents, and educators need as a starting place for gathering information. The goal of this site is to bring concrete information to help families understand the Waldorf concepts and to support family-run Waldorf businesses.

The Waldorf Connection will heavily support the online community with in–depth workshops, programs, online book studies, video classes and more. For more information on these informative programs, go to http://thewaldorfconnection.com/

Balancing Those Early Years by Donna Ashton

Now that my twin girls are turning 8, I feel I have “arrived” in some way. Those early years can be wonderful and also extremely challenging and exhausting! I know there are many stages & growing yet to go, but if you have 1 or more young children, you may know what I mean.

Why do young children take so much energy out of us?

According to Peggy O’Mara in her article Generations at Risk, The Mother is the Matrix.

“We do not learn by behavior modification, we learn by going back to the matrix and getting information from that. That’s why a child always comes back to the mother, hanging onto her legs, and exploring from there. We learn from going  back to what we know. The child puts things in her mouth, not because she wants to eat them, but because that’s her most developed sense, and that is how she identifies the object.
The first seven years is the time of play, and as mammals, we are actually designed to learn through play,which is how we gather information. Einstein said that he would rather have imagination than intellect. It is imagination that forms the basis for our later intelligence.

You, as this Matrix are the support and energy center for your child during those early years. It is not just the physical components of holding, nursing, carrying, re-directing, feeding, changing diapers, etc.. There is also an energy exchange between Mother & Child, where the Mother is supplying this energy.

So, what can you do? For me, understanding is the main thing. If I know why something is the way it is, I can work with it. I look at it as an honor. This is something that only I can give to my children.

Now, when you hear others say, “Take a nap while your child is napping”, you may take them up on it. Though you may have household tasks calling you, this may be a better use if your time. Meditation and Creative Expression are also ways to refill our own buckets, so we can have more to give. Enjoy these precious early years, when your task is to be the that Matrix.

Here is an excerpt from Carrie Dentdler’s workshop, “The First 7-yr Cycle of Development” she did at The Waldorf Connection. Enjoy!

*You can hear more from Carrie and other Early Childhood experts in our upcoming series, Essential Elements of Early Childhood. http://waldorfhomeschoolingassociation.com/

Donna, thank you so much for being a guest here on Natural Suburbia:)
xo
Linda