{"id":160,"date":"2014-05-06T09:26:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T16:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/?p=160"},"modified":"2014-05-06T09:26:57","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T16:26:57","slug":"imitation-and-movement-for-young-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/imitation-and-movement-for-young-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Imitation and Movement for Young Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Feet<\/a>In observing young children one can see that they are attracted to movement with such keen enthusiasm that they cannot sit still, \u00a0but must move and imitate what they have seen.\u00a0 In the \u201cPedagogical Value of the Knowledge of Man and the Cultural Value of Pedagogy\u201d Rudolf Steiner shares that \u201cthe little child clings with his perceptions to gestures, movements, and motion before all else and that when he perceives any kind of motion he feels the inner urge to imitate it\u201d.\u00a0 In this uninhibited mood they are lost in their surroundings with complete devotion, reverence and awe for what they experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When the environment is such that the child can be surrounded with movement worthy of imitation, this innately religious devotion is cultivated.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the many handy devices of modern technology hardly provided opportunities for this native capacity.\u00a0 Instead it is helpful to use the more old fashioned devices, for example brooms, rakes, shovels, egg beaters, etc. which provide movement worthy of imitation.\u00a0 It is also most helpful for the child to see an adult who approaches their task with joy and enthusiasm.\u00a0 Daily tasks become inspirational as one realizes that the child can fully experience immersion in reverence and spiritual devotion to the task in the mood of the movement and activity and that this is an antidote to the modern mood of pessimism and sarcasm in adolescence.\u00a0 The child experiences movement as an innately religious experience. This can be cultivated by\u00a0 telling stories of fairies and gnomes or events of your life\u00a0 with gestures and movement imbued with meaning.\u00a0 Children love the movement and activity that fathers often provide.<\/p>\n

\u00a0These old fashioned tools also provide an antidote to the noise that modern devices make.\u00a0 In the formative years a child\u2019s sensory system becomes overwhelmed by such noise. The ear\u2019s capacity to hear becomes coarsened and the perception of the \u201cMusic of the Spheres\u201d in the natural tones of birds, the wind, moving water, etc. are lost.A \u00a0fixation on mechanical noises can develop with a hardening effect on the organs.\u00a0 A quiet time of blessing or prayer is helpful \u00a0where the attitude and gesture of the reverent adult reveals their inner life and counteracts the coarsening tendency of modern sounds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In Waldorf parenting and education attention to the subtle details of cultivating soul and spiritual values is emphasized.\u00a0 These experiences of religious devotion in the imitation of the environment and of reverence and awe deeply felt in simple events become a wellspring of vitality for their health and wellbeing in adulthood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Knowing this you can create a daily rhythm which embraces the child being involved in simple household activities.\u00a0 For instance, when they are puttering about under your feet as you make breakfast,\u00a0 they could be exploring the nature of the material world.\u00a0 Thereby they are experiencing spirit in matter, a gift which they have brought with them<\/p>\n

from their recent experiences before birth in the spiritual world.\u00a0 Eventually, they will be so inspired and interested in your activity that they will clamor to participate.\u00a0 At that stage find ways for them to \u201chelp\u201d, such as cutting bananas with a butter knife or buttering the toast.\u00a0 They are not only learning the wisdom inherent in practical activities and perceptual and fine motor skills, but they are also learning the value of service to the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In observing young children one can see that they are attracted to movement with such keen enthusiasm that they cannot sit still, \u00a0but must move and imitate what they have seen.\u00a0 In the \u201cPedagogical Value of the Knowledge of Man and the Cultural Value of Pedagogy\u201d Rudolf Steiner shares that \u201cthe little child clings with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18],"tags":[22,29,15],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","category-parenting","tag-imitation","tag-parenting","tag-toddler-behavior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stargardenparenting.com\/inspirations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}