The Seven-Year Life Cycles of Child Development

Hello and welcome to another Sunday with Sarah. I'm Sarah Baldwin and I'm here today to talk to you about some of the philosophy behind Waldorf education and the seven year cycles in human development that the founder of Waldorf education Rudolf Steiner talked about. Now when I first heard these ideas 25 years ago when I began my Waldorf teacher training, the ideas seemed different to me but now they make so much sense after all my years watching so many children grow and having taught so many classes. So I hope to describe in a way to you that makes it simple and easy to understand. So if you think about a child's first seven years of life so much goes on during that period. So a baby comes into the world they are kind of at one with their mother and at one with the world and their physical bodies are still developing begins in the womb but after birth the child's inner organs are still forming. Their bones are growing and getting stronger. The end of this period is usually marked by the change of teeth and the child's losing their baby teeth and the adult teeth coming in. And in Waldorf education this is the a period of time these first seven years that's approached with goodness. We talk about goodness beauty and truth and so these first seven years we are trying to teach the world the child that the world is a good safe and loving place and that's the kind of environment we want to create for them in a preschool or kindergarten and that I would encourage you to try to create at home feeling like they they came into a kind and loving world. This is one reason we use fairy tales in in these early years is because fairy tales always have a lesson that good always overcomes evil which is very satisfying for a young child. And during this this period these first seven years a child really needs to be in movement. This is one reason we don't have teach academics in a traditional way during these first seven years because a child is learning through moving his body through jumping and skipping and swinging and climbing rocks and also through fine motor skills so we teach them how to sew and they draw and we actually know now that a child brain is developing through all of through large motor movement and through small motor movement. By the end of this seven year period a lot of the the physical body is now formed. The child is ready to separate more from the mother and become more of an individual and modern research has confirmed that this is an age you know six going on seven that a child now is ready to sit at a desk for a longer period of time and focus. So in Waldorf education this is when the academic work of learning the alphabet and learning math ideally would begin. Trying to force it I've talked about this in other videos trying to force that earlier can sometimes be really detrimental to a child when the different areas physical emotional cognitive haven't all caught up by the age of seven they're entering a new phase of life where those areas are caught up and this is the age to begin academic learning and this is the age of beauty this is the age when a child's imaginative life really comes to life they're living in a world of imagination and we want to feed that and their feelings it's a it's a very a period of life where where their feelings really come into play we want to feed those those feelings by surrounding them with beauty. So in Waldorf education we give them beautiful art materials real art materials really good quality watercolor paints and and crayons beeswax crayons and good paper and teach them handwork they learn to to knit with real wool yarn and natural materials and this all feeds that child's yearning for beauty and so this this phase of of human development lasts from 7 to 14 and during that period there's what we talk about as the nine year change and this is a period where a young child is at one with the world and thinks that the world is is you know a good place and it's when they tend to become aware that there's also evil in the world and it's when they start to individuate some from the parent a lot of children at this age think they can't possibly be related to their parents they must be adopted it's an awakening it's kind of like a mini adolescence so that's something to be aware of if your child is approaching in their ninth year like eight turning nine and then another major shift happens at the age of 14 so the next period is 14 to 21 and this is the age of truth talked about goodness beauty and truth starting at the age of 14 this is when when the growing child or young adult starts to really question what is true this is when they begin to start questioning authority it's it's quite natural these are the high school years and so we want to in Waldorf education we start having them read books and stories about searches for truth and justice and it's it's a very idealistic age so we want to engage children in that and this this phase of life and not just at the end of high school but at the age of 21 which now modern research shows is when the brain is really usually finally developed the brain is still developing through all those years and even if a if a person is legally an adult at 18 we know that their brain is not fully formed at 21 and Rudolf Steiner said that this is when the kind of individual the ego he calls it the the person who that child grows up to be really begins to emerge so that's another nutshell but also it's important to know these seven-year cycles don't end at 21 they go on throughout our life there's a period from 21 to 28 and if you look at those seven-year cycles you often find in an adult's life that those can be pivotal years years of of personal change and growth in a person's life so I hope that makes some kind of sense to you or gives you some insight into the philosophy behind Waldorf education I know for me I just find it very deep and remarkable the way that Waldorf education meets a child where he or she is at by honoring that development so again if you are enjoying these videos be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel called Sunday with Sarah and if you have questions for me I'd love to answer them leave a comment below or you can write to me at sundaywithsarah at bellalunatoys.com and I'll do my best to answer your question in a future video so have a great week and I will see you next time bye