First

Grade
Readiness
Resources, Insights,
and Tools
for Waldorf
Educators

Nancy Blanning, Editor

 Editor: Nancy Blanning
Cover Illustration: Barbara Klocek
Graphic Design: Sheila Harrington
Managing Editor: Lory Widmer
Administrative Support: Melissa Lyons

Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America

First English Edition, 2009

Published in the United States by the

Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
285 Hungry Hollow Road
Spring Valley, NY 10977

This publication is made possible through a grant from the Waldorf Curriculum Fund.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publishers for granting permission

to reprint previously published material:
Floris Books for the excerpt What are the signs that my child is ready for school?
from A Guide to Child Health (2004)
Rudolf Steiner College Press for School Entry by Audrey McAllen,
from Learning Difculties: A Guide for Teachers (1999)
First Grade Readiness by Joan Almon
and Some Guidelines for First Grade Readiness by Nancy Foster
previously appeared in
The Developing Child: The First Seven Years (WECAN, 2004).
The Transition to Elementary School Learning is excerpted from
Developmental Signatures: Core Values and Practices in Waldorf Education
for Children Ages 39 (WECAN/AWNSA, 2007)
School Readiness by Bettina Lohn originally appeared in the UK journal Steiner Education.
The Development of Memory and the Transformation of Play by Louise deForest,
Carrying the Transition to First Grade by Janet Klaar,
and The Lowering of School Age and the Changes in Childhood: An Interim Report
originally appeared in Kindling, the UK journal
for Steiner/Waldorf early childhood education.

ISBN: 978-0-9816159-6-7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher,
except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles.
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Reections on First Grade Readiness:
A Perspective from a Therapeutic Support Teacher
Nancy Blanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

First Grade Readiness

Joan Almon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Some Guidelines for First Grade Readiness

Nancy Foster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

School Readiness: A School Doctors Perspective

Bettina Lohn, MSc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

What are the signs that my child is ready for school?

Michaela Glckler, MD and Wolfgang Goebel, MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

The Transition to Elementary School Learning: When Is the right time?

Rainer Patzlaff and Wolfgang Sassmannshausen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

School Entry and the Consolidation of Developmental Processes

Audrey E. McAllen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The Development of Memory and the Transformation of Play

Louise deForest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Creating Partnerships with Parents in First Grade Readiness Decisions

Ruth Ker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Carrying the Transition to First Grade

Janet Klaar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

A Transition Group at the Edinburgh Steiner School

Melissa Borden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Building the Bridge to the First Grade: How a Class Teacher

Can Lead Children Gently Into the Grade School
Kim Holscher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

i
 The Lowering of School Age and the Changes in Childhood:
An Interim Report
Claudia McKeen, MD; Rainer Patzlaff; Martyn Rawson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Part Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Developing Our Observation Skills for Understanding First Grade Readiness
Ruth Ker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
First Grade Readiness Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
The Red Queen: A First Grade Assessment Story
Valerie Poplawski, Celia Riahi, and Randi Stein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
First Grade Assessment Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Red Queen Materials List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Reference List for The Red Queen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
A Therapeutic Educators Approach:
Keeping It Imaginative and Playfully Objective
Nancy Blanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
First Grade Readiness Observation Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Equipment List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Activities to Support Healthy Sensory Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Observation Forms for the Documentation
of Development and Learning
International Working Group on the Transition from Kindergarten to School . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Observation Form for Early Childhood Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

ii
Foreword

Nancy Blanning

I have lists and lists of things we are supposed to look for with rst grade readiness. Of course,
I have a feel for a rst-grade-ready child, but I would like my observations to be much more
conscious and directed. If only there were a book that broke these things down and explained
what was important and why. That would really be a help!

T his conversation was the moment of conception for this book. Its birth was
encouraged further with preparation of Youre Not the Boss of Me!Understanding the
Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation (published by WECAN in 2007), in which a section
on rst grade readiness was originally going to be included. But upon reection, it seemed
a separate volume devoted only to this topic would be more useful. Everyone has a stack
of paperssome handed around as the lore of school readiness from workshops and
conferences, sometimes of unidentied originas well as articles published in Waldorf/
Steiner early childhood journals. One might also occasionally have happened upon a gem
of information in an unexpected source. In a single volume these scattered riches could be
collected into one place. Articles prepared for Youre Not the Boss of Me! could also be added
into this body of resources, along with new research. Hence, you have this book in your
hands.

Determining school readiness can be a daunting task, as it is a destiny moment for a

child. Furthermore, this whole question has become complicated by political pressures.
Governments are creating expectations and legal requirements for children to begin
formal schooling at ages younger than Waldorf pedagogy can support. Through our
anthroposophical understanding of the human being, we recognize readiness as a

iii
 developmental process, not something that can be xed by declaring a legal school-entry
age. These requirements are challenging Waldorf education world-wide.

A positive outcome of this challenge is that new medical and pedagogical research has been
formally undertaken in Europe. Doctors and educators are working to provide materials that
validate Waldorf practices so we can protect and sustain what we understand to be best
educationally for young children. A small taste of that work is described in the nal article
in this volumes rst section. A wealth of new resources will greet us when this research
work becomes available to the English-speaking world. This book is one expression of our
research efforts here on the American continent. The more we understand, the better we can
articulate our practices to the wider world.

The contents of this book are organized into two sections. The rst focuses on the what
and why of school readiness. Understanding what we are looking for in the children and
why these details are important give us grounding in this pedagogical looking.

Then there is the practical question of how to look. We need tools that are useful to the
educator and appropriate to the consciousness and nature of the child. The second section
of the book concentrates on this aspect, including three different examples of playful
and imaginative approaches to observing readiness. Each example has grown out of the
educators own research and experience with children.

This book intends to provide no denitive answers or recipes. It is offered as a resource out
of which we can each deepen our understanding of development and school readiness. May
it be a guide to support and enrich our warm, interested consideration of each child.

iv
 Part One

1
 Reections on
First Grade Readiness
A Perspective
from a Therapeutic
Support Teacher

Nancy Blanning

This opening article begins to present the threads that the following articles will weave into the
tapestry of rst grade readiness. Additionally, some other areas for observationperception of
the diagonal line, loss of teeth vs. eruption of the six-year molarsare discussed. An increasing
challenge we face as educators is to discern whether an immaturity we see is something that will
resolve itself in time or is a longer-term challenge that will require additional support.

W hat a happy situation it is when a childs birthday ts clearly within the schools
guidelines for rst grade eligibility and she or he shows the signs of readiness
we hope to see. On the other hand, what an agony it can be if a child is in a
questionable area, with a late spring or summer birthday and/or showing insufcient
indicators of maturation. As Waldorf educators, we have tended to be conservative in our
views. We know that a child who begins academic work prematurely before the birth of
the etheric body will be calling upon forces to do academic tasks that should still be used
for growth. This premature redirection of formative forces may ultimately show up as some
decit in the individuals capacity for health and vitality later on. We have seen through the
years that better late than early has beneted children in our care.

But the educational and political climates are changing. There is increasing societal and
political pressure to begin academics at earlier ages. Some European countries are lowering
the required age for school entry, so children are being directed into the grades at younger
ages. (See The Lowering of School Age and the Changes in Childhood, included in this
section.) There is also a cultural attitude that if our children are not precocious and advanced
at a young age they have somehow already failed. Parents are inclined to receive a statement
that their child is not yet ready for rst grade as a criticism, implying lack of ability. As

3
 teachers, we need to be very clear in our understanding of what constitutes readiness in the
widest sense. If our professional and pedagogical judgments conclude that a child would
be best served by an additional year before rst grade, we need to be able to say so out
of our deep understanding of child development and well-founded observation. We must
help parents experience that this arises from the sincere desire to make sure their child will
ourish in the grades and enjoy the school experience all the way through.

Luckily there is a useful body of guidelines within the Steiner/Waldorf movement which
gives indicators of rst-grade readiness. These indications give a concrete starting place. Both
informal notes from conferences with prominent Waldorf educators and formally published
material about rst grade readiness suggest common areas for observation. These include:

changes in physical development and coordinationchanging of teeth and shifting body

contour and proportion; ability to move with more coordination and intention
emotional and social maturationmaking friends, deferring personal wants to the needs of
the group, having interest in and desire to work
development of new language skills and awareness of words and soundsrhyming,
changing tempo of speech and song, being able to be directed by speech without needing a
model to imitate
new perceptual skillsability to recognize and reproduce the diagonal and cross the vertical
midline
grounding of drawings with symmetry of right and left as well as of above and below
awakening of inner picturing through imagination as opposed to fantasy play in which
something in the environment stimulates and directs the play
emergence of memory called forth at willrepeating a story upon request or actually
answering, What did you do at kindergarten today?
moving from imitation to authoritylooking for and responding positively to the adult
authority1

This is offered as a partial list to indicate some of the many factors one must consider in
sensing the childs readiness. More extensive descriptions are given in the articles in this
section by Joan Almon and Nancy Foster.2 The contributions by Dr. Bettina Lohn and
Dr. Michaela Glckler offer the perspective of medical doctors in considering readiness
determinations. Louise deForests contribution describes how the school-ready childs
memory and imaginative play evolve. Janet Klaars Carrying the Transition to First Grade
extends our consideration to include how we picture the potential rst grader responding to

1 This list is a summary of commonly described indicators of readiness for grade school.
2 Additional references with lists of indicators can be found in Ready to Learn by Martyn Rawson and Michael
Rose and in Douglas Gabriels The Spirit of Childhood.

4
 the expectations and new routines of rst grade. The excerpt from Developmental Signatures,
The Transition to Elementary School Learning, introduces the term dissociation to name
the phenomenon we see when a childs development is markedly uneven. The section by
Audrey McAllen emphasizes that consolidation of skills is a marker of readiness. In this
process, we also have to work with parents and support the upcoming rst graders with
transitional experiences once this determination is made. Ideas for these areas will be found
in articles offered by Ruth Ker, Melissa Borden, and Kim Holscher.

All of the above may be used as guides in evaluating readiness. The fully ready child will
show progress to a visible degree in nearly all of these areas. Not meeting these milestones
may mean the child is showing lack of rst grade readiness. Or a second possibility is that the
child has other challenges that will need extra help in rst grade and possibly beyond, which
an additional year in kindergarten will not remedy.

Who does the readiness observations varies from school to school. In some settings it is
the kindergarten teacher of each individual child who does so. That teacher alone may
make the determination of placement for the following year. In other schools it may be the
kindergarten teachers as a group, who may include another observer(s) who does not see
the child every day. Another possibility is a working group within the school of
The key is that the the early childhood faculty and Care Group (including the therapeutic support
child be approached teacher) who considers all potential students and determines the composition
of the class. Schools with an anthroposophic doctor in their communities are
with sincere, warm
privileged in being able to ask for the physicians opinion of a childs readiness.
interest. It is essential that all involved hold a consistent picture of what denotes
readiness. One year in our school we had a very instructive experience. The
upcoming group for rst grade was too large for a single person to process, so teams of
teachers did the observations. We discovered, however, that we had widely differing views
on what constituted readiness. When our frustration and eventual laughter at ourselves had
passed, we realized we had to nd another process.

There are differing views on what form of observation and observer is most suited to the
upcoming rst grade childs consciousness. Some prefer that the child only be observed
in the context of the kindergarten class so the child does not feel singled out. To come
to a different setting with someone other than ones teacher may be found to be too
awakening to the child. Some other schools have found a separate games playing session
for each child valuable and have instituted this practice. When there are big questions
standing about individual children, schools sometimes invite an outside consultant with
experience in readiness determinations to visit with the children one-on-one. Each of these
has advantages and drawbacks. Experience in participating in each of these contexts has
shown that each can be appropriate and valuable. The key is that the child be approached
with sincere, warm interest. If the approach is playful, imaginative, and lively, children are

5
 carried out of self-consciousness and ow along with the imagination. Each school needs
to consider its resources and school culture to determine which approach best suits that
community of children, parents, and teachers.

In our school, we have embraced a combination of all of the above. Each potential rst
grader comes to play readiness games individually with the educational support teacher. A
blessing in our setting is that the children get to know this teacher in a general way through
supplemental movement imaginations she brings to the classes. When the time comes,
the up-coming rst graders are eager to play rst-grade games, considering it a treat and
privilege for only the older children. The observations focus on physical readiness indicators,
movement and coordination, sensory systems of balance and self-movement, ne motor
skills, verbal and auditory skills, and visual perceptual skills. The results of
The Early Childhood the readiness observation are written up into a parent-friendly report that
Faculty meets with highlights the childs strengths and any areas that may need extra support.
Suggestions are included with the report of specic activities that will help
the Care Group and
strengthen particular areas and encourage continued development. As well
pictures each child. as for the parents, these reports are available to the new rst grade teacher
whenever she or he wants to see them. Each kindergarten teacher prepares
her observations of the child, including the above areas, and describes social and emotional
development as well. The early childhood faculty then meets with the Care Group (which
includes the therapeutic support teacher) and pictures each child.

Including an additional observer has potential advantages. She is not so familiar with
the children and has a chance to see the child with fresh eyes. Waldorf educators can be
so loving and accepting that we sometimes fall asleep to the children. Some painful
experiences have occurred when a teacher was so accustomed to a childs idiosyncrasies
that signs of serious learning disability were missed. This is less likely to happen when a
more objective observer is involved. An additional observer gets to see all the children of the
upcoming class and can supplement the wealth of information and insight the kindergarten
teacher provides. It is thus possible to gain an overview of the whole group and see how
children compare to one another in terms of ages, maturity levels, capabilities, and possible
developmental or future learning challenges.

This arrangement has signicant advantage for the therapeutic support teacher. In addition
to readiness, it is also possible to look for signs of foundational sensory system weaknesses.
One can see how well the child can hold balance, move with intention and coordination,
link eye and hand movement together, for example. Sometimes the signs are clear that the
child will benet from extra developmental support, sometimes not. One cannot always tell
whether something is due to a lack of maturity that will correct itself or whether a persistent

3 See the list of suggested activities following A Therapeutic Educators Approach in Part Two.

6
challenge is announcing its presence for the child. One can always make suggestions for a
child that will help strengthen immature systems.3 These are fun childhood activities that will
be therapeutic for some and fun for all. This rst grade readiness observation also creates
a baseline to compare with future assessment. Later the Second Grade Developmental
Observation will take place with each child. If developmental concerns have lingered,
pointed support through supplemental movement, occupational therapy, therapeutic
eurythmy, and Extra Lesson sessions can be implemented.4

The picture of readiness arises out of the collective picture of many factors. Some individuals
nd one or the other of these factors more telling. One of these is eruption of the six-year
molars. It is a common observation that the change of teeth signals school readiness, but
some anthroposophic doctors suggest that the molars are a more signicant signal than
losing a tooth.5 The loss of a tooth generally precedes eruption of the molars, and a good
number of children who show readiness in other ways and are fully six years still do not show
sign of the molars. So this is not the magic sign. What can be said, however, is that children
who show rm consolidation of most readiness factors usually have the molars in as well. We
once had two late spring birthday girls go on to rst grade. Each had lost teeth but grown no
molars. While they were happy to be in their class, the academic work was difcult and they
lagged behind their classmates. One day the teacher remarked that the girls seemed to have
taken a leap forward and were much more able with their work. On a hunch, we looked in
the girls mouths and saw that the molars were coming in.

Another point to observe is whether the child is able to perceive and copy diagonal lines.
Margret Meyerkort6 described that while the childs etheric body is still part of the cosmic
ether, the childs experience of space is two-dimensional. When the etheric is freed, she
can then experience three-dimensionality. When we are trying to represent space on a at
surface, it is the diagonal line which brings in the third dimension of forward and back to join
the other two spatial polaritiesabove and below, right and left. Whether a child can draw
zig-zag lines, diagonals crossing inside a square or rectangle, clear triangles, and diamonds
reveal much about the emerging sense of spatial orientation. When a child struggles with
these forms, caution about readiness may speak if there are other factors that also suggest
youngness.

A third consideration has to do with how the child enters into the observation session. In my
experience, children who are ready come in eagerly and are full of curiosity. They cannot wait
to begin, want to know what is next, and are sad when the session is nished. They are eager
to show their capabilities. The kindergarten world has become familiar and may feel a little
conning. They are ready to stretch out to explore what the rst grade will ask of them.

4 In some cases referring a preschool child for outside evaluation and professional support may be called for, not
waiting for a Second Grade Developmental Observation.
5 Dr. Johanna Steegmans refers to this in The Birth of the Etheric in Youre Not the Boss of Me! p. 21.
6 Margret Meyerkort, from notes of her presentation on Readiness for First Grade presented at Rudolf Steiner
College, March 1984.

7
 A child responding in a different way is worthy of note. If the child seems uninterested in
the task, perhaps even getting up from the table and going to explore something else in
the room, this creates a question. If the child asks, Are we done yet? readiness to hold
attention for a reasonable time may be lacking. What about shyness, one might ask? Might
not a very shy child be reluctant to do some tasks? To date, experience shows that even shy
children who are school ready will do all the tasks. They may not speak much or engage in
conversation, but the readiness in them, too, wants to declare itself.

As well as all these factors, the therapeutic teacher would also look pointedly at the
foundational senses of self-movement and balance, horizontal and vertical midlines, retained
infantile reexes, and full-body movement patterns and coordinationgalloping, skipping,
shufing side-to-side, and crawling.

There is a caution we must consider as we compile these readiness signs.

American educators American educators commonly report that children seem less uniformly
report that children ready than they did in previous decades. They have less solid development
seem less uniformly in the foundational senses of self-movement and balance, and may display
attentional challenges and other immaturities. Educators in European
ready than they did in
countries and Britain make similar observations, as conrmed in the article
previous decades. authored by Dr. Claudia McKeen and others from the International Working
Group on the Older Child, which ends this books rst section. Sorting out how
these factors contribute to or detract from school readiness adds an additional challenge to
us in our observations.

The compilations of readiness signs are an enormous help. These guide us in focusing
our observations, directing attention to the many aspects of physical, social, emotional,
intellectual, and will development. It is so fortunate when the various elements conrm a
childs maturity to begin grade school. But it is not always so clear. Discerning readiness is
always an art of sensing. When we cannot pass a child on with full certainty, what do we
do? There is a surprising range of opinions and recommendations even within our Waldorf
circles. If readiness is in question, anthroposophic medicine, therapeutic eurythmy, and
developmental movement support are all worthy recommendations, whether the child will
go on to rst grade or not. In general, teachers experiences support allowing the child in
question to be older rather than younger when beginning rst grade. Boys tend to be six
months younger in development than their female peers, so they need special consideration.
The Gesell Institute recommends that boys be a minimum of six years, six months before
beginning grade school.

8
 Ultimately we have to let the being of the child speak to our sensing of his or her readiness
and destiny. If we are guided by sustained, warm interest in the child, we will be guided well.
Though we agonize if there are questions, these children of uncertain readiness may be the
greatest gift to us. When the answer is not clear, we are forced to develop trust in the ever
present help of the spiritual world7 because our own forces cannot penetrate to the truth for
the child. The longer we are able to stay in the process, the more light-lled the nal answer
will become.

References
Gabriel, Douglas J. The Spirit of Childhood (Trinosophia Press, 1995).

Gesell Test of School Readiness (New Haven, CT: Gesell Institute of Human Development,
1980).

Ker, Ruth, ed. Youre Not the Boss of Me!Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation
(Spring Valley, NY: WECAN Publications, 2007).

Rawson, Martyn and Michael Rose. Ready to Learn (Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press, 2002).

7 From a meditative verse given by Rudolf Steiner on November 27, 1910.

9
First Grade
Readiness

Joan Almon

This article, which previously appeared in The Developing Child: The First Seven Years (WECAN,
2004) was one of the rst published in America to describe rst grade readiness. (Much of the
content was originally presented in a lecture at the International Waldorf Teachers Conference in
Dornach, Switzerland in April 1996, and was also included in an article in Gateways). It is rich in its
explanation and picturing of the invisible freed etheric and changes we can see in the behavior
and consciousness of the child in emotional, social, and cognitive domains. This Waldorf classic
provides a global picture of the childs development at this culmination toward school readiness.

W hat does it mean when we say that a child shows the signs of rst grade readiness,
or as the Germans so wisely say, that a child is schulreif (ripe for school)? There are
many changes in the childs physical, emotional, social and mental life that one
looks for, which can be listed and observed in a fairly objective manner. But there is also
a qualitative difference that is more difcult to describe, yet very important to sense. The
good gardener knows from one day to the next when a piece of fruit is ripe for picking, and
when this process is translated into childhood, it relates to Rudolf Steiners statement that a
whole new aspect of the individuality is born around the age of six or seven. This new birth
is not as physical and clear-cut as the physical birth of the child, but it is an important time
in the growth of the child. It is the underlying reality for the many changes that are visible
around ages six to seven.

To understand how such a birth can be part of the ongoing life of the child requires an
image of human development that goes beyond linear growth and includes the image of
transformative growth. Linear growth takes place along a continuum, and one can think of

11
 the line of growth as going on a steady incline upwards. Thus, one sees the child growing
before ones eyes and can plot the line of growth by measuring height and weight, for
instance. Transformative growth, however, takes linear growth into account but goes a
step further. It indicates that at certain critical points in an individuals development, a
transformation takes place analogous to the caterpillar spinning a cocoon and emerging as
quite a new creature, a buttery. There are points in life when we enter a cocoon-like womb,
go through many changes and emerge with a new form. Now we can y in areas where
before we could only crawl. One of these transformative stages of growth takes place at
around age seven. At this time, Steiner describes the birth of a new body, which he calls the
life body or etheric body. He goes on to describe two more periods of birth in the growing
individual. The next is around age fourteen when the body of feelings, called the astral
body, is born. And then, at around age twenty-one, the Ego or individuality comes to birth.
All of these are present in the human being from the embryological stage, but they are in
protective sheaths in which they grow like the embryo in the womb until their time of birth is
at hand.

The etheric body, which is born at around age seven, parallels our physical body in many
ways, but it is much subtler in nature. It is not visible to most human beings, but nevertheless
plays a vital role in keeping the physical body alive and healthy. When the etheric body is
weakened, as it so often is in modern human beings, we experience it as a weakening of the
protective sheath which normally prevents illness from taking hold in the physical body. In
this function, it bears a close relationship to the immune system.

With this background in mind, it is easier to understand school readiness, for after the
birth of the etheric, the child is quite different than she was before. She is ready to y in
new areas, or, better said, she stands upon the earth in a new way. She seems so ready
to receive knowledge from a gure of loving authority, whereas before she took in life
through imitation. She offered her love to parents and to teachers and wanted to imitate
them in all that they did and all that they felt, but she did not look to them for knowledge
in the way she now does. One sees that she has developed new capacities needed for
learning and absorbing knowledge. In her feeling life and in her rhythmic system she
shows new capacities, as well, and seeks out friends with whom she can have deeper, more
long-lasting relationships. Imagination is born in her and wants to be fed with stories and
pictures. Physically, too, many changes have occurred, and in the childs movements, one
sees a penetration into hands and feet that was not there before. The unique individuality
of the child is still clearly recognized, but the body in which it is housed has gone through
considerable change. In my experience, one usually sees these changes taking place over a
period of about one year. It is a gradual process, but there comes a time when one looks at
the child and senses that something really new has happened.

In a lecture on rst grade readiness given at a conference in Lexington, Massachusetts,

Dr. Gerald Karnow of Spring Valley, New York spoke of the etheric body in relation to the
phantom limb experience of the amputee. Often after a limb has been amputated, the

12
individual still feels the limb as if it were there. This is called the phantom limb. Unlike
the physical limb, however, the phantom limb has some unusual characteristics. Amputees
describe how they can contract the limb and make it very small or enlarge it. They can
project it through walls, for it knows no physical barriers such as physical limbs know. Dr.
Karnow reported that patients with leprosy describe the differences between limbs which
had to be amputated because of infection and those which had atrophied and needed
to be removed. They described the latter as having died and reported no phantom limb
phenomena with those, suggesting that the life body of the limb had died along with the
limb. An example was also given of a child whose phantom limb was born around age six.
She had lost an arm as a young child and had no experience of a phantom limb until around
age six when she grew one. She spoke of how she could now use it for counting on her
ngers.

The implication of these examples is that the etheric body is a real body, only not a densely
physical one. It has its own nature and experience, its own birth and death. Rudolf Steiner
speaks of the birth of the etheric as a necessary step before the child is introduced to
academic subjects, for it is only with the birth of the etheric that memory is freed and the
capacity for imagination is born. Both of these are needed for creative, healthy learning, and
we will describe this process in more detail. Premature exposure to academic studies places
a great strain on young children, as is nally being recognized by American educators and
parents. Five-year-olds tend to be quite awake mentally, so it can seem that they are ready
for some academic instruction. However, long-term studies indicate that they will not do as
well in academic work or in other areas of life as those children who have been allowed to
engage in healthy creative play until rst grade readiness is established.

One such study was done in Germany in the mid-1970s. At that time, the thrust for early
academics in the state kindergartens was in full swing, and most kindergartens in Germany
had switched to being academic-oriented. Fortunately some German professors decided
to study the results of such programs while there were still play-oriented kindergartens left
for comparison. A study was done of fty kindergarten classes that were play-oriented and
fty that were academic-oriented. Thus, about one thousand children from each type of
kindergarten were studied. Their progress was followed through fourth grade, and it was
found that the children from the play-oriented kindergartens excelled over the children
from the academic-oriented kindergartens in every area studiedin physical development,
emotional and social development, as well as in mental development. The results of the

1 The Kindergarten Year, in Der Spiegel, Number 20, 89-90.

13
 study were so impressive that the German kindergartens switched back to being play-
oriented.1 Unfortunately, a comparable large-scale study was never done in North America,
and early academics continued for nearly twenty years until the obvious stress in the
children and their failure to succeed over the long-run convinced educators that academic
kindergartens were a mistake. Although most American educators are now convinced that
play-oriented kindergartens are very important for children, the prevalence of academics in
the public kindergartens continues, for it takes many years for new ideas to lter down into
the classrooms and drive the old practices out.

James Uphoff and June Gilmore have reported on other studies that indicate the difculty
of children starting school too soon. They used age cut-off as their criteria and found that
summer birthday children who started kindergarten under the age of ve years three
months or rst grade under six years three months tended to have greater difculties than
the older children in the classes. The problems manifested in a number of areas. The younger
children tended not to do as well in their grades or on their scores on standardized tests.
They tended to repeat a grade more often than did the older children, and they showed
signs of learning disabilities more frequently. The academic problems of the younger
children often lasted right into adolescence and even into adulthood. The most disturbing
part of the article by Uphoff and Gilmore was a report on a pilot study that they did on
adolescents and young adults who committed suicide in their county in one year. Looking
back at their schooling patterns, they found that a disproportionate number of them had
started rst grade under six years three months. This was especially true of the girls who
had committed suicide, leading one to wonder if the boys found more ways to act out their
frustrations in school, whereas the girls were more apt to bottle it up inside. At any rate,
the ndings of Uphoff and Gilmore lend a serious weight to considerations of rst grade
readiness. This is not simply an academic question of when a child should begin rst grade,
but is a decision that strongly inuences the life of the youngster during the school years and
beyond.

A few examples may help esh out these ndings. During a discussion about rst grade
readiness, a kindergarten teacher spoke of her own son who had started rst grade long
before she and her husband knew of Waldorf education. For the rst few months of school,
he came home each day in tears, obviously exhausted by the experience. His parents were
unsure of what to do, but gradually he seemed better able to cope, and from second grade
on, he seemed to be doing all right. Once the son was in twelfth grade, his father remarked
one day that he must be happy to be graduating and going to college. Quite spontaneously,
the young man answered, No, I wish I had another year of school. The parents were
stunned to realize that, although the boy had seemed to adjust to school, he had never felt
completely at home with his placement there and should probably have waited another year
before entering rst grade. When we asked how the boy was doing now in adulthood, his
mother went on to say that at age nineteen he was in a serious accident and nearly lost his
life. Tragic as it was, it had the positive effect of helping him to nd his rightful place within

14
 himself, and he seemed much better synchronized within himself after the accident. David
Elkind, in his books, points out that children who have been hurried in life often need to take
a year off after high school to catch up with themselves. This is one way to help overcome
the stresses of too much academics too soon in life. But, Elkind points out that some of those
who have been mis-educated have experienced stress at such a deep level that additional
help is needed. In Waldorf education, we see that one source of this help is through artistic
outlets or therapeutic eurythmy. The arts, when presented in a healthy, living manner, help
to promote healing.

Another example illustrates the relationship between readiness and learning

It is painful to think disabilities. It involves a little girl who had been a borderline case as far as
of children who readiness was concerned. Both her teacher and her parents were undecided if
have suffered because she was ready for rst grade, but at last decided she was and sent her on to a
Waldorf rst grade. She soon showed signs of difculty and could not keep up
of poor judgments
with her class. Whereas some children might have acted out and misbehaved
regarding their in these circumstances, her response was to become excessively dreamy. By
schooling. winter, she seemed so unfocused in her work that her teacher grew concerned
that the child had a learning problem and recommended testing. The testing
service diagnosed serious learning disabilities and recommended she attend a special school
for learning disabled children. They did not feel a Waldorf school could meet her needs,
even with tutoring. They also recommended a quieter, more rhythmic lifestyle for the child,
and in order to provide this, the parents decided to move to a smaller town with a Waldorf
school for their younger child and a special school for their older child. Meanwhile, as she
was gaining so little from her rst grade experience, she returned to the kindergarten for
the spring term and happily played for a few months. In the summer, the family moved and
after much debate as to what would be best, decided to try the child again in the Waldorf
school before enrolling her in the special school. They placed her in rst grade again to see
whether she could possibly manage. It was soon apparent that the child showed no signs of
learning disability at all. She mastered the rst grade curriculum with ease and continued as
an attentive, active student who is now in the fth grade. Her only learning problem was
that she had been placed in a rst grade too soon.

It is painful to think of all the children who have unnecessarily suffered academically or
personally simply because adults made poor judgments regarding their schooling. This
has been a problem for some of the children in our Waldorf schools who entered rst
grade too soon, and it is not too late to help these children. By repeating a grade, they can
sometimes be placed in the right situation. When parents and adults carry the responsibility
for the mistaken placement, the burden is removed from the child who need not feel any
sense of failure. While not every child with school difculties needs this solution, it is worth
considering in some instances.

15
 Serious as misplacement can be in a Waldorf school, these children were at least not being
asked to do academic work before rst grade. When one considers all of the American public
school children who have been asked to do rst grade work while in kindergarten during the
past twenty years, one feels deep concern for the problems these children may suffer in their
lifetimes. Already one hears of much greater stress among preschoolers, of burn-out among
elementary children, and of high school students who seem unable to think creatively. In
addition, many problems of adolescence have increased radically during the past twenty
years, such as drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancies, teenage suicide, eating disorders
and other forms of mental diseases. It is easy to imagine that unreasonable demands in
schooling at young ages lead to stress which continues to escalate throughout the school
years, leading to serious problems in adolescence, that most vulnerable of times. Of course,
other problems such as family disturbances and excessive exposure to media also contribute
to childhood stress, but the one area which the schools can more or less control is their own
curriculum, and that is where immediate change is needed.

While contemporary research points out the difculties of introducing academic work too
soon to children, other research, such as that done by Sara Smilansky, shows the positive
gains in academic and social areas among children who are strong in creative, fantasy play in
their kindergarten years. One hopes that a more enlightened attitude will prevail in America
and other countries in the coming years and that parents and educators will insist on
academics being removed from the kindergarten and put back in the rst grade where they
belong. This push down of curriculum took place after the Sputnik scare of the 1950s. Now
that the Cold War is over, surely this vestige of it in American education can be removed. If a
healthy division between kindergarten and elementary education can be reinstated, focus
can then turn to the fundamental question of when is a child ready to enter elementary
school. What are the signs of rst grade readiness?

In the physical realm, as in other realms, one sees many signs of change. Generally, there is
a kindergarten look in contrast to a rst grade look, and this look has much to do with
body proportion, for the limbs now stretch in relation to the body and head. There is also a
loss of baby fat, and greater denition occurs in the face, which usually accompanies the loss
of baby teeth. As the six-year-old molars come in, as well as the permanent teeth in the front,
the jaw begins to grow to make more room for the molars and the second teeth. At this time,
the chin becomes more pronounced, and the face takes on a more down to earth look. All
in all, one sees less of a dreamy kindergartner and more of a focused rst grader. One cannot
see the changes as clearly in children who have thinned down at an earlier age and whose
faces look old even in kindergarten, as one can in children with the classic round look of the
kindergarten child. However, even in the thin, wiry child close observation will show some
changes.

Sometimes one sees a child in rst grade who still has the classic look of a kindergarten
child. It is well worth considering if this child has been misplaced. In one school, I was asked
to observe a rst grade where the teacher thought that one or two children belonged in

16
the kindergarten. Simple observation showed that there were two girls who still had the
look of kindergarten children. After further study of them, it was decided that one girl
was well placed, but that the other should return to the kindergarten. Even though she was
able to keep up with her class, it was noted that she could do so only by pushing herself
to a great extent, and it was felt that this would take its toll over time. Another aspect of
her development could be seen in her drawings. Her people and houses were well formed
and looked like rst grade ready pictures, but the people were not yet standing on the
earth. Rather, they hovered in the air, about an inch above the grass line. We shall speak
of childrens drawings further on. The childs parents were concerned that she might feel
she had failed rst grade, but when she was told she would return to the kindergarten,
her immediate response was, Oh good, can I go back for Advent? She reentered the
kindergarten happily and is now in sixth grade and doing very well.

In the emotional realm, one feels how the emotional or soul life of the child is developing.
While young children often show strong emotions, their emotional outbursts are like squalls
that arise quickly and pass quickly. One moment the child expresses tremendous anger,
saying how much he hates the adult and wishes he were dead, and in the next moment all
is forgotten and the child is happily at play. Regrettably, adults tend to take such outbursts
rather seriously and attribute more meaning to them than they should. Young children have
strong feelings, but on a rather surface level. As the child approaches rst grade readiness,
however, the feelings begin to deepen. Now children complain of hurt feelings and will sit
sadly for a while nursing these bruised feelings. In general, it is as if a hidden chamber has
been found, where the feeling life dwells. There feelings of all kinds live, and these feelings
have longer life and more depth than those of the younger child. The children sense that
this chamber is a hidden room and more private, and a hidden side of the child begins to
manifest. They love secrets and frequently will whisper them to one another. They like to play
tricks and be sly and cunning in their behavior. They also become more aware of dreams and
connect more fully with stories and artistic activities.

This new emotional life shows itself in social situations as well. The very young child engages
in parallel play where he plays next to another child, but is not very involved with the child.
The three- and four-year-olds play with playmates and engage actively with them during
play situations, but tend not to think much about them otherwise. A common exception to
this is with children whose families are close friends or where the children carpool together.
Sometimes, too, what looks like an early friendship is simply a dependent relationship
formed because a child is shy and needs a cohort for strength. Generally, however, three- and
four-year-old children who nd one another in the kindergarten have a lighter, short-term
relationship with each other that we can call the playmate stage. The child getting ready for
rst grade, however, begins to form friendships that go deeper than these earlier stages. A
friend is someone you think about even when youre not with the person. You care about
them and feel loyalty towards them.

17
 Children at this stage begin exploring friendship. They love to invite children over or be
invited to the homes of others. Parents joke that they need to keep social calendars for their
children at this stage. Usually, one needs to establish some healthy limits on socializing of
outside school, for, if left to the child, she may want to get together with other children four
or ve afternoons a week plus weekends. Such a busy social life would wear her out, to say
nothing of her poor parents who have to chauffeur her about.

In the mental realm, several very important changes take place. One is the birth of memory,
which Rudolf Steiner often refers to in relationship to the birth of the etheric body. This
can be a confusing point, for parents are often amazed at how strong the memory of a
young child can be. It is different, however, from the freed memory of the school child.
The difference can be described in this way. If you ask a four-year-old if he
A young childs remembers Grandmas birthday last year, he will probably look quite blank.
memory is different But if you are baking a cake for the birthday party, and it is the same cake you
baked last year, the sight of it may trigger the childs memory, and he will tell
from the freed
you about the party in remarkable detail. Or you may ask this child what he
memory of the school did in school and receive as the answer, Nothing, we just played. While youre
child. cooking dinner, one of the foods may trigger his memory of kindergarten
snack, and suddenly youll hear all about the kindergarten morning. Or you
may ask what songs were sung at circle time and receive a perplexed look from the young
child. Later, while hes at play, a melody goes through his mind, and suddenly he is singing
and reciting the whole of the morning circle. Memory exists in the young child, but the child
does not have free access to it. It takes something from the outside such as a sight or smell or
a rhythmic verse from within to trigger memory that then comes pouring out in rich detail.

When memory is freed at around age six or seven, however, the child can freely enter in
and nd the memory he is looking for. The process reminds me of going into a large library
and nding just the book one is searching for. A nine-year-old demonstrated this search to
me when I saw him in a supermarket one day and asked if he remembered Acorn Hill, the
Waldorf kindergarten he had attended. He clapped his hand on his forehead, closed his eyes
and had a look of extreme concentration. After a minute or two, his brow cleared and he
described a birthday celebration and a eurythmy class at Acorn Hill. He apologized for taking
so long to remember his kindergarten but explained in great seriousness that he had gone
to two public schools since then. I had a strong impression of his going into the library of his
mind and going past the rst shelves which contained his most recent school memories, past
the next shelves which held his last school, and nally arriving at the Acorn Hill shelves.

Another aspect of mental change is in the realm of imagination, which is different from
the fantasy of the kindergarten child. A characteristic of fantasy play is that the child needs
props to carry out the play. It can be the very simplest of props such as children use in the
Waldorf kindergarten, such as using corn cobs or small logs for baby bottles or stones and
nuts for food, but it is hard for the four-year-old to feed her baby without some sort of prop
at hand. When imagination is born, however, one often sees children play without objects.

18
They can now see their play situation in their minds eye and do not need the physical
toys. I recall as a school child playing ongoing soap operas where we used no props at all,
but the characters were fully alive in our minds. Bronja Zahlingen, a much-loved Waldorf
kindergarten teacher from Vienna, describes her transition to imaginative play from fantasy
play in this way: As a child she loved to play with small objectspeople, houses, animals,
etc.on a deep window seat in her bedroom. She would create a scene and play with it by
the hour. One day, when she had turned six, she set up a scene, as usual, but then closed her
eyes and played the whole scene out in her mind. This is the birth of imagination. Sometimes
a child will voice this change by saying something like, I can see Grandpa whenever I want.
I just have to close my eyes. On a subtler level, one also sees this change to imagination at
story time in the kindergarten. The younger children will usually listen to a fairy tale with
their mouths open, literally drinking in the tale, tasting the sounds and feeling the rhythm of
the words. The six-year-olds will often close their mouths while listening, and one can almost
see the images of the story ow across their foreheads. They are clearly living into the tales
in a whole new way. This aspect, coupled with the newly born memory forces, allows the
school-ready children to go home and repeat in great detail the stories
they heard in the kindergarten.

When teaching academics, these qualities of free memory and imagination are all important.
The Waldorf rst grade teacher may begin with props such as counting stones and stories
about the shepherd who loses some of his sheep, but she expects the children to be able to
remember what they learned yesterday and be able to add new information to the picture
day after day. They need to picture their lessons inwardly and pull them out of memory as
they need them. All academic learning requires these capacities, but if they are not born yet,
what is the child to do?

The child struggles to compensate as much as possible. Some educators say that in
compensating the children learn with the cortex or covering of the brain, rather than with
the deeper parts of the brain where such learning should take place. Another suggestion
is made by Jane Healy in her book, Endangered Minds, where she surveys current brain
research and suggests that more advanced learning requires nerves which are coated with
a fatty substance called myelin, which serves as an insulator and transmitter of learning. The
myelinization of the sheaths, as the process is called, takes place slowly, and is not completed
until early adulthood. Its rate of progress places certain organic boundaries on what can be
effectively learned at different times. She says, The relatively xed order of myelinization
in different brain areas may provide a real biological basis for readiness for certain types of
learning.2 Jane Healys concern is that the quality of thinking is seriously deteriorating as a
result of early learning, exposure to media and other factors.

2 Jane Healy, Endangered Minds, 70.

19
 Another aspect of the mental development of rst grade ready children is that they usually
become interested in language arts and mathematics. This can manifest in a number of
ways. Children at this stage love to play with words, make rhymes, or change the words in
the songs and verses which the teacher presents in the kindergarten, and the teacher needs
to nd some fun materials that keep their tongues busy. They are not quite ready for tongue
twisters, but verses with humor such as My Household in the Grimms collection, ll them
with delight. They also love learning a little bit of a foreign language, and after learning a
single song or verse, will proudly go home and announce that they can speak the language
in question. This is a playful door opener for the Waldorf student who will begin studying
foreign languages in rst grade.

A challenging aspect of this time period is that the children become interested in written
language and want to be able to write their names and an assortment of words such as
Mommy, Daddy, to, from, love and other greetings which are added to the pictures they draw
for family and friends. Most children I know master ten or fteen such words during the time
before rst grade and feel satised that they can now read and write. In other words, at this
age a little bit goes a long way. Unfortunately, often parents and educators see this budding
interest and take it to mean that the child is now ready for formal instruction in written
language. I have rarely seen a child who, left to his own devices, was interested in learning
written language for more than a few weeks at this stage. The same is true of mathematics.
The children love to play mental arithmetic with one another and will set one another
challenging tasks, but one sees little interest in wanting regular practice with mathematical
processes. Rather, they are at the point of playing with numbers and letters, and as long
as they set the pace they are quite happy with it all. Only a few children I have known have
actually wanted more than this playful approach, and these children taught themselves to
read even though neither their parents nor their teachers wanted them to read yet. This
convinced me that when the desire is strong enough, the child will overcome all barriers
and learn to read, but, unfortunately, in each case it was a child who already lagged behind
in social skills, and one felt that reading was going to make socializing even more difcult.
It is easy for such children to place books at the center of their lives rather than human
relationships.

Another aspect of mathematical thinking that awakens in many children is a interest in

innity. One hears elaborate kindergarten conversations about this elusive concept, and
one which especially struck me was between two girls, one ve and one six. The ve-year-old
announced proudly that innity was 6,248. The six-year-old looked scornfully at her and said,
Thats not what innity means. Innity means keep going. As a philosophy of life, it seemed
admirable, and indeed during this period, the children become little philosophers. They
often talk about God, creation and how the world works. Life interests them tremendously,
and they are prepared to think about anything, be it cosmic or microscopic. They are far less
interested in our answers than in their own, and usually are very happy if we respond to their
questions by asking them what they think. They are almost always prepared to answer, and
their answers are incredibly rich and full of insight.

20
The transition to rst grade readiness is also marked by the childs leaving the world of
imitation, which so characterizes early childhood, and entering the world of authority. The
young child generally feels that anything the adult can do, she can do as well and is eager to
participate. The school child looks at the adult as one who knows, and views the adult as
a loving authority who will dispense knowledge to the receptive child. When I assisted in a
Waldorf kindergarten in Vienna, I remember a six-year-old boy who would follow me around
in hopes that I would drop an English word on him, which I frequently did. It was clear that
he looked upon me as an authority and not merely one who was to be imitated. While the
children go through this important transition from imitation to authority, they frequently
travel through a no-mans land where they have no sense of how to learn. They feel cut off
from the learning process and express this state of being by saying, Im bored. This period
usually lasts for a month or two, until the new phase of learning is established. During this
period, one can sometimes make suggestions for play, which the children usually reject, but
then replace with their own ideas. Another approach is to give the child some practical work
to do. This is quite satisfying to them, and they may remain with the work for an extended
period or, from the work, become inspired with a new idea for play.

There was a time when childrens drawings served as a strong indicator of rst grade
readiness, and they still do for some children. The problem is that many children seem
uncomfortable with the process of drawing and are not able to produce the archetypal
pictures so closely related to the childs own growth forces. As children grow more
precociously awake, it is difcult for them to draw the traditional, archetypal pictures. They
are replaced with pictures of cars, ships, cartoon gures, etc. In her book, Understanding
Childrens Drawings, Michaela Strauss says:

A comparison of the drawings that originated before the last war with the most recent ones
shows that, compared with nowadays, the children at that time drew their messages more clearly.
The phenomena of child development have remained the same, but the childs unconscious
perception of the laws of development of his own beingwhich are mirrored in his drawings
appears to have become weaker. Should this fact be seen in connection with the nervousness and
overstimulation of today? 3

For children who are in touch with the archetypal forms of drawing, the signs of readiness
include drawings of people whose heads, bodies and limbs are in reasonable proportion and
whose feet are standing on the earth. The houses usually have square bottoms and triangle
roofs, generally with an upright chimney and often with smoke emerging from it. There is
usually symmetry in the picture, so if a ower appears on one side of the house, another
ower will be on the other side, indicating that an awareness of the bodys own symmetry
has been born in the child.

3 Michaela Strauss, Understanding Childrens Drawings, 10.

21
 An additional area of change in the school-ready children is a greater degree of sexual
awareness. This is the age for playing doctor, and children show an interest in exploring
one anothers bodies, especially the bodies of the opposite sex. Every parent and teacher
needs to consider what message they want to impartverbally and non-verballyaround
this delicate area. Most of us do not want to impart a sense of guilt or shame around
sexual exploration, but we do need to consider what the healthy boundaries are. In the
kindergarten, nudity and sexual exploration in play seem inappropriate, even when they
take place in play that is not sexually oriented such as when a six-year-old was powdering
her baby by sprinkling earth and pebbles all over the four-year-old childs bare bottom. In the
home, too, parents need to be clear about these boundaries when their children are playing
with other children.

When all of these characteristics of change are put together, including the awakening of
sexual interest, the stretching of the limbs, the awakening of the social life and of mental
capacity, one nds many similarities to the changes of a youngster going into puberty and
adolescence. I remember once describing the signs of rst grade readiness to a group of
class teachers, and the seventh grade teacher was astounded and said, This sounds just
like my class! We call this period from around age six the rst adolescence, and it carries
with it the wonder of that time of change and growth, as well as some of the pitfalls. One
characteristic of adolescence is that so many changes are happening at once that it is hard
for the youngster to maintain balance. They can easily become extreme, either becoming
social butteries, for example, or hermits. The same is true of children going through this
rst adolescence. Some want social contact all the time, some become preoccupied with the
opposite sex, and some want only mental activities. The art of guiding children through this
stage is to help them blossom in all areas, so that no one area becomes too lopsided.

When all of the changes are thoughtfully considered, one usually feels strongly that a child is
either ready for rst grade or needs to wait another year. Sometimes, however, the situation
is less clear, and in such cases, my rule of thumb has been that if I am not certain, it is better
to let the child wait, simply because when a child is ready it is so evident. Occasionally,
though, one also needs to consider the relationship of the child to his classmates who are
going on to rst grade, or the relationship of the child to the rst grade teacher. There can be
the rare exception where the child is not quite ready to go on, but life circumstances dictate
that it is best for the child to move forward.

Many teachers from new Waldorf initiatives which do not have grades have asked about our
experience at Acorn Hill, where a number of our children have gone out to public schools at
the kindergarten or rst grade level. Over the years, we have seen that our students do very
well when entering at the rst grade level and by Christmas time have usually caught up with
their classmates who have been introduced to academic subjects in kindergarten or before.

22
 We have learned that most rst grade teachers need to review what the children learned in
kindergarten, for at this age a great deal is forgotten over the summer. Our children enter at
rst grade, learn from the review period and are so fresh and ready to learn that they take
in very quickly what it took the others much longer to learn at a younger age.
Why trouble children This process was beautifully described by a ve-year-old in my kindergarten
with academics at the who was preparing to enter a public school kindergarten the following fall. Her
sister also had been with me and had left for public kindergarten, a process
kindergarten level I do not recommend for reasons so aptly described by this child. She was
when it does not help? playing with some friends and said in a very serious tone, Public kindergarten
is really hard. Its really hard, she repeated with much emphasis. The others
began looking nervous as this was clearly not what they had been told by their parents.
Yes, she went on, its really, really hard. I know because my sister told me. She paused, and
in a much lighter tone added, But rst grade is easy, because you just do all the same things
again! The obvious question is: Why trouble children with academics at the kindergarten
level, when it does not help and does hinder the long-term learning processes?

As a practical point, when Waldorf children do need to enter non-Waldorf rst grades,
we have found it helpful to give a brief written description of our Waldorf kindergarten
approach to the parent to pass on to the rst grade teacher. We found that when the
teacher realized the child had not yet been introduced to academics she viewed the child
quite differently than if she assumed the child had been introduced to academics, but had
retained very little. We also encouraged parents to be relaxed and supportive of the child as
she went through the transition stage during the rst few months of school. Children learn
best if they feel this is a normal transition process and that they will soon catch on to what
the teacher is asking of them. The quiet condence of the parent is a great help.

To facilitate decisions about rst grade readiness, school systems create age cut-offs.
Waldorf schools also use birth dates, but generally as a guideline rather than as a strict rule.
Traditionally, school systems in America used December 31 as their cut off so children under
six were admitted to rst grade. Many school systems have cut back to September 1 or
October 1, and at least one now uses July 1. Waldorf schools have generally found that they
need to cut further back than this, and many now use June 1, and a few use March 1. Classes
now being formed in Waldorf schools are usually three to six months older than classes
formed ten years ago, and we have heard from a number of class teachers taking a second or
third class through how wonderful it is to have these older groups. They report that from the
rst day of school the children are ready to learn.

23
 Questions of rst grade readiness are major issues in countries that admit children into
rst grade at age six. In countries such as those in Scandinavia, which use age seven as the
normal age for rst grade, readiness is not a major issue, for nearly all seven-year-olds are
ready. Where age six is used, however, the likelihood of unreadiness is so great, and the price
paid by the child so enormous, that one needs to be well versed about rst grade readiness
in order to make the best decision for the child. Even when we consider all of changes
described in this article, in the nal analysis, it is knowing the child at the deepest levels that
guides parents and teachers towards the right decision for that child. One hopes that the
childs angel is whispering in our ear and that we are listening carefully.

References and Suggested Reading

Elkind, David. The Hurried Child and Miseducation (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1987).

Gesell Institute publications on child development.

The Kindergarten Year. Der Spiegel (Number 20, 1977).

Glckler, Michaela and Wolfgang Goebel. A Guide to Child Health (Edinburgh: Floris Books,
1990).

Healy, Jane. Endangered Minds (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990).

Smilansky, Sara. Sociodramatic Play in Childrens Play and Learning (New York: Teachers
College Press, 1990).

Lievegoed, Bernard. Phases of Childhood (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1987).

Strauss, Michaela. Understanding Childrens Drawings (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978).

Uphoff, James and June Gilmore. Summer Children (Middletown, Ohio: J & J Publishing, 1986).

Uphoff, James and June Gilmore. Pupil Age at School Entrance, Educational Leadership.

The many titles available by Louise Bates Ames and Frances L. Ilg are also recommended.

24
Some Guidelines
for
First Grade
Readiness

Nancy Foster

Nancy Foster here acts as a guide to wake up the educators observational eyes. She describes
the global picture of readiness and then directs our attention to the individual details that
announce school ready. In classic Waldorf fashion, she takes us from the whole to the parts. This
article also previously appeared in The Developing Child: The First Seven Years (WECAN, 2004).

M ore and more often, it seems, the question of rst grade readiness arises as a deep
concern. The responsibility for making decisions or recommendations in this
delicate area weighs heavily on many of us. As Waldorf teachers, we nd that the
longer we immerse ourselves in Rudolf Steiners philosophy and the principles of Waldorf
education, the better we will be able to reach wise decisions. This holds true in all aspects of
our work, and earnest striving becomes an essential part of our lives.

In considering rst grade readiness, we must place the child at the center of our thoughts.
Guidelines for observation can be a great help, and those that follow, arranged in a
somewhat rough-and-ready form, are offered in this light. No set of guidelines should be
regarded as a sort of score sheet: if a child receives eight out of ten, Yes, on to grade
one! On the contrary, nothing can replace the teachers and the parents knowledge of the
individual child. It is a rare child who shows every characteristic of readiness at a given time;
indeed, readiness is actually a process rather than a static point. This, of course, is where the
elements of observation and experience enter in.

The parent-teacher discussion regarding readiness is an important event. In my experience,

an effective approach has been rst of all to focusteacher and parent togetheron the
childs needs rather than on a set of pre-conceived notions based on what everyone else

25
 is doing. The teachers ability to share concrete, accurate observations of the child is a key
factor here in gaining the parents condence. If the childs readiness is in question, it may
be helpful to point out that results of a too-early placement in rst grade may not show up
for several years, and also that unready children do not catch up later on in grade school.
It is useful to have some age guidelines in mind. For example, if June 1 is the cut-off date for
entry into rst grade, May birthdays should be looked at carefully, and in the case of boys
(who generally lag about six months behind girls developmentally), even April birthdays may
be questionable.

One question frequently raised by parents is that of intellectual readiness: My child is so

eager to learn letters and numbers. Shouldnt he go on to rst grade? Parents fear that if
instruction does not begin, the child might be frustrated or the interest atrophy. A child,
however, may show interest in letters and numbers quite earlyeven at age four or ve
and may want to copy letters, or may ask how to spell words, etc. This interest may arise
naturally out of imitation of the parents or older children. In itself, it is not necessarily a sign
of intellectual readiness, and often dies away before reawakening when the child is really
ready for rst grade. In any case, a child who is truly ready to read will learn to do so, one way
or another, even without instruction. Intellectual and emotional readiness may develop at
different rates, and intellectual readiness alone is not an adequate reason for placement in
rst grade.

In talking with parents of a child whose readiness is in doubt, it is useful if the teacher is able
to describe what that particular child would gain from another year in kindergarten. Parents
may wonder whether the year would simply be a repetition, and
Intellectual readiness the teacher can explain that a child takes from an experience what
alone is not an she is ready forthat watercolor painting, for example, will be
experienced very differently by a four-year-old and a six-year-old. It
adequate reason
is especially important, however, that the parents be helped to feel
for placement in rst condent that the teacher will not simply repeat the same activities
grade. and stories year after year, but that, instead, the program will be
planned according to the needs of a particular group of children.
The teacher will keep in mind the needs of the older, almost-ready-for-rst-grade children,
and make sure that they are offered experiences to challenge them and help them grow
still without pushing. The teacher can also help the parents consider their childs readiness
by asking them to picture the child in a rst grade setting (always realizing, of course, that
several months are yet to pass) and with the children who will be in the rst grade group.

There is some risk in keeping a child in kindergarten too long, if the child has really reached
the stage at which rst grade activities are appropriate. Such a situation might arise, for
example, in a school where there is not yet a rst grade, and the parent wishes the child
to remain in kindergarten one more year until a rst grade is begun. Or it might arise if the
teacher or parent is overly cautious. In this case, the needs of the child will not be met, and

26
unhappiness or discipline problems may arise. It seems fairly clear, however, that there is
more likelihood of error on the side of too-early placement than too-late, and many teachers
feel: When in doubtwait! Particularly in todays society, with its emphasis on acceleration
in education, we must counteract the pressures to move children ahead too soon. There
may also be a situation in which it must be determined whether a child needs another year
of kindergarten even though he or she is chronologically ready, or whether there may be a
developmental problem that needs to be addressed.

A teacher need not feel ashamed to be unsure about a childs placement. It is best to be
open with the parents, and to share with them those areas in question which they can
observe for themselves. In this way the parents will feel comfortable about expressing
their own questions openly and honestly, and a mutually helpful dialogue can take place.
Parents will appreciate feeling that they have shared in the thinking process that leads to a
recommendation.

Teachers and parents need to be clear about who it is that makes the nal placement
decision in questionable cases. Depending on the particular school, this will vary: Is it
the faculty chair? The College of Teachers? The incoming rst grade teacher? The school
doctor? The kindergarten teacher? The parents? It is a good idea to establish this clearly,
as well as the procedures and timetable for reaching a decision. This will be especially
helpful in cases when the kindergarten teacher and parents may not see eye-to-eye or
there is a communication difculty. Ideally, there will be mutual trust and condence, but
unfortunately this cannot always be the case, and then parents and teacherslike their
childrenneed rm guidelines!

The following guidelines obviously are not to be brought to the attention of the children in
question! They are based on information gained from various sources, including Margret
Meyerkort, Elisabeth Moore-Haas, Bronja Zahlingen, and the Waldorf Institute (now
Sunbridge College), as well as my own and colleagues observations. Since some of the
information is secondhand, and it has not been possible to check it all with its sources,
teachers should be aware that there is the possibility of error or misinterpretation in spite of
well-meant efforts to be accurate. In addition, this is certainly not presented as a complete,
denitive list and, once again, it is not to be used as a checklist or score sheet, but rather
as an aid to observation. For this reason, the guidelines include, in some parts, more than
simply readiness characteristics, but also indicate preliminary stages, which may help give a
broader perspective.

With these reservations and qualications, the guidelines are offered in the hope that they
will help kindergarten teachers to know their children better.

27
 Physical Development
1. Bodily proportions and characteristics: Individual differences due to body type must be
considered. In general, the head:body ratio changes from about 1:4 in infancy, to 1:6 at age
seven, to 1:8 in the adult. These numbers mean that the head of the adult is 1/8 of the total
body length, including the head. (See Lievegoed, Phases of Childhood.) Loss of baby fat and
the pot belly should occur toward the end of the fth year. The rst stretching (growth
of the legs) should occur toward the end of the sixth year. A school-ready child should have
developed:
a. Ability to touch top of ear by reaching over top of head with opposite arm.
b. Waist and neck incisions in the trunk, indicating that the rhythmic system is maturing
and becoming ready for rst grade instruction
c. Visible joints (knuckles) and kneecaps instead of dimples
d. Arch in foot
e. Individualized facial features instead of baby features (child who has not been able to
undergo childhood illnesses may be hindered in this development)
f. S-curve in spine
2. Second dentition: Usually a rst-grade-ready child should have at least a loose tooth. If one
or both parents, however, were slow in reaching second dentition, this factor should not
be weighed as heavily for the particular child. The appearance of the 6-year molars is also a
factor to be observed.
3. Physical abilities: The school-ready child should be able to do many or most of the
following, as observed in spontaneous play (a child should not be tested on these items!):
a. Walk a beam, log, (or line) forward
b. Catch and throw a large ball
c. Hop on either foot
d. Bunny hop (both feet together)
e. Habitually walk in cross pattern (i.e. swing opposite arm when stepping out with one
foot)
f. Climb stairs with alternating feet on each stair
g. Tie knots or, sometimes, bows; button; zip own clothing
h. Use ngers dexterously (sew, nger knit, play nger games, etc.)
i. Have established dominance (eye/hand dominance most important)though this may
in some cases not be rmly established until age nine

28
 j. Not be unduly restless or lethargic
k. Shake hands with thumb separated from ngers, rather than offering the whole hand

Social and Emotional Development

1. The following stages can be observed in play:
a. Age twothree: not really social; wants to possess and try out; reactive, transitory feelings
b. Ages threefour: begins a bit to discover the other, but still self-centered; beginning
of fantasy stage (transforms objects to meet own needs); activity for its own sake, not
goal-oriented; or, transitory, quickly-changing goals (play with wood pieces may result in
a house, which then becomes a campre, etc., all without planning ahead)
c. Age ve: real need for social experience; beginning of give-and-take, sharing; some
beginnings of planning in play
d. School-ready child: develops feeling for others needssocial awareness, doing things
for others; goal-oriented playplanning, thinking things out; does not need objects
in play (can now visualize play rather than needing to collect many items as younger
children did; this shows separation of concept/inner world from percept/outer world);
begins more long-term friendships; play of horses and dogs (shows readiness for
authority of rst grade, obeying a master)
2. Other social/emotional abilities of the school-ready child:
a. Ability to join in offered activities
b. Ability to look after own eating, drinking, washing, toileting needs
c. Ability to share teachers or parents attention and wait for a turn
d. Ability to follow instructions and carry through with a task or activity
e. Not be unduly dependent on a security item (thumb, blanket, etc.)
f. Not be regularly the aggressor or victim; be accepted by most other children

Drawing and Painting

(Dont wait for all aspects to appear for any one child.)
1. Development of the willshown in stages similar to those in play:
a. Activity for its own sake
Drawing: Child is involved in the movement, gesture of the activity. Spirals, zig-zags.
Painting: Process is paramount; stage of water, mud, and possible scratches from
vigorous gesture.

29
 b. Fantasy stage
Drawing: Childs fantasy is caught up by the activity; childs identication of an object in
his drawing seems to arise out of the activity (Oh, and here is a bear! rather than Now
Ill draw a bear.)
Painting: unconscious, owing beauty of colors.
c. School-ready child
Drawing: conscious goal in drawing picture.
Painting: Child becomes goal-conscious, attempts forms or special effects such as
dots; paintings become stiffer, less beautiful for a time, but may then free up again later
as child consciously discovers how to mix and blend colors and develops designs or
forms appropriate to the medium; symmetrical designs, similar to crayon drawings, may
appear.
2. Content of pictures (primarily in drawing):
a. Evolution of human form: circle; then circle with eyes; then circle with appendages; then
trunk is developed. Most mature form of trunk is triangular. Addition of ngers and other
details.
b. Change in emphasis from line (youngest children) to surface and color (older children
want to color in objects, perhaps give people patterned clothing, etc.)
c. School-ready child:
1. Two-fold symmetry, indicating that the two-fold function of the brain has come
about: symmetrical houses, often with a tree or ower on each side; or symmetrical
designs in which the paper is divided into halves or quarters, often diagonally
2. Symmetrical color arrangements.
3. Change-of-teeth pictures, containing horizontal repetitions such as birds ying,
rows of mountains, etc., reminiscent of rows of teeth.
4. Strip of sky and earth, showing childs awareness of above and below rather than
the younger childs feeling of wholeness.
5. Use of the diagonal (related to brain development). Frequently seen in triangle form
of roof or in drawing of stairs.
6. People and houses resting on grass at bottom of page.

30
Soul Life (Thinking, Feeling, Willing)
1. Signs of rst grade readiness in the will:
a. Conscious goals appear in play, drawing, painting, handwork; consciousness of self as
creator results in awareness of the distinction between inner (desire) and outer (result).
At rst puberty this leads to the characteristic feelings of loneliness and inability (which
may be expressed as Im bored). This is an important stage, as it leads to the basis for
natural respect which is to be found in the grade school yearsthe realization by the
child that there are some things he cant yet do as well as the adult.
b. Use of limbs is vigorous, active; the child likes to move furniture and heavy stumps, and
use all available play cloths.
c. The child likes to run errands (again, goal consciousness).
2. Signs of rst grade readiness in the feeling life:
a. Stormy period of rst puberty proceeding to more calm; can handle feelings better;
needs less adult intervention.
b. Wrapping of objects as gifts (child wraps himself around the object).
c. Loves humor, limericks, rhymes, play on words, silly words.
d. May say verse faster than rest of group, or hold note longer at end of song (is beginning
to grow aware in the realm of rhythm).
e. Likes to whisper, have secrets (distinction between inner and outer).
f. May like to tell of dreams (soul has made a step inward); awareness of inner and outer
life. (Be careful this isnt imitation of adults or just telling a story; and dont question
children about dreams.)
3. Signs of rst grade readiness in the thinking/cognitive realm:
a. Development of causal thinking (if, because, therefore; for example, If I tie these
strings together, they will reach that play stand, and also in the wish to tie things
together with yarn, tying thoughts together in causal thinking).
b. Correct use of verb tenses (I stood, not I standed.)
c. Enjoys cunning, planning, and scheming.
d. Enjoys humor and making up or repeating simple riddles, (typical for this age mentality
is, Why was the cook mean? Because he beat the eggs and whipped the cream.) It
is best that the teacher not introduce real riddles at this stage; they are appropriate for
older children.
e. Memory becomes conscious; child can, at will or upon request, repeat stories and songs
with accuracy

31
 f. Speaks uently and clearly and can express ideas easily and fully.
g. Can concentrate on a chosen task for ten to fteen minutes.
h. Image-formation: is no longer dependent on objects in play, but can visualize (e.g. may
build a house and then, instead of collecting dishes, food, etc., may simply talk through
the play). Conversations and discussions among the children become important to them.
i. Appearance of real questions (not the typical younger childs constant why, or
questions for the sake of asking).

Factors in Borderline Cases

1. Boys are generally about six months behind girls in level of maturity at this age.
2. Unreadiness for rst grade may manifest itself in the early grades as lack of stamina and
concentration, and difculty in keeping up with the rhythmical work, or with games and
handwork.
3. Younger children may be left behind socially; this usually becomes apparent toward the
end of third grade, and may become more marked during the change at age twelve.
4. If there is any academic difculty, it will be exacerbated if the child enters rst grade as a
younger child, and reading problems may become severe. On the other hand, if the child
is held back, he may later excel.
5. If a child is always youngest in the class, he may never have the opportunity to become
a leader. (Leader here means not the boss, but one who has the inner strength and
security to be an example to others and bring out the best in them.)
6. The composition of the rst grade group should be considered: How will this child t in,
both socially and chronologically? Is it a young class or an old one, for example?

32
A School
Doctors
Perspective

Bettina Lohn, MSc

Dr. Lohn gives a comprehensive view of the many factors to consider in determining readiness
and offers guiding questions in putting what we see in context. Is the childs development age-
appropriate? Are there any particular problems or areas of concern? If there are concerns, are
they development-related or can they be expected to accompany the child into the school years
and beyond? Is the child delayed in one developmental area, which may need to be specically
addressed but not necessarily require a whole further year in the kindergarten? However the
questions are answered, she reminds us that every decision is individual and requires our detailed,
devoted observation.

S tarting school is an important and life-changing event for most children. It therefore
warrants careful consideration and attention.

The concept of school readiness is not generally accepted and recognized in mainstream
education in the UK. Children commonly start school according to their chronological
age, usually between four and ve, with the legal school duty starting at age ve. In
other European countries, especially in Scandinavia, school entry is later, between the
ages of six and seven years. Contrary to what is often assumed, this does not lead to lesser
achievements, as comparative studies have shown. Nevertheless, the current European trend
is to favor a younger school entry age, and in many cases, more formal studies are introduced
into the kindergarten. Several European countries, like Germany and Switzerland, will reduce
their school entry age in the near future. This poses particular challenges for Steiner/Waldorf
schools.

33
 Learning
Learning is often associated with the more formalized approach that begins in school. But
of course, children dont just start learning when they enter schoolthey start the minute
they are born, if not before. So the question is not only when but how children should learn,
appropriate to their age.

At birth, the process of familiarization with yourself, especially your body, and your
immediate family and environment begins, initially requiring great care and support.
Gradually the acquired abilities enable you to become increasingly
The question is not independent. This process is ongoing throughout childhood and continues at
only when but how least until adolescence.
children should learn,
When the child starts to attend nursery and kindergarten, his horizon expands.
appropriate to their
Social interactions and challenges, including separation from home, gain
age. increasing importance in his life. At this time the creative activity of play,
involving a multitude of skills and the tool of imitation, is his method of
learning. It is interesting to notice that play is no longer something every child is able to do.
Some children require instructions about how to play. Skills which children used to pick up
by osmosis now need to be taught directly. This tendency of requiring direct teaching
seems to apply to an increasingly younger age and to all areas of life, including social and
emotional skills.

Ready for school?

The question of whether a child is ready for school is the question of whether a child is
developmentally mature enough, ideally on all levels, to face the challenges presented by
schoolin relation to behavior, social interactions and learning. If one would strictly apply
this criterion, every child would have her or his own school starting date. This would present
schools with an impossible task and would also have a disruptive effect on the social fabric of
a group or class. However, the fact that there is usually only one rst grade starting time per
year can pose problems.

In Waldorf schools the start of formal learning is delayed until the age of six to seven years.
And even then the introduction is gradual, taking the pictorial and play-orientated nature
of the childs method of learning into account. The reasons for this are found in specic
developmental changes around the age of six to seven, according to the concept of child
development within Anthroposophy.

In the rst seven years of a childs life the emphasis lies on growth and development of
the body. We never again grow as fast as in the rst few years. The physical and ether/life
body are especially involved in this, under the guidance of the astral/soul body and ego
organisation. When approaching the age of seven years the intense interaction between

34
 physical and ether/life body, leading to the establishment of life functions and organ
maturation, is reduced. One part of the ether/life body activity continues to be involved in
life functions, while another becomes available, freed up for other tasks. The availability of
these free ether/life forces is what enables a child to be ready for school.

These formative forces, initially engaged in body growth and organ differentiation, transform
to become the forces we use for our thinking. Although this is a gradual process it reaches a
decisive point at the age of six or seven, when the child is able to access thought processes
more consciously and independently. With thinking the memory also becomes more
available. The child is, as it were, no longer thinking at the cost of its bodily development.
Although we are not able to observe these transformations directly, one example is the
formation and emergence of the second teeth. Having been formed invisibly in the gums
during the rst seven years of life they then start to emergeevery tooth the evidence of a
completed process. The above-mentioned transformation of etheric/life forces, when taken
seriously, puts a new slant on the prevention of health issues. Starting school at the right
time, that is, being able to cope with the challenges one is exposed to, can contribute to
future health in the broadest sense.

Areas of observation
When asking about developmental maturation, the following areas should be considered:
Social situation: social skills and interactions; relationships within the group (e.g. leader/
follower); family situation, including the position of the child in the family
Emotional: maturity and independence, self-condence and self-esteem, presence of an
emerging inner space
Behavior: levels of concentration, attention, perception and listening
Movement: gross and ne movement skills; co-ordination (including hand/eye-co-
ordination), balance, spatial awareness and relationship to the three dimensions, mastering
of the body, pencil grip, nger games
Speech and language : development of speech sounds and clarity, understanding of
language, ability of expression in language (This is in my experience of great importance in
view of the emphasis of oral teaching in Waldorf schools)
Cognitive ability : difculties and special abilities (e.g. gifted children)
Drawings: representational drawing of a person, orientation on the paper/proportions,
awareness of and ability to copy certain shapes (e.g. square/diamond)
Gender: the experience is that the difference of maturation between boys and girls is around
six months, with the girls usually ahead. This can make a crucial difference, especially when
considering children for school entry who are born between May and August

35
 Health: any known medical issues (e.g. asthma), vision and hearing, stamina (managing
regular kindergarten attendance?), energy levels, constitution, sleeping and eating habits,
relationship to rhythms. Age-appropriate bodily changes including the start of the change of
teeth, lengthening of the limbs in proportion to the trunk and the emerging S-shape of the
spine. Also the general roundness of the body shape recedes, the toddler tummy disappears,
the knuckles become more prominent, the facial features more distinct, and so on.

Of course these areas overlap and are only crutches to understand the complexity of a child,
but in my experience detailed observations are essential to enable an appropriate individual
decision.

The following questions are helpful:

1. Is the childs development age-appropriate?

2. Are there any particular problems or areas of concern?
If these two questions have been answered and concerns have arisen, one can then ask how
these concerns relate to the question of school readiness. Are the concerns development-
related or can they be expected to accompany the child into the school years and beyond?
Is the child delayed in one developmental area, which may need to be specically addressed
but not necessarily require a whole further year in the kindergarten? Or is the child globally
delayed in her/his development and a further year in the kindergarten would give time and
opportunity, maybe including additional help, for the necessary developmental steps to take
place? Issues could relate to health problems, constitutional challenges or social/emotional
struggles. A combination is often the case in reality.

These questions also highlight the importance of observation and expression of concerns
throughout the early years and kindergarten. Although every child should be given the
opportunity to develop in her or his own way and time, sometimes encouragement
and specic help are needed. The timing of these can be crucial for the childs further
development and life fullment. (Please see also Steiner Education, Spring 2005 issue.)

Of course there are also potential difculties to be considered when a childs school entry
is delayed, i.e. entering school aged just seven years old. One is the likelihood of an earlier
puberty in comparison to their peers; another is the relatively late completion of school with
its consequences for further education.

On the other hand there is a wealth of anecdotal evidence about children who have started
school too early. They often cope in the rst two grades, although frequently showing
difculties with their learning, but struggle when reaching grades four and ve. This can at
times lead to a transfer into the class belowthe one they would have joined would they
have repeated a year in kindergarten.

36
A challenging decision
The challenge is the absence of a decisive and foolproof school readiness test. No criterion
should be taken in isolation. The process of decision-making is always a joint effort between
kindergarten teachers, the school and the parent(s), with the advice, if available, of the
school doctor or other professionals (e.g. eurythmy therapist). It is usually assumed that a
child will move up to rst grade if he or she will be six years old by April in the same year
unless particular concerns arise. Children who will be six years old between May and August
in the year of school entry will be carefully assessed and considered. Waldorf schools vary in
their approaches to this, especially in situations with joint classes. The decision is always an
individual one.

Although the decision about school readiness is straightforward for the majority of children,
with some children it is challenging. A difference of opinion between school and parents
may arise. On those occasions it is in my experience frequently the parents who feel the child
is ready to start school, but the teachers recommend a further year in the kindergarten or
transition group. In those situations it is important to have clarity beforehand about who
makes the nal decision. As far as I am aware this always rests with the school. Of course
every effort will be undertaken to enable a joint decision, assuming good communication
between parents and teachers. Clarity and awareness of the decision making process
in advance, transparency throughout the whole process, and good communication are
essential to reach a satisfactory and individually appropriate decision and do justice to every
child.

I am very aware of the complexity of this theme and that this contribution is far from
comprehensive. Nevertheless I hope that it will evoke questions as the expressed concepts
and the wealth of peoples experiences ask for further research and exploration.

37
What are the signs
that
my child is ready
for school?

Michaela Glckler, MD and Wolfgang Goebel, MD

Here the physician describes changes in physical structure and appearance that correlate with
school readiness, giving specic detail to guide observation. How the childs thinking and
memory, social awareness, dexterity, and verbal expression transform is also characterized. The
explanation of what the hardening and forming of the permanent teeth signal in the childs
development is enlightening. Excerpted by permission from A Guide to Child Health (Floris Books,
2004, 276-279).

I n most countries, the mandatory school-entry age falls somewhere between ve and
seven years. Certain signs of maturity, however, suggest that it is best to send children to
school only at age seven whenever possible.

Change of physique
The physique of a toddler is very different from that of a school-age child. A toddlers head
is very large in proportion to his torso and limbs. His entire gure is rounded, his limbs are
short, and until age two he may be physiologically bow-legged. His ngers are short and
well padded with fat deposits. His torso has no waist, the angle of his ribs above the stomach
is broad, and his belly sticks out as if there were no room for it in his torso yet. A school-
age child looks completely different. His arms and legs have elongated, and he can reach
over the top of his head and touch his ear with the ngers of the opposite hand. He has a
denite waist between his ribs and his pelvis, and his ribs form an acute angle above his
stomach, which is now at. His head, torso, and limbs are on their way to achieving the adult
proportions that will appear at the next major change of physique in adolescence.

39
 Beginning of the second dentition
The emergence of the rst permanent molar or incisor indicates that the enamel of the
permanent teeththe hardest substance in the body is fully formed and that the
organisms tooth-forming activity is drawing to a close. Educators generally pay little
attention to this phenomenon. We have already discussed the anthroposophical spiritual-
scientic concept of what happens to organ-forming activities after the respective organ
or substance in the body completes its development. Some of these forces are still used for
regeneration and organ maintenance, but the rest become available to shape our thoughts
(see A Guide to Child Health, Section 15.4). This is not exactly what happens with tooth
enamel, however, because it does not regenerate (as we all know from painful visits to the
dentist). All of the formative forces that originally served the development of dental enamel
become available to the I for the purposes of thinking. And because these formative forces
are not responsible for regeneration, they are totally liberated from the physical body and
available for abstract (from the Latin to draw off) activity. Thus pure abstraction (the
basis of the concepts and clearly dened mental images that children learn to manipulate in
school) becomes possible only once the teeth are fully developed.

School-age thinking
In the section on learning to think (A Guide to Child Health, Section 15.4), we saw that a small
child depends heavily on repetitious language and habitual activities to support his local
memory. This type of memory serves as the foundation for developing fully internalized
memory, which allows the child to activate the process of remembering without outside
prompting. Because it is freed from the constraints of sense-perceptible reality, this later type
of memory indicates that the child is beginning to be able to think abstractly. The eagerness
to learn that is typical of this age shows that these forces have only recently become
available. The child is now able to call up memories in response to
This latter type of direct questioning, independent of concrete situations. As a result,
memory indicates that he is able to repeat a story he heard in kindergarten several days
ago.
the child is beginning
to be able to think Typically, a childs ability to imitate, which used to indicate
abstractly. that he was best able to understand an event by repeating
its actions, begins to recede at this age. Lets consider young
childrens imitation in somewhat greater detail. It is a complex process that becomes fully
understandable only when we see thinking as a metamorphosis of the activity of growth.
The more a childs forces of growth are still involved in differentiating and shaping the
organs of the body, the better he can imitate, because the bodys ability to grasp a process
directly (through sensory perception) and immediately reproduce it is an accomplishment
of intelligence that is still acting through the body. Having to imitate many events that
are senseless or chaotic or experiencing frequently interrupted or unrelated actions has

40
 consequences for a childs bodily development (see A Guide to Child Health, Section 15.5)
because each organ develops and matures properly only if appropriate demands are
placed on it. This extremely impressionable and malleable phase comes to an end when
the capacity for imitation declines as the child becomes ready for school. The beginning of
the change of teeth indicates a signicant step in the transformation of growth forces into
thought forces. The learning that formerly occurred unconsciously, through imitation, must
now make the transition to conscious processes.

Social readiness
A child who is ready to take his place in the relatively large community of a school class
is socially ready to go to school. This type of readiness involves learning to align his own
interests with those of others (with the teachers help) and to be all ears, that is, to
deliberately suppress the activity of his arms and legs. At his stage, listening to what the
teacher says must supplant the urge to imitate as the primary stimulus for independent
activity. In other words the childs intentions are increasingly receptive to being guided
by the spoken words of adults as instinctive imitative activity recedes. In general, social
readiness appears later than intellectual readiness and is usually fully acquired only around
age seven to eight.

Dexterity and verbal expression

Often these skills are not adequately developed, either because of differences in individual
developmental timelines or because they have not been sufciently stimulated by early
education. As a general rule, however, children of school age can sing, pronounce all of the
speech sounds, retell stories in complete sentences, and express what they want to say in
conversation in a variety of different ways.

With regard to physical dexterity, school-age children are often able to throw a ball into
the air with one hand and catch it with two. They can stand on one leg and hop sideways,
forward, and backward. They can stand and walk on tiptoe. Their ne-motor skills are
sufciently developed for stringing beads, or nger knitting. They have mastered the most
important household chores such as setting the table, washing and drying dishes, and the
like. They can also dress and undress themselves, tie their shoes, and button a shirt.

The decision to delay sending a child to school is certainly never based on the absence of
any single sign of readiness. In case of doubt, parents should discuss their childs overall state
of mind and body with a physician or school psychologist and arrive at a decision together.
Social perspectives should also be considered; the experiences of the youngest and
oldest children in any class are very different. If at all possible, children with handicapping
conditions or developmental delays in specic areas should enter school with children of the
same age.

41
 We advise parents never to coach their children before school-readiness interviews. Children
who have been coached often develop mental blocks when they meet with the teacher or
physician who is supposed to determine whether they are ready for school. School readiness
should also never depend totally on the results of so-called IQ tests, which reveal only a
portion of the full spectrum of abilities that truly expresses the child and his possibilities. It
is the schools job to continue to develop all of these abilities and to identify and address
special needs in a timely manner.

42
 The Transition to
Elementary School Learning:
When is the
right time?

Rainer Patzlaff and Wolfgang Sassmannshausen

This section, translated from pedagogical research done in Germany, describes the increasingly
frequent phenomenon of dissociation. Here different aspects of the childs development are
strikingly out-of-step with one another. For example, precocious intellectual development may
stand in contrast to immaturities in coordination, sensory development, and emotional/social
life. Understanding the rst seven-year cycle of the childs life can give us a new developmental
gauge. Honoring this rhythm in our pedagogy allows the child the chance to harmonize and
consolidate development before the school years begin. This is an excerpt from Developmental
Signatures: Core Values and Practices in Waldorf Education for Children Ages 39 (WECAN
and AWSNA Publications, 2007, 39-48).

Play and Social Behavior of the Six-Year-Old

F our-year-old children generally nd the theme for their play activities spontaneously,
born in the moment, prompted by an activity or an object they encounter in their
romp through the apartment or through the kindergarten. Six-year-olds, in contrast,
do not necessarily require such prompting from the outside, but they can develop their
play idea based on a memory of a previous experience. They try to recreate what they saw
or experienced at a previous time. In this activity they prove to be most determined and
persistent, as when they, for example, comb through all the rooms of their home to collect
all suitable furnishings for making a railway train and gather together everything that seems
useful to them for that task. There is also a great difference in how they proceed from here,
in comparison to younger children. A four-year-old is already satised when a few chairs

43
 are arranged in a rowone behind the othermaking a train car and riding in it for a
while. Six-year-old children, however, will set great store in providing the train with all the
details they can remember, and they will also reenact the railroad journey as realistically as
possible.

Moreover, it is important for them that they play together with other children, mostly the
same age, and governed by rules and rank which they determine themselves. While they
may like it when younger children join in, the six-year-olds are the ones who direct the play
and assign roles to the younger children.

Here we see a new stage in the development of the child. The six-year-old can form an
exact notion of how his play idea should be actualized because he can set a goal for himself,
independent from outer promptings. A new faculty is emerging which will, in later years,
become very important: the faculty to form a precise mental image of a future course
of action, in other words, anticipation. The six-year-old already commands a respectable
amount of overview capabilities and uses them to organize his play into meaningful action
sequences. On the other hand he is still child enough to spontaneously integrate new
elements that emerge during play and exible enough to incorporate them into the play
process.

The awakening of social competency counts among the striking attributes of six-year-old
children in kindergarten. They like to take the initiative in free play, for example, involve
the younger children, show them how to do it right, and volunteer for tasks like setting the
table. They are enthusiastic if they are given the privilege of substituting for the kindergarten
helper if she should be out. They are the knowledgeable ones among the kindergarten
crowd, the kings and queens, and they delight in being recognized as such.

Experience teaches that this status can hardly be achieved before the sixth or seventh
year, not least because only now the motor skills have been developed sufciently to be
able to fulll tasks independently. It also takes children between two and three years to
gain experience in their kindergarten before they can direct the younger children with
circumspection and prudence. These successes foster their self-esteem, generating a
developmental surge that strengthens their ability to meet the challenges in elementary
school. Often we can observe how especially the boys gain from being granted the benet
of increased status in their last year of kindergarten.

44
 Today more and more children can gain little experience in relating naturally with
younger or older siblings at home because they are the only child. For them, the mixed-
age kindergarten group is like an extended family that offers them important practical
experiences which culminate in being allowed to help a younger child from the position of
being the older one, to be responsible for the younger one. The homogenous age group
of the grade school class does not offer this opportunity. Children sent to grade school too
early will miss this experience. The presumed loss of time is more than compensated for
by the strength the child gains in the last kindergarten year for his further development.
This does not preclude any special circumstances which may lead to a different decision, but
allowing the young child to reap the fruits of his or her kindergarten time in tranquility is an
essential consideration.

Intellectual Precocity and Dissociation

Linking the beginning of elementary school to a childs chronological age is a longstanding
tradition and today is more and more put to question. School maturity is a developmental
stage that is expected to occur around the sixth birthday, or the seventh year of life.
However, in times past, a specic assessment by a school physician was performed to
ascertain if the six-year-old was truly mature enough to begin elementary school, which
sometimes resulted in postponement of the start of school for that child. Physical criteria
were of importance, such as the change of teeth or maturity of appearance and motor and
sensory development.

Such assessments are no part of the decision when, of late, laws are passed that set
the time for starting school earlier and earlier, giving parents the possibility to enroll
their children in grade school when they are only three or four years old. This trend is
supported by the opinion, borne in business circles and often adopted by politicians,
that the intellectual potential of todays children is lying idle for too long in kindergarten
and should be fostered and challenged much earlier in order to prepare the children in
a timely manner for the challenges of their later work lives (careers). If we follow this line
of reasoning, the childs school maturity would indeed occur many years earlier than so
far assumed. In some of todays children we can indeed observe a remarkable intellectual
awareness and achievement readiness before they reach the traditional age for starting
school. But if we examine such children more closely, we nd quite frequently an acute
discrepancy, gaps between the various levels of their development. Perhaps they are in
one way, intellectually, ready for school, but that is not at all true in regard to their physical,
soul and social development. We can also nd other forms of dissociation, such as when
intellectual development is not in step with physical maturity, and so forth. In each case, such
dissociation can be seen as a sign of a lack of stability in the foundations of development,
which would not be able to meet the manifold challenges of school in the long run.

45
 We need to take the long-range perspective into account. We should not be hoodwinked by
the early successes of a child in the rst grades. We generally cannot see the true elasticity
and resilience of the foundations in body and soul, which are built in childhood, until the
upper classes are reachedwhere the souls resilience will be challenged to a much greater
degree to deal with the inevitable crises. The scientic studies we have available to date
document that children who start school too early show a conspicuous setback in the higher
grades, and often have to repeat one or more classes1 which then has the additional effect of
weakening their self esteem.

Taking intellectual precocity as a benchmark for the start of academic learning is to disregard
the requirements for healthy development as outlined above. The young human being
needs a full measure of coherence and resilience for mastering his later life-tasks; to develop
such resilience and coherence, he must be afforded sufcient opportunity for permeating
the organization of body and soul with his individuality and shaping them into a full-edged
instrument for his personality. The cognitive and intellectual capacities can only unfold in a
healthy manner when they go hand in hand with creativity and social competencynot at
their expense.

But for that, the child needs time. In Waldorf education we strive to give the children this
time, to base school readiness not on mindless philanthropic impulses but motivated by a
therapeutic challenge. We must make sure that the developmental foundations which they
need in order be able to live in accordance with their own nature and purpose are not
compromised by pulling the rug out from under the childrens individuality.

The Seven-Year RhythmA Health-Generating Principle

The problem of dissociation is not limited to preschool times. We observe a widening chasm
in the various levels of development also during their school years, manifested particularly
by an earlier onset of puberty. At that time the development of the physical body forms
in glaring contrast to the childs soul-life, which still appears childlike. This phenomenon
differs from precocious intellectual faculties which are ahead of sensori-motor and
social development in the preschool years; the problems in puberty are created by the
unsupported one-sided acceleration of physical maturity.

It is not productive to simply deplore such phenomena. They are expressions of the overall
acceleration which characterizes our modern, hectic lifestyle. But how do we meet this
enormous challenge of our future? The wider the gaps between developmental processes,
the more urgently we must act pedagogically, to even them out and harmonize them in the
interest of the healthy development of our children.

1 See Gabriele Bellenberg, Individuelle Schulliaufbahnen.

46
 In Waldorf education an awareness of the seven-year rhythm affords us the opportunity to
employ such harmonizing and compensating pedagogy. We can therapeutically adjust to
meet the developmental processes appropriately. It is often assumed that we are dealing
with a natural rhythm that occurs by itself, following the same laws as many other biological
rhythms in our organism. But this is not the case. The seven-year rhythm is not set by nature,
just like the year is not naturally divided into seven-day weeks. However, we are not dealing
just with mystical number games. No, the seven-year rhythm has
The seven year rhythm salutogenetic relevance when it is considered as a developmental
has salutogenetic gauge in pedagogy. This rhythm marks a timeframe, like a
benchmark, which is necessary to help stabilize the complex
relevance. structures in a young persons physical, soul and mental/spiritual
organization on a certain stage of development by either gently
slowing down a too-rapid advancement or aggressively nurturing those processes that
are developing too slowly. If allowed to align with this health-generating rhythm, the child
receives a strong foundation for its entire life.2

An education that allows young children and youths to take their time from one seven-year
period to the next has benecial effects, as pedagogical practice shows. An artistically-
inspired approach to education helps the children overcome the problem of dissociation as
it brings all faculties of body and soul into balance. Under such guidance, slower-maturing
faculties come to blossom, which would never have unfolded under the pressures of a school
system focused on achievement and accelerated learning. If we understand the seven-year
rhythm within this paradigm as a pedagogic-therapeutic benchmark to strive for, it takes on
an important role in fostering health in a time when developmental problems in childhood
are increasing.

The Metamorphosis of the Forces Shaping the Body

One of Rudolf Steiners most profound discoveries was the concept that the forces needed by
the young child in his rst phase of development for building and structuring his physical
organization are the same forces that help him in the second phase in building the forces
for the powers of imagination and memory.3 During the rst phase, the child unconsciously
works on schooling his sensory faculties and mastering his musculature by developing both
his gross- and ne-motor skills. His inner organs unfold into full functioning, and ever more
complex neuron processes are created in the brain. Generally after about seven years, a rst
stage of maturity is reached in the physical development, and part of the building forces and
faculties are by nature no longer needed for growing and building the inner organs. This
part does not just disappear, but is fully available for other tasks, for example, to grow and
support the powers of the soul and mind in developing the imaginative faculties, memory
and the ability for academic learning.

2 See studies by Hildebrandt et al. and Schad, cited in the reference list.
3 See Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child, and additional lectures from 1921 and 1922; also Ernst-Michael
Kranich, Anthropologische Grundlagen der Waldorfpdagogik.

47
 Steiner pointed to the consequences that occur when these forces are prematurely
harnessed to academic learning. When they are diverted from the uncompleted task
of building the physical structure, then the hampering of a healthy, resistant physical
constitution may result, even if at rst very subtle, almost imperceptible. While
comprehensive empirical proof is still pending, numerous experiences in practical education
appear to validate this hypothesis. Meanwhile scientic long-term studies have not been
able to prove conclusively any lasting advantages that very early enrollment brings for young
children. On the contrary, the probability of having to repeat a class is signicantly higher for
this group than for children who enter school at the traditional point in time.4

Therefore it is of utmost importance for optimum health and achievement in later life to
wait with beginning school-learning until the forces building the physical body are fully
transformed into the forces that develop the imagination and until the learning process can
be released from its earlier ties directly to the senses. Whenever we force a developmental
stage (in this case, by too early a start of academic learning), there is a danger that we
interrupt the comprehensive, differentiated maturation process of the physical organization
and thus potentially weaken the foundation of the childs health.

Every adult can validate, from the personal experience of being weakened by fever, the
close connection between forces building the physical organism and those building the
imagination. During such a time the body needs all vital forces to maintain its life functions
and to regain health, and it is more difcult to have concentrated, focused images and
thoughts.

The Launch of the Faculty of Imagination

The physician can determine from a variety of physical symptoms when the imaginative
faculty is ready for development (change of teeth, shape, mature sensori-motor skills, and
so forth). But he can see only the outer aspect of the phenomenon. On an inner level, the
release of these powers is connected to a profound change of soul life. The child steps out
from the connement of the senses and now gains command of independent soul faculties,
which he employs consciously on the inner planes.

The earlier stage is well illustrated in this example: a four-year-old who, on hearing the word
S-Bahn, inquired what the people in this tram were eating. [S-Bahn, meaning tramway is
pronounced Ess-Bahn, and ess in German means eat!trans.] In contrast to imagining
things in a concrete, literal way, the child who is ready to enter school commands a faculty
of imagination that functions independently of concrete sensory impressions. Memory
too grows free from the link to physical, concrete presence of place (local memory, as in
the example above) and becomes autonomous. It can happen that a child of that age

4 Gabriele Bellenberg, Individuelle Schulliaufbahnen.

48
is surprised to discover that she can visualize a person who is far away in full detail and
whenever she wishes to do so. Memory becomes available, independent of presence in
space and time; inner images can be formed and now spark thinking processes, just as they
were previously sparked by sensory perceptions.

An experiment conducted by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget illustrates this transition. Two
identical glass vessels were lled each with the same amount of water in the presence of
four- to ve-year-olds. When questioned, the children found the amounts of water in A
and B to be the same. Then, in full view, a third vessel C, this vessel being much taller and
narrower than the other two, was lled with the same amount of water. When asked again,
most of the children thought that there was more water in vessel C because the water level
was higher, and some thought there was less water in vessel C because it was narrower.
Children who were ready to enter school, however, stated correctly that the amounts
in all three vessels were the same. This experiment is not undisputed because it could
lead to the false conclusion that younger children are stupid. Actually they are in no way
stupid; they just experience the world differently based on the object-oriented intensity
of their perceptions. The experiment points to an important fact: What we see here is not
a quantitative transition from a less bright to a bright child. No, it is a qualitative leap that
brings with it a transformation of the childs overall relationship to perception. The younger
children are still guided by outer sense impressions and answer based on an objects visually
prominent attributes (width and height), whereas the older children use as a resource their
memory-image, which tells them that the amount of water stayed unchanged by pouring it
into different vessels. They can evaluate and conclude that the amount must be the same,
in spite of the taller water column or the narrowness of the vessel. Their freed forces, powers
of memory and imagination are available to them for the mental processing of perception
beyond the visual image.

Only when this transformation has occurred should the child be exposed to academic
learning in school. As outlined above, it is only now that the child can safely employ the
formative powers which were formerly needed to build the body structure. Only now he
can use these powers to form inner images and thoughts without jeopardizing his healthy
physical development. Often the children themselves discover this new faculty of dealing
with inner images when they begin to take great pleasure in solving poetic puzzles which
challenge their vivid powers of imagination.

5 Jean Piaget and B. Inhelder, Die Psychologie des Kindes.

49
 References
Bellenberg, Gabriele. Individuelle Schulliaufbahnen: Eine empirische Untersuchung ber
Bildungsverlufe von der Einschulung bis zum Abschluss [Individual School Careers: An Empirical
Study of Education from the Start of School to Graduation] (Weinheim: 1999).

Hildebrandt, Gunther, Maximilian Moser and Michael Lehofer. Chronobiologie und

Chronomedizin. Biologische RhythmenMedizinische Konsequenzen [Chronobiology and
Chronomedicine. Biological RhythmsMedical Consequences] (Stuttgart: 1998).

Kranich, Ernst-Michael. Anthropologische Grundlagen der Waldorfpdagogik [Anthropological

Foundations of Waldorf Pedagogy] (Stuttgart: 1999).

Piaget, Jean and B. Inhelder. Die Psychologie des Kindes [Child Psychology] (Olten: 1973).

Schad, Wolfgang.Die Idee der Evolution in der Pdagogik [The Idea of Evolution in
Pedagogy] in Erziehungskunst (Number 9, 2004, p. 931942).

Steiner, Rudolf. Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft [Education
of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science] originally published 1907 (Dornach: 2003).

___________. Erziehungs-, Unterrichts- und praktische Lebensfragen vom Gesichtspunkt

anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft [Issues in Education, Teaching and Practical Life],
Lecture from 1921, in Rudolf Steiners collected works Vol. 297a (Dornach: 1998).

___________. Die gesunde Entwicklung des Menschenwesens. Eine Einfhrung in die

anthroposophische Pdagogik und Didaktik [The Healthy Development of the Human Being:
An Introduction to Anthroposophical Pedagogy and Didactics], Sixteen lectures given in 1922
(Dornach: 4th edition, 1987).

50
School Entry
and the
Consolidation of
Developmental
Processes
Audrey E. McAllen

This short section looks at readiness as a consolidation of skills. From Ms. McAllens perspective,
the child has the best chance for success and enjoyment in school if readiness signs are solidly
established, not just beginning to emerge. She also emphasizes how the childs person-house-
tree drawing is an important tool in indicating readiness. Reprinted by permission from Learning
Difculties: A Guide for Teachers, edited by Mary Ellen Wilby (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1999,
41-45).

W hen should a child enter rst grade? Spiritual science says that when the formative
forces have completed their work in the building up of the organs of the physical
body, they are free to be used for memory and the rst pictorial thinking. This
building process completes itself about the time the child reaches the age of seven. School
entry at this age presented no problems on the European continent, but in the United
Kingdomand its associates New Zealand and Australiaand in North America, Waldorf
schools have had to struggle against the accepted educational norm of starting formal
learning as early as ve years of age. Considerable tact and talk over the last fty years have
been required to persuade parents that it is better to wait until their child is at least six years
old before starting school!

This parental and societal pressure has meant that the Waldorf/Steiner school movement
has had to compromise on this important issue. Gradually, the recognition of the signicance
and signs of the decisive step between the kindergarten stage of childhood and the school
child has been eroded.

51
 The morning verse in Waldorf school classes says that we come to school that we may love
to work and learn. What has happened to this will to work and learn?

Over the last decades, a decisive point being the 60s, the formative forces of the young
child have gradually been sapped by our modern lifestyle. The childs senses have been
overstimulated, and the will has not been sufciently activated through play, the result being
that the body does not produce its inherent faculties in the spontaneous way it did thirty,
forty years ago. The crucial time for the childs body to complete its development and so
produce the required skills, is the ve to seven years phase when the nal spurt of growth
for the period from birth to age seven takes place. The proportions of the body attain their
threefold structure of head, rhythmic system and limbs. Coupled with this is the vital phase
of imprinting this structural form into the etheric body1 of the child through the sensory
organization being activated via the senses of balance and self-movement and by manual
skills. If this outer imprinting is weak or even lacking, the formative forces working from
within outwards, that is from the ego into the astral body and etheric body, have no foothold
in the physical body. The structural physical body is therefore not reected back into the
etheric body and inserted into the processes of the formative forces. It is this imprinting of
the picture of threefold man from both sidesthe outer and the innerwhich gives the
basis for the self-identity necessary for passing harmoniously through the nine-year change
and the repetitive stages which follow.3

It is not necessary to go into further details. Rather, it would be better for schools to look
at the birthday dates in their classes and see where they cluster. Are there more birthdays
from around September to April (so that the children were six and a half by the time school
began)? Are there children whose birthdays fall in the summer, so that they were six years
and ve months to only six years old when they started rst grade in the autumn?4 Having
done this, look at the attainments of these latter children in their classes during the class
teaching period and beyond.

There are three criteria for school entry which have to be considered: the medical, the social,
and individual circumstances. They all play into the decision process. Medically, the body
and its organs may be maturethis is often the case. But, the kindergarten teacher may be
well aware that socially the child is not ready, and school entry will affect the childs further
progress. This is the rst area of conict. Then comes the pressure from the parents to start
school; the question of the karma of the group adds further complications. This is a well
known sequence of factors which arises year after year.

1 Rudolf Steiner, The East in the Light of the West. See also Audrey E. McAllen, On the Imprinting of Mans
Structural Physical Bodys Spiritual Archetype into the Etheric Body of the Earth in Section I of Learning
Difculties.
2 Ernst Marti, The Four Ethers regarding the differences and connections between the etheric body, the four
ethers and the formative forces.
3 See James A. Dyson, The Nine-Year Change in Section IV of Learning Difculties.
4 J. Gilmore, J. Uphoff, R. Huber, Summer ChildrenReady or Not for School; The Rape of ChildhoodNo Time to Be
a Kid.

52
Consolidation
Where can we nd some kind of fulcrum for this situation? The writer thinks there has not
been sufcient attention given to the need for the consolidation of developmental processes.
The necessity for this consolidation the writer learned over the years by watching the
progress of children through the school and from the observations of childrens drawings.
In these drawings, one can witness, inscribed graphically, the whole process of the growth
and development of the rst seven years.5 What is so striking is the principle that when a
new stage is reached, a regression to earlier motifs takes place in the drawings; from there,
all phases are repeated until the recent attainment is consolidated, and another new step is
made. In effect, we are seeing the same process that Rudolf Steiner describes in the chapter
on World Evolution in An Outline of Esoteric Science when every
Drawings inscribe stage of development is recapitulated before the new one can take
graphically the whole place; therefore, when it appears from a medical constitutional
process of the growth point of view that all is in order, that the child is bright and would
be able to cope, although by age he would be less than six and a
and development of
half years old on school entry, we have to give greater regard to
the rst seven years. what the kindergarten teacher says about his social and individual
development, as well as to the need for the body to consolidate its
development phase. Far, far too many times the writer has seen how, when these children
enter rst grade from kindergarten, this change-over halts the activity of the formative forces
in their bodily work, and the nal imprinting of the threefold picture of man into the ethereal
body is not fullled. This has its repercussions in poor self-identity at the nine-year change
and soul weakness as the eleven-year-old stage. What is serious is that this inner picture of
the form of the body is seldom made up during school life.6

It is of the greatest importance for the future of our pupils that the ve to seven year stage of
development is consolidated. At this stage, the capacity of creative play begins to wane
because the formative forces have changed their activity and are now engaged in the overall
growth of the body, bringing its threefold harmonious structure to completion. The children
now want to exercise their limbs in work and in gaining bodily skills. They need activities which
absorb and direct their energy into their bodies. They should not have this stage of their
development arrested by entry into school and by being faced with learning, however
ideal and artistic it may be. This puts a heavy responsibility on our Waldorf kindergartens to
provide the older age group with the right facilities, as without them the children become
rambunctious, a sign that has often been mistakenly attributed to school readiness.

This may be disputed, but one has to be aware that many educators are also making these
observations. Fortunately, early play learning groups are the in thing, and there is an
inuential body of educational research that delineates the three stages of development of

5 Michaela Strauss, Understanding Childrens Drawings, 83-91; Notes of the Study of Man by Wolfgang Schad.
6 A.E. McAllen, Two-Year Research Project on Children with Learning Problems in Waldorf Schools.

53
 the pre-school child; this research recognizes that academic work before children are seven
years of age is detrimental to their later progress.7

Brain growth at age seven is one of the biggest spurts. Remember that the childs matrix is
shifting from environment to knowledge of the world. This is the time when child development
specialists who base their theories on Piagets work, such as Pearce, Hymes, and Elkind, believe
it is appropriate to introduce formal academic instruction, and not before.8

A wider area of research on scholastic attainment has found that children with summer
birthdays (May to September) who start school in the autumn, lag behind their classmates
for all of their school time. This has an effect on their picture of themselves and on their
potential as adults.9

So, again there is empirical research conrming spiritual scientic facts; teachers in Waldorf
schools could eventually be in danger of being told they are not carrying out their own
principles.

The Four Seasons and the Archangels

In the last lecture (October 13, 1923) of the cycle The Four Seasons and the Archangels, we gain
an insight as to why this consolidation from age ve to seven is so intimately bound up with
the activity of the formative forces. At the end of this lecture, Rudolf Steiner says that the
souls about to incarnate during the next year enter the gate of the moon between Christmas
and Easter. Every spring the Easter moon gives nature its push for growth. Mans life forces
are interwoven with those of the Earth, never more so than in the rst seven years of life.
Therefore teachers could take as their criterion that every child should have experienced the
life-push of seven Easter moons before entering rst grade. This would help to recognize
the variables which teachers meet in a group of children, as some will have had their
birthdays before Easter in the year of their birth and some afterwards. In the year 1991, for
example, Easter was in March, and therefore all April-born children should be ready for rst
grade in September, 1997. In contrast, out of those who were born in 1992 when Easter was
April 17, only some of the April-born children will have had this push of life forces towards
maturity for September, 1998. Needless to say, one should not become dogmatic, as other
factors are always at work, but the above fact can be one which gives us insight into the
choice of birth by the incarnating individuality and can be the pivot around which other
considerations may be viewed. (See the interesting work of David A. Phillips, PhD, author of
Secrets of the Inner Self.)

8 Diablo Valley Directors. Growing Up: A Plea for Development Readiness.

9 Gilmore et al., ibid.
7 J. Gilmore, et al. Summer Children.

54
References
Diablo Valley Directors, Growing Up: A Plea for Development Readiness.

Gilmore, June E., Rosemarie Huber, & Jacque L. Cross. The Rape of Childhood: No Time to Be a
Kid (Middletown, OH: J&J Pub. Co., 1990).

__________. Summer ChildrenReady or Not for School (Middletown, OH: J&J Pub. Co.,
1987).

Marti, Ernst. The Four Ethers: Contributions to Rudolf Steiners Science of the Ethers, Elements
EthersFormative Forces (Roselle, IL: Schaumberg, 1984).

McAllen, Audrey E. Two-Year Research Project on Children with Learning Problems in Waldorf
Schools, available from Remedial Education Program Director at Rudolf Steiner College.

Schad, Wolfgang. Notes on the Study of Man. In Michaela Strauss, Understanding Childrens
Drawings: Tracing the Path of Incarnation. (Forest Row, England: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007).

Steiner, Rudolf. The East in the Light of the West: The Children of Lucifer and the Brothers of Christ
(Blauvelt, NY: Spiritual Science Library/Garber Communications, 1986.)

____________. The Four Seasons and the Archangels: Experience of the Course of the Year in
Four Cosmic Imaginations (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996).

Strauss, Michaela. Understanding Childrens Drawings (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978).

Willby, Mary Ellen, ed. Learning Difculties: A Guide for TeachersWaldorf Insights and Practial
Approaches (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1999, 2nd edition).

55
The Development
of Memory and the
Transformation
of Play

Louise deForest

The school-ready child begins to show a different capacity for memory than the kindergartener.
Louise deForest gives a rich picturing of memory development from preschool fantasy to school-
ready imagination. How we can observe this change is reected in the childs play. Through this
description, she expands upon development as a tool for our observation.

I t is increasingly apparent to those of us working in the educational realm that the

age at which a child enters rst grade can be very signicant in terms of academic
and social success throughout the entirety of the educational process and beyond. A
child who is too young for rst grade, although many rst grade readiness signs are already
apparent, may spend his or her grade school years working very hard to keep up, never
feeling that he or she ts into the social or academic world of his or her classmates. For
some, this feeling of having to pedal very fast to stay on a par with others continues into
adulthood, where they always have the sense that they dont quite get it. Others may
feel that there is still something unnished in their growing up years. Early in my teaching
career, I had the great good fortune to work with a very experienced and inspiring early
childhood teacher. When I asked her, what in her life had led her to teaching kindergarten,
she answered in all seriousness, I went to rst grade when I was ve.

For those children who enter rst grade older than the optimal age there are also dangers
and long-term repercussions; as we know, our curriculum is based on Rudolf Steiners
understanding of human development and the content of the main lessons of each grade
is geared to meet the needs of that particular stage of development. A child who is too

57
 old has the disadvantage of passing through thresholds of development without the
accompaniment of his classmates or of the curriculum, leaving that child feeling isolated and
different. Many of these children, not being met by the curriculum and not feeling integrated
into the social world of the class, quickly lose interest in school and studies and can become
under-achievers and never quite shake the feeling of being different.

In many of our schools, however, there is no educational consultant and the teachers often
do not have the experience, knowledge or condence to evaluate readiness. Signs of
readiness are often confusing and contradictory; is it the losing of the teeth or the growth
of the molars that is one signal of possible readiness? To make it even more complicated,
each child develops according to his or her own individual timetable; one might be showing
all the signs of physical readiness while still being socially immature, while another may be
awake enough for rst grade but still need more physical development. Too often we rely
only on the birth date to move a child forward into the grades.

But children are always revealing to us their needs, gifts and challenges, if only we know
how to read the signs. Everything they do, be it walking, playing, eating, even how they get
sick, reveals something unique about them and their stage of development. They want to
be seen by us, and it is up to us to develop the capacity to observe them objectively, with no
preconceived ideas or judgments, and to put our observations into the context of human
development. In this trainingfor thats what it isI have found Rudolf Steiners lecture
Practical Training in Thought (Karlsruhe, January 18, 1909)1 very helpful, for it gives very
specic exercises to develop both our thinking and our capacity to observe.

In his book The First Three Years of the Child,2 building on Rudolf Steiners insights, Karl
Knig speaks about the three phases of memory development over the rst seven years.
Every human being experiences these three types of memory (indeed, all humanity has
passed through this evolution of memory), and if were observant we can actually see the
transformation from one to the next. The rst and earliest type of memory, which began
in Atlantean development, is called Localized or Spatial Memory and is often confused
with the more mature Time Memory. This Localized Memory, however, is completely
dependent on outer stimulation, and a memory only comes to mind because something
in the environment of the child has reminded that child of something. A child can be going
for a drive with her parents, for example, and suddenly begin to describe Grandmas house,
complete with all the details. Parents often remark on what a developed and precocious
memory their children have but what has really happened is that the child saw something

1 This lecture is available in Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy in Everyday Life.

2 Karl Knig, The First Three Years of the Child, chapter 3.

58
 a tree, owers, a house of the same colorand through that object, memories of
grandmas house streamed forth. The same child would not be able to describe what
Grandmas house looks like if asked to do so by her parents, but once the memory is sparked,
so to speak, all the details ood through. This stage lasts up to the second to third year of life.

In the play of toddlers, we can also observe that the inner activity of imagination and
creativity do not play a big role; instead, it is curiosity, the instinctive drive for varied physical
movements and the need to understand the world that propels the child through his or her
day. The favorite play of the very young child, as we parents all know, is banging pots and
pans, climbing onto and into every available spot, pouring, tting one thing into another,
etc. A walk is often an excruciating experience for the adult who is trying to get somewhere,
as the toddler needs to touch, taste, observe and interact with everything that crosses his
path. I remember with some shame and regret, how exasperated I would get from the
near constant dropping of objectsfood, spoons, cupsfrom the tray of my childrens
high chair, and I couldnt help but think they were doing it out of mischief and joy in seeing
their mother so frustrated. But if we truly observe what they are doing, we will come to
understand that they are really trying to discover the laws of nature, things we as adults feel
are self-evident. The material world is very new to our young ones and they spend their rst
years discovering how it works: gravity will pull an object, any object, down, no matter how
many times you drop it; what goes up does come down, and so on. I remember one of my
children sitting in the bathtub as the water ran from the faucet; for
The material world is weeks he would repeatedly and with intense concentration try to
still very new to our grab the water coming from the tap. Finally he repeated it enough
young ones and they times to learn an essential lesson about the uid nature of water
and happily went back to splashing and pouring.
spend their rst years
discovering how it Somewhere between two and three, we begin to notice a change
works. in both how memory works and in the play of the child. Steiner
talks about this time as the birth of the I, when a child recognizes
that he or she is a separate, independent being. My youngest son, Ry, then two-and-a-half,
woke up one morning and, as if drunk, ran around the house saying/singing, I am Ry. Ry
am I. I, Ry. This rapture lasted the whole day and, while he continued to be the ever-active,
rambunctious boy he has always been, he was also different from that day onward. In play,
too, we begin to see that pretend has entered. Now they cook, take care of babies, go off
to work (if they have Waldorf teachers as parents, they go to meetings), and are Mommies,
Daddies, and babies. At rst they play house-related play, imitating what they see in their
own homes. They are not so much playing together as they are playing the same kind of
play, side by side. Slowly, over the next few years, the pretend becomes more elaborate
and veers from the home-centered play to imitating and playing the activities in the world
around them. Suddenly we have carpenters, doctors, snow shovelers and teachers and,

59
 instead of the side-by-side play, children are playing together. Play is enormously creative
and imaginative at this time, between three and ve-and-a-half, and is constantly in the
process of becoming; a truck becomes a space ship which becomes a restaurant which
becomes . Its a bit like the water streaming from the faucet that my son tried so hard to
holdtotally uid and unpredictable and in constant movement. As Rudolf Steiner puts
it, Imagination in children represents the very [etheric] forces that have just liberated
themselves from performing similar creative work within the physical formation of the
brain.3

A healthy child will completely invest him- or herself in the role that he or she is playing and
the objects become what the imagination makes of them. Children are often indignant when
we adults call this pretending. We can learn much about children, watching them play at
this time in their lives when we can see how creativity feeds creativity and play is a form of
nourishment. In the lecture titled Self Education in the Light of Spiritual Science (GA61),
Rudolf Steiner says, Where do we nd what works on the child as a higher Self, and which
belongs to the child, but doesnt enter his consciousness? Astonishing but true: it is childrens
play, the meaningful, well carried out play of all children, that the higher Self works on. And
later, a child educates himself for life, simply through play.4

Memory also changes; what was once sparked by an outer object has now moved more
inwards, relying on rhythm to put an event into the stream of time and space. Knig calls
it Rhythmical Memory (as did Steiner) and the basis of this kind of memory is repetition.
We Early Childhood teachers experience this type of memory after two or three weeks of
school when our new nursery or kindergarten children, seeing the big bowl on the table and
the grinders standing ready, know it is Bread DayLocalized Memorywhich means that
tomorrow is (for example) Painting DayRhythmic Memory. As parents, we see this in the
daily rhythms we have put into place around our children; when it is bedtime, for example,
once the regular routine is started, the Rhythmic Memory leads the child from bath to
pajamas to brushing teeth to story to bed and good night.

And so we draw near to the six-year change, that developmental threshold when the
etheric forces are freed from their formative work on the physical body and released into
the capacity for thinking and independent picture-making ability, essential skills for the
academic work that lies ahead. Almost overnight the child now can, at will, recall experiences
or people she knows and create clear inner pictures of real or imagined things. A friend of
mine in Finland described a conversation she had with a six-year-old in her class: they were
harvesting autumn fruits and vegetables and this child asked her where the watermelon tree
was so he could pick watermelons. She answered that watermelons were too heavy to grow
on trees so they grew on long vines on the good earth. The child looked very puzzled and

3 Rudolf Steiner, Soul Economy and Waldorf Education, 114.

4 Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Spiritual Science, 10-11.

60
nally said, But how can that be, when I can see a watermelon tree so clearly in my head?
Dr. Claudia McKeen, an anthroposophic doctor in Germany and a leading researcher on the
question of rst grade readiness, tells of a child who went on vacation in the Swiss Alps one
summer; months later, having breakfast with his mother, he looked dreamily out the window
for several minutes and then said, I am walking up the path and I can turn around and see
the village below. Now I am at the foot of the mountain and I can see the path we will climb.
Several minutes later he said, And now I am at the top of the mountain and everything
below looks so small. Mom, can you see things in your head, too? Knig calls this type of
memory Time Memory, when we can produce an inner picture out of our own forces and the
released forces of the ether body can begin to work in the soul realm of mental images.

In childrens play, too, we see a change. On the one hand, the wellspring of creativity seems
to have dried up and we hear, Im bored! or Theres never anything to do!quite a
change from the ever-active and ever-inventive child of only a few months ago. They mope
around the class or the house, they are out-of-sorts most of the time, and the rest of the
time, little rebels. They no longer give themselves over to the artistic activity, be it drawing,
painting or beeswax, but seem to struggle with technique and achieving the look they want,
which often results in frustration and discontentment. But once they become engaged
in play, one immediately notices a different quality to their play. Now the child enters the
classroom with a xed and clear idea of what he is going to play that day and spends the rest
of his time gathering the materials he will need to realize the idea he has. As I mentioned
above, frustration comes easily, because it is now important that the outer object (a painting
or a drawing, the rocket ship or boat) match the inner picture. No longer do the materials
in the classroom determine the play; instead, they serve to enable the child to recreate his
or her inner picture. One can notice that the child has left behind the physical active soul
fantasy forces and true inner imagination begins to develop.

There is also a new social quality to the play; in the past, the roles of each child evolved as the
play progressed, gender appropriateness was basically irrelevant (boys could be mothers,
girls could be big brothers) and it seemed that the children were carried by the play. Now,
with older kindergarteners, the children carry the play and individual roles are assigned right
from the beginning of play. There are rules now, more prescribed ways of playing the roles,
and there is a strong impulse towards community building. Very often the play of the older
child tends to encompass most, if not all, the class. Postman, Santa Claus, restaurant are a few
of the many plays that tend towards inclusiveness and almost always they are carried by the
older children. Six-year-olds are social geniuses!

61
 It is vitally important for the future health of the individual that children be allowed to
build this healthy foundation for thinking with no interference from well-meaning adults.
Accomplishments that come with forces that are available later on should never be forced
into an earlier stage, unless we are prepared to ruin the physical organism.5 While we adults
often think that fantasy takes us away from reality and we have an obligation to bring
children into the real world, fantasy is the continuous joy that the child experiences on his
waking to the earthly world.6 As teachers, it is our obligation and responsibility to safeguard
this sacred time.

References
Karl Knig, The First Three Years of the Child (Spring Valley, NY: Anthropsophic Press, 1984).

Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy in Everyday Life (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1999).

____________. Self-Education in the Light of Spiritual Science (Spring Valley, NY: Mercury
Press, 1995). (GA61).

____________. Soul Economy and Waldorf Education (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic
Press, 2003).

5 Steiner, Soul Economy and Waldorf Education, 116.

6 Knig, The First Three Years of the Child, 64.

62
 Creating
Partnerships
with Parents
in First Grade
Readiness Decisions

Ruth Ker

The decision of when to begin rst grade is a big one for parents as well as the child. The
suggestion of another kindergarten year can be a shock to parents and seem a criticism and
judgment of the child. Honest, warm, and compassionate conversation with parents must be
started well in advance to prepare the way for this decision time. Ruth Ker shares many helpful
suggestions to guide this process so that parents experience that we truly care about their child.

I n my rst years of teaching in a mixed-age kindergarten class I felt anxious about the
challenge of making decisions around rst grade readiness. Witnessing the grandness
of the change that the six-year-olds experience on all levels left me confused as to
what criteria I should consider when making decisions about their future placement. The
ability to understand what I was observing was not living in me yet, and I relied heavily on
my instincts and untrained observations. Many times I simply fell back upon the schools
cut-off date for grade school entrance and hoped that the parents would support this.

Then I began to meet more and more mystery children whose development and future
placement posed even larger questions to me and also more and more parents who wanted
to know what was behind my recommendations. Many times I felt inadequate to meet the
important questions of the parents. How I longed for skilled and informed local companions
to accompany me in making these decisions!

Some Waldorf schools are fortunate to have school doctors, readiness committees, or
remedial or curative teachers to assist them when it comes time to consider whether its
appropriate for a child to enter rst grade, but in many schools the kindergarten teachers
are on their own when determining whether the child is ripe for school. Results from the

63
 last extensive WECAN survey on The Older Child in the Kindergarten show a variety of
ways that schools in North America cope with the decision about rst grade placement.
Most established schools stated a denite procedure for shepherding the children into rst
gradesome more elaborate than others. Many kindergarten teachers reported using the
cut-off date as the sole determinant. One school relayed that their assessment process and
the subsequent report had become so stressful for the parents, children and faculty that
they were questioning its benets. This same teacher commented that she was going back
to observing the children in their natural classroom setting rather than setting up separate
out-of-class screening appointments. However, the majority of schools reported being at
varying stages of establishing clear, effective assessment procedures and are still revising
these practices. Many schools also stated that there is uneasiness about who gets to make
the decision when the parents and the kindergarten teachers disagree about rst grade
placement.

This survey also showed that even in schools that had extra professional support there
seemed to be different understandings as to who should be responsible for this decision.
Here are some aspects of the question:

Is it the responsibility of the remedial teacher or the childs kindergarten teachers or a

care committee (comprised of the childs kindergarten teachers, the remedial teacher,
grade school representatives, a member of the College of Teachers and/or an admissions
person)? The answer to this question seemed to vary according to the personnel
resources that the particular schools had.
There was also the underlying question of whether it is best for the kindergarten
teachers who have observed the child regularly to develop the skills of carrying the rst
grade readiness assessment, or are these teachers already too subjective?
Another part of this question is of the issue of how it affects the childrens response to
the assessment if they are taken out of a familiar environment to interact with someone,
perhaps a remedial teacher or other school representative, who is unknown to them.
One school reported that their remedial teacher had regular weekly contact with the
kindergarten classes and teachers and this made it easier for her to do the assessments in
consultation with the childrens kindergarten teachers.

So we can see that there are a variety of perspectives and opinions on how to achieve
recommendations for rst grade placement.

One more observation that arose from the Older Child in the Kindergarten survey was that
Although the cut-off dates ranged from April to December, the majority (seventy-ve
percent) of the survey responses listed a May 31/June 1 cut-off date. Some schools said they

1 Ruth Ker, Transition into the Grade School. In The Older Child in the Kindergarten survey, 9.

64
also take a close look at March to June birthdays, especially those of boys.1 Susan Howard,
the chairperson of WECAN and someone who pays many mentor visits to schools in North
America, comments: Schools with cut-off dates that are exible, and who use June for their
cut-off date, as a general rule, seem to do well. Schools who hold children back longer (cut-
off deadline in April or May) may have problems keeping the seven-year-olds involved in the
kindergarten and may also have problems down the road when these truly older children go
into the nine-year-change or into puberty before their classmates do. I have seen this happen
in a few cases where it became really problematic later on. Schools who send children on
to grade one who are just barely six (cut-off dates in September or later) may have different
problemsa class not completely ready for full-day rst grade. I also experience that
there is confusion around developmental readiness/ripeness for rst grade as opposed
to developmental difculties, including learning problems, emotional and family distress,
health problems, etc. I wonder whether we are sometimes keeping troubled children back in
the kindergarten who really need to go on with their peers and have their difculties worked
with along the way.2

So, we see that there is much to consider when we are establishing the future placement
of our kindergarten children. If the readiness question is one of your deliberations, I would
encourage you to procure The Older Child in the Kindergarten survey from WECAN
publications. There are very many helpful suggestions and ideas from our North American
colleagues within its pages.

At our school in British Columbia, Canada we do not have a curative or remedial teacher, a
care group, or a readiness committee, and our rst grade teacher often does not arrive until
the summer before the next school year starts. Out of necessity, I have had to labor diligently
to hone my observation skills and to develop my own process for determining the placement
of the kindergarten children in the next rst grade class. When I feel stumped I consult with
my colleagues in the kindergarten and the grade school. Sometimes I consult with remedial
teachers in other schools.

I owe much gratitude to a colleague who, through her own studies, began to share some
of the ways in which she was beginning to gain fresh eyes in which to see the children.
This opened doors to me and I began to realize that, through research and observation,
I too could nd ways to understand and look for developmental milestones. I began to
determine what the common phenomena are that most children display at the transition
between kindergarten and rst grade. Some of these manifestations of the six-year change
can be witnessed in the regular indoor and outdoor play of the children and are described
in the book Youre Not the Boss of Me!Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation
(WECAN, 2007).

2 Susan Howard, How do you deal with readiness questions on the part of colleagues or parents? In The Older
Child in the Kindergarten survey, 10.

65
 As time progressed, I also began to realize that some of the childrens changes could not be
witnessed easily by me while the children were engaged in their normal daily interactions
with their peers. I began to wish for opportunities to be alone with the children in order to
look more closely at other developments that are necessary for success in the rst grade year.
Memory, ne motor dexterity, ne balancing, crossing the midline, dominance, awareness of
body geography, language development, stamina, and the childs ability to follow directions
are just a few of the things that could not be easily observed while the distractions and needs
of the group were ongoing. This is when I decided to begin a procedure of spending time
alone with each one of the children who are candidates for the future rst grade class, a time
I refer to as the rst grade readiness games. (The children themselves do not know that this
time has anything to do with rst grade readiness. They only see that they have a chance
to play games with their teacher.) This decision has served the children, the parents, and
myself very well. For more about the games, which involve an objective process including
a checklist with criteria for observation, please see Developing Our Observation Skills for
Understanding First Grade Readiness in Part Two.

As time has progressed, my initial clumsy observations have been replaced with a deepening
of interest and understanding. Witnessing similar responses from the children as they played
the games helped me to pinpoint the important milestones demonstrated before me. By
repeating these experiences with different children over and over again I have been able
to hone my own powers of observation and nd my way into recognizing various nuances
in the signs of readiness. The value of developing some concrete criteria that can be used
year after year cannot be overestimated. There is an old adage that goes, The journey of
a thousand miles begins with one single step. I would encourage kindergarten teachers
to take their initial steps upon this rewarding journey. Childhood and the six-year-old
transformation came alive for me in a different way when I included the rst grade readiness
games in my yearly plan.

There has also been an added dimension of joyful interaction as I witness the enthusiasm
with which the children look forward to the opportunity to play games with their teacher.
Another bonus is the respectful response of the parents for the rst grade readiness
recommendations when they discover that it has a denite procedure and a set of
observations behind it.

More importantly, these games have given me a venue in which I can make a deeper
connection, a soul-spiritual link with the child and parent. I cant say enough about the
value of this. There have been times when I have felt stumped by the placement of a child
and, after playing the rst grade readiness games with the children and consulting with the
parents, I have known what my recommendations would be. I regard this time that I spend

66
with the individual children as a time that supports a depth of observation so poignant that,
in the evening when I carry the question of the childs placement into my sleep, I am able to
present a truer picture of the child to his/her angel. Then I think that the childs angel, the
parents angels, and my own angel are able to nd each other, draw closer, collaborate and
inspire us all with the right decision.

Although my intent in this article is to share some ideas about being in this decision-making
process with the parents, it seemed necessary for me to explain beforehand the benet of
having a rst grade readiness assessment process that engenders the necessary respect from
the parents, who have the potential to be some of our greatest allies and helpers. Below are
some considerations that I implement in my work with the people who are most familiar
with the children and tend to know them very well: their parents.

A very valuable piece of advice was given to our teacher training class by Joan Almon:
Before you begin to advise the parents, nd a way to love them. When you strive to do this,
then you will eventually be able to say what you need to say to them. Each year I take this up
as my mantra right from the very beginning of my encounters with the childrens parents.

Here are some ways that I develop this loving relationship through time:

When I rst meet a family I take interest in the parents as well as the child. What are the
parents hobbies, activities, and viewpoints? What are their concerns about their child?
What was their childhood like? This initial openness paves the way for a strong future
connection.
If there is a child that I sense may be in the position of needing another year in the
kindergarten then I work very hard at creating this connection with their parents. I want
trust, respect, and warmth to exist between myself and the parents when, later on, I
know I will be advocating another year in the kindergarten for their child. At the initial
interview when I meet the family I am very clear about stating our cut-off date for rst
grade readiness. If the child falls within this time then I explain the benets of another
year in the kindergarten.
Engaging the parents in warm conversation by phone or taking them aside at drop-off or
pick-up times is very helpful.
Involving the parents in some kindergarten tasks can engage their interest and make the
kindergarten year(s) more meaningful for them.
Sometimes, I also incorporate the parents in my evening meditation by accurately seeing
them in my minds eye.
When I sense that an issue is brewing in the parent group, newsletters can be an effective
and neutral way to build group trust by addressing the issue and sharing living stories
that are part of the kindergarten day. Sometimes its easier to speak about an issue to

67
 the whole group, as if the topic just occurred to me, than it is to risk defensiveness or
offending someone by approaching them directly. Reading a newsletter gives them the
opportunity to read the idea and ruminate on it in freedom.
Creating a vessel for the parents to get together and talk while I am present also paves
the way for open discussion about parents observations and questions. I host a monthly
Parent Discussion and Craft Circle.

During the school year there are several meetings with the parents. At each one of these
events, the six/seven-year-old transformation and rst grade readiness are mentioned,
sometimes briey and other times in greater detail (depending on what developmental
manifestations we are witnessing in the older kindergarten children). Explaining common
behaviors that can be witnessed at this age helps the parents to see the reason for their
childs upheaval as being pertinent to the six/seven-year change and not the fault of the
kindergarten.

As the year progresses and the children show more signs of the change, I speak directly to
individual parents about it again. Have you noticed Sarahs giggling and that shes racing
around more lately? Have you noticed that Johnny has increased his appetite and is going
through a growth spurt? Is Allison questioning your authority at home? Do you notice
Nathaniels fascination with teenagers lately? By comparing observations the parents
tend to be put at ease and feel more fellowship and support when their children are going
through these changes. This can be a confusing time for parents and teachers alike. If this
atmosphere of warmth, mutual respect and trust has been built and the
Explaining common parents have been properly informed beforehand, then it can be welcome
behaviors that can be news when the teacher recommends that a child have another year in the
witnessed at this age kindergarten.
helps the parents to The cut-off date for our school is June 1, although we often give May birthday
see the reason for their children (especially boys) the opportunity to attend kindergarten for another
childs upheaval. year. As I look back over the past ve years I see that we have been blessed
with some March and April boys and girls turning seven during the end of
their kindergarten year. Through time I have discovered some important ways to bring this
possibility to the parents. The following suggestions are helpful when parents question the
teachers recommendation and are determined that they want their child to go on into rst
grade.

First, rather than using the language that the child is staying back (the connotation being
that he or she is missing something), it works better to place the emphasis on the benets of
another year. The language I use is, Lets give Sally the opportunity to have another year in
the kindergarten.

68
Here are some of the benets that can be mentioned to the parents:

Rather than having to struggle to keep up with his peers, the child who has more time
can have the opportunity to develop the self-esteem that comes with being fully ready
to take on tasks with ease.
A child who is the youngest in his or her family can have the opportunity to practice
being an older brother or sister in the kindergarten.
An only child or a youngest child in the family constellation can have an opportunity to
nurture younger children, because in her second year in the kindergarten she will be in
the position to be a helpful older child.
If the child has just begun to show signs of the six/seven-year change then it can be
helpful for him to have some consolidation time through more movement opportunities
rather than sitting at a rst grade school desk for longer periods of the day. Its often
helpful to ask the parents if they can imagine their child managing her impulses and
sitting contentedly for long periods of time.
Having an extra year in the kindergarten can help a child who would have been the
youngest in rst grade to be one of the oldest in the kindergarten. Cultivating leadership
qualities prepares the child for a successful future.

As well as discussing the benets with the parents, there are also a few helpful strategies that
can assist the decision.

By far the most helpful strategy that I have found is to make a list, in order of ageoldest
to youngestof the children who will be going on into rst grade, and then, in the same
manner, a list of the children who will be staying back in the kindergarten. Then, with
the parents present, plot where their child would be situated on these lists age-wise.
Often when parents see that their child would be the very youngest in the rst grade
class and, as it often turns out, not even the oldest in next years kindergarten class, they
understand what that could mean for their child.
Sometimes a decision can be assisted by the teacher saying If I can let go of Johnny
being in kindergarten next year, can you let go of him being in rst grade next year and
well just give this decision some more contemplation time? If the parents agree, I ask
them if we can keep this conversation open to future sharing of our observations. Then
I often tell the parents about the importance of the child going on with his or her own
peer group. I tell them that I will document daily whom the child plays with. Sometimes
the parents invite over an older child and a younger child to their home (on separate
occasions) and they can then witness how their childs play changes depending on the
age of the playmate. Its important to keep in mind here that often the younger child
becomes the slave of the older child, fetching things and so on. When we sensitively
observe their play we can see that the younger child is not really playing as an equal with
the older one.

69
 Handouts from parents expressing successful results from giving their child the
opportunity for another year in the kindergarten are very helpful.
Members of the parent body who struggled with this decision of rst grade placement
and whose children are in the grade school now can be a rich resource if they are willing
to accept phone calls from a current questioning parent.
Hosting a parent evening where the rst grade readiness games are explained (after the
games have been played with the children) eases the parents concern that this decision
be made by qualied professionals.

The warm bond that we make with the childs parents is essential for a healthy year in the
kindergarten. The efforts we make to insure that the social fabric we weave together is
abundant with the golden threads of love, trust, and respect are well-justied, forming a
foundational garment that can be carried forward into the future.

References
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America. The Older Child in the Kindergarten:
2002 Survey of Established Waldorf Early Childhood Programs. Available by request from
WECAN.

70
Carrying
the Transition
to First Grade

Janet Klaar

Physical indicators are important guides for gauging readiness, but there is much more to
consider. While the child may be very settled and accomplished in activities and expectations of
the kindergarten world, there is also the question of how well he or she will meet the expectations
of the upper school. Janet Klaar clearly describes what some of these expectations are and
indicates areas to considerstamina, concentration, exibility, and enjoyment of new things and
people, to name a fewin sensing a childs readiness.

T here are two ways of looking at the subject of rst grade readiness. The rst is to
observe the child and assess whether he has made the necessary developmental
changes in order for the birth of the etheric to take place. The second way is to see
what will be required of the child once he enters rst grade and how able he is to take on
that major life change. It is therefore of prime importance that the adults around him be
able to communicate well with each other in sharing their observations of his development
and well-being, so that they can all be assured that the best decision is made on his behalf.

The young child has had to develop an amazing amount of physical skills from birth onward.
She has changed from a helpless baby to an active six-year-old, able to run, walk, climb,
dance, model, draw, speak uently, sing, ride a bicycle, and much else. Her social awareness
will have changed from that of a self-centred baby to a young, enquiring child beginning to
be aware of her place in the world in relation to friends and the adults she meets. Her body
will be strong; she has progressed from drinking solely milk, to being able to eat and enjoy
a wide variety of foods and textures. Her heartbeat and internal organs will be in greater
harmony with each other, and their own rhythms much more clearly established than at
birth. Her second dentition will usually have begun by her sixth birthday, and her pride at the

71
 gap in her mouth is obvious to all she meets. Her newly-mastered independence may show
in the way in which she takes initiative, for example mopping up a spill without coming rst
to a teacher.

The adults around the child in the kindergarten will have noticed the changes that he has
made, and will be aware of his struggles and joys. Parents, teachers, assistants and others will
have rejoiced with him as he achieved the many milestones on his way. At times there may
have been questions about whether or not he should be helped to achieve the
So what does rst next stage, or whether he should be left to achieve it in his own time. For these
grade expect from the questions the school doctor is an invaluable asset. Many kindergartens now
use a clear assessment form, which serves as a memory jogger for the teacher
child? as to when certain milestones were passed, and can also be a personal record
of each childs achievements. These, valuable as they are, are only a guide, and
merely enhance the observations made by each teacher, assistant, eurythmist, school doctor,
class teacher, learning support team and above all the childs parents, in creating a clear
picture of whether he is ready to make the step into the main school.

So what does rst grade expect from the child, in order to be able to fully engage in what the
class teacher will prepare for her?

She needs to be able to attend school regularly and to cope with the normal number of
sessions. A child who is not able to be present in the school, barring the usual illnesses, will
not be able to engage in the continuity demanded by a main lesson.

Is the child happy to meet other adults? Has she become acquainted in kindergarten with
the adults who will become part of her daily pattern in rst grade? There will be language
teachers, handwork teachers, eurythmists, teachers on playground duty, and more. Is she
familiar with their faces and does she delight in meeting and knowing them? Her security in
the next step will be enhanced if these adults are not strangers to her and if she is known to
them.

There will be a wide variety of activities, which in some cases will require sitting at a desk
and not have the variety of choices available in the kindergarten. Is the child ready to accept
the authority of a class teacher and to be part of the group of children who will make up his
class? Has he reached independence in being able to deal with all his personal needs? Can
he hold his own in the time when the children are out at play? Is he aware of the geography
of the school and can he nd his way safely about with a friend?

The development of conscious and unconscious skills is part of the work of the kindergarten
in this pre-school age. Can the child hold a brush and crayon correctly? She will need to be
able to look at the blackboard, and then transfer the drawing or writing into her book. The
foundations for this are all prepared in the kindergarten without it being taught as a skill.
Stamina is also very important. Can the child enjoy and follow through with something,

72
 for example a craft activity that can take many days, or even weeks, to complete, and can
she also put herself into a physical task which demands real effort, both physically and
mentally? Is she willing and able to use her initiative in situations? These are just some of
the expectations that will be had of her in rst grade. It is important that opportunities are
available in each kindergarten for a child to experience these skills. The childs desire to do
this is signaled by the request: Please can I have another job to do?

One of the most important stages to witness is when the ve- or six-year-old appears
suddenly to have lost his fantasy. For a few days he will hang around proclaiming himself
to be bored. It is very tempting at this point to give him things to do and thus mop up
his time, and to some extent this has to be done. But he also needs to be ignored, so that
he can work through the internal process himself and transform the wonderful fantasies of
his earlier kindergarten years into a conscious imagination. Then he will begin to organize
others to join in with him, and there will be a great deal of planning done for a game which
is often not even started by tidy-up time, and which may continue for a number of days. The
planning will be very detailed, and the children will learn when they can lead and when they
can follow for the good of the game. I rmly believe that this is one of the most important
phases in the childs development and one that we hinder at great peril to the development
of the individuals feeling of self.

The kindergarten staff will be observing the children discreetly all the timenot with the
aim of creating a rst grader, but to see when each individual is ready to make the step for
him- or herself. For some another year in the kindergarten may be necessary. For a child
who nds changes difcult anyway and would not be helped by the delay, he may need to
gain condence in himself and to be shown in many ways that he can do things. All these
concerns are shared with the parents and adults around the school, and together the best
can be found for the child.

It is so important that at this time the child is unaware of these processes. She must never
feel that there is any atmosphere of pass or fail, merely that she will move on to rst
grade when it is her turn. Our kindergarten children can be very secure in the knowledge
that their turn will come.

Elmelds Transition Group

At Elmeld Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge, England, we expect that by the summer
term all of the children who will be entering rst grade are able to be present in the
kindergarten for the same amount of time that will be expected of them in the rst grade.
We feel that the bodily rhythm is important to establish at this time in the kindergarten. The
child will meet many changes in rst grade, and if this rhythm can be established now it will
help him to engage more easily with the requirements of school. If a child is not able to do
this, then it would become a question of whether or not he is ready.

73
 Transition sessions are held for this group of children. Here they learn to settle down as a
group together to do or make something. They also experience that when there is an activity
of this nature, they may not do something else. This only lasts for about twenty minutes, but
it is the introduction to the group being taught together.

These sessions are held in the afternoon after morning kindergarten. The transition children
bring their packed lunches, and eat their lunch together with the kindergarten teachers.
They then tidy up and fetch some soft mats to lie on, while a story is read to them for about
half an hour. They then can go out into the garden and play for forty minutes, before coming
in and having a group session together.

During these sessions we have had creative play sessions, weaving, sewing, seasonal
crafts, practicing ne nger control, and circuses!that is, movement practice. Sadly, we
are nding that many of the children are unable to be as free in their bodies as they have
been, even in the recent past. Parents are increasingly driving their children to school, and
at home they do not play outside very much, so we try to create opportunities for as many
movement skills as possible. It is not unusual for us now to nd that we have among our
transition children some who are unable to move uently both up and down stairs. We are
very fortunate in having a trained Bothmer gymnast amongst our kindergarten staff and we
are able now to support the physical development of the children much more.

The transition group has proven over the years to be very successful. The older children love
it, and it recognizes their particular needs.

74
A Transition Group
Edinburgh
at the
Steiner
School

Melissa Borden

When the new rst graders have been identied, providing the group with a transitional step
toward their next year can be very benecial. Melissa Borden describes how the Edinburgh Steiner
School kindergarten classes have designed such a weekly experience to build a bridge from
kindergarten toward rst grade.

D uring the nal weeks of the kindergarten year, teachers often observe in the six- and
seven-year-old children a developmental change that may forecast an end of one
phase of childhood and the beginning of another. There is a new look about these
children as their limbs lengthen and their proportions alter. Six- and seven-year-old children
at this stage often become less harmonious in the dreamy atmosphere of the kindergarten.
More strongly than ever, they are drawn to playmates of their own age and, often, to those
of their own gender. A new curiosity emerges about the world and the people who live in it.
Within children of this age group there can be born a fresh desire to learn and the transition
from kindergarten to rst grade is surely foreshadowed.

Throughout the course of the summer term (early May to early July) at the Edinburgh Steiner
School, the kindergarten children who will be entering rst grade the following autumn
are brought together once a week to form a Transition Group. Drawn from the schools four
kindergarten classes, the children in the Transition Group are offered their rst opportunity
to experience themselves as a social entity. To give one of the teachers a free morning to lead
the Transition Group work, the younger children from that teachers class spend the morning
with one of the other three kindergartens. The structure of the Transition Group may vary

75
 from year to year, depending on the teachers assessment of the childrens particular needs.
A consistent goal from year to year, however, is to cultivate healthy social relationships
between the children and to offer an opportunity for them to experience themselves as a
group before entering rst grade.

The current Transition Group at the Edinburgh Steiner School has nineteen children.
The teachers began planning the Transition Group by observing individual children and
attempting to get an overall impression of the character of the group. After consideration
and consultation with the full kindergarten faculty, a plan was made for this years
summer term. It was agreed that the group would particularly benet from a morning that
emphasized gross motor skill development and vigorous physical activity. The morning was
arranged thus:

8:309:15 The Transition Group children started the day with their own kindergarten
groups.
9:1510:00 These children gathered in the play yard for an outdoor ring time that
emphasized vigorous movement and gross motor exercise.
10:0011:00 The group took a long morning walk with several stops at the park for games,
rope skipping, a snack and playtime.
11:1511:45 The children returned to the kindergarten for a mid-morning meal.
11:4512:00 The children participated in kitchen chores.
12:0012:20 The children integrated back into the kindergarten during outside playtime.
12:2012:45 The Transition Group children ended the day with their own classes.

The outdoor ring time gave the children an opportunity, for the rst time, to experience
themselves as a group and to explore movement in a new way. Because we were working
outdoors, we could be much more active and expansive than when working indoors. There
was plenty of room and it was easy to jump, skip and roll on the ground without bumping
into furniture and walls. The children seemed enthusiastic throughout and the mood was
both playful and relaxed.

The morning walk allowed the children multiple opportunities to practice physical skills
and to engage the lower senses. The teachers were able to track skill development and to
incorporate specic activities viewed as benecial to rst grade readiness. It was felt that
the rhythmic nature of walking contributed to a social harmony amongst the children.
There were few, if any, complaints about the walk and many of the children expressed a
satised sense of achievement when the group returned to the kindergarten. Throughout
the morning, the teachers experienced few discipline problems in the Transition Group and
found that the children were calmly and joyfully able to rejoin their own kindergarten classes
at the end of the day.1

1 Editors note: Please refer to Laurie Clarks The Six-Year-Old in a Mixed-Age Kindergarten in Youre Not the Boss
of Me! (WECAN, 2007) for another example of transitional activities for the upcoming rst graders.

76
Building the Bridge
to the First Grade:
How a Class Teacher Can
Lead Children Gently
into the Grade School

Kim Holscher

Class teacher Kim Holscher describes how she has eased the transition for her new rst graders
by carrying over familiar rhythms and activities from the kindergarten into their new grade
school routine. Supported and reassured by what they already knew, other new things were
easy to embrace. She recommends a strong cooperation between the rst grade teacher and the
kindergarten colleagues who have prepared the children for this step into the grade school.

W hen I planned the rst few weeks of both of my rst grades, in 1992 and 2002, I
pondered how best to build on the childrens kindergarten experience. Our Seattle
Waldorf School kindergarten teachers had done a wonderful job in guiding their
classes in healthy play inside and outside, preparing wholesome snacks, and in creating
a rhythmic daily experience of nature, creative play, and practical activities. I resolved
to continue some of the familiar elements of the kindergarten day. I wanted to add the
introduction of main lesson skills to their kindergarten experience rather than abruptly start
a completely different rhythm in rst grade, which is often done. I kept some kindergarten
rhythms for only a few weeks, while some continued for the full rst grade year, depending
on the needs of the group.

We began every morning with a walk. The children from our three different kindergartens
were accustomed to this morning routine from the year before. Our walk, however, started
at a playground ve blocks away and involved climbing a steep hill with our lunch-lled
backpacks. Then we had our main lesson, which ended with the snack we had prepared
ourselves during the previous afternoonbread, soup and cooked grains. The lovely
manners of using napkins and washing our own dishes all continued seamlessly as well.

77
 When we got back to school, parent helpers in school aprons took the role of the
kindergarten assistant and helped with dishwashing and overseeing outside play while
small groups of children came inside to paint, draw forms, make crafts and learn Spanish or
Japanese.

After Michaelmas, the specialty lessons began formally and involved the whole class, but I
felt that the gradual introduction allowed the children to maintain good habits and practice
in smaller groups. We called our groups Oats, Peas, and Beans, and they each had nine of the
twenty-seven students in the class.

Just like in the kindergarten, lunch was brought from home and we ended the day by
feasting together. For the children who stayed later, a rest time followed. After rest, they
were then responsible for tidying the room including washing and ironing the napkins and
preparing the next days snack.

The afternoon ended with a craft and outside play. These hours were overseen by the rst
grade assistant, which allowed me to go home and rest. All teachers of large classes should
be so lucky!

For both of my rst grade classes, the childrens attendance and health were noticeably
strong. I attribute this directly to the daily walk and organic snack we enjoyed all through the
year. The children had few of the stomachaches or other signs of adjustment stress that are
common during the months of October and November.

I would recommend the following to all rst grade teachers:

If at all possible, visit the kindergartens for at least one whole morning to experience the
mood and see how the teachers use nonverbal authority. Class teachers can learn a lot
from the exquisite planning of each activity that kindergarten teachers do to assure a
smooth ow through the morning!
Ask the kindergarten teachers what daily and weekly rhythms the children are used to,
and incorporate all workable ones into the rst weeks of rst grade. This includes the
timing of outside play, cooking snack, cleaning activities and painting habits.
Begin grade school rhythms when the children are ready. However, one never really
outgrows the need for a hot snack, so keep that reminder of kindergarten as long as you
possibly can!

78
I would also encourage all kindergarten teachers to spend time discussing these steps
for building the bridge to grade school with their incoming rst grade teachers. Grade
school teachers are usually well trained in main lesson activities and are eager to begin
implementing what they have learned when they begin teaching their own class.
However, we discovered through conversation in our school that, while we all felt that
healthy movement was important for young children, our denition of what constituted
such movement varied greatly between the kindergarten and the grade school teachers.
Its important that these communications take place so that the children can transition
smoothly.

The best way to build the bridge into the grade school is to strive to understand where
the children are coming from in kindergarten and to lead them gently into the exciting
learning activities of main lessons and specialty subjects. If only this conversation takes place
between the new rst grade teacher and the kindergarten teacher then I am sure that the
children will have an easier transition into the new world of the grade school.

79
The Lowering of
School Age and the
Changes in Childhood:
An Interim Report

Claudia McKeen, MD; Rainer Patzlaff; Martyn Rawson

The following study is summarized and excerpted from research work being done in Germany
about school entry. European and British schools are facing legal requirements to lower grade
school entry age. This is not something American schools are presently facing, but pressure for
earlier and earlier academics is clear. This article is included to provide a picture of what other
Waldorf educators are confronting. Ongoing research has begun to validate Waldorf practice and
to guide in creating new models and responses that protect the childs development, yet meet
legal requirements. This research work will benet the entire Waldorf/Steiner school movement.

Additionally, observations from German early childhood educators and grades teachers are
included about the changes they see in children. It is striking that German children are showing the
same kinds of challenges in health, vitality, and restless behavior that we see on our continent. The
calm, settled, robust school-ready child of twenty years ago may now be the nervous, distractible,
pale yet school-ready child of today. We are challenged to hone our observation skills to see if
adjusted guidelines for readiness need to be developed for the children coming to us today.

This translation of the German report (which appeared in Erziehungskunst in 2004) is a

somewhat condensed version of that previously published in Kindling, the UK journal for Steiner/
Waldorf early childhood education.

A n article in the December 2003 issue of the German magazine, Erziehungskunst (The
Art of Education) described a research initiative on school readiness. The impetus
for the project was given by the impending lowering of the school age in various
states in Germany. Both school doctors and Waldorf teachers are concerned because
the anthroposophical view of the human being is quite specic in this matter. Academic

81
 learning is not to be started at an arbitrary point; when one starts too early, growth forces
are used up which should still be used to form the physical constitution. Starting earlier is
done at the expense of these vital forces and thus jeopardizes the further development of
the child. With the health of many modern children being taxed enough as it is, a further
threat could be formed by the additional stress of lowering the elementary school age by a
full year.

Therefore an initiative group consisting of physicians, people working out of Waldorf

pedagogy, and scientists set itself the task to do scientic research on young children to
investigate the connection between the development of a healthy constitution and the
development of learning.

Should School Age Also Be Lowered

in Waldorf Schools?
I n the autumn of 2003 a relatively wide-ranging questionnaire was sent out to gain an idea
of the views kindergarten teachers and lower grade colleagues in different areas of Germany
hold with regard to the present-day pedagogical situation. We wanted to know what their
experience told them concerning the question of children starting school earlier and what
long-term changes they have noticed in child development.

It became obvious that these questions have consequences for the future position of the
Waldorf schools and Waldorf kindergartens, consequences which also extend into the
area of politics. For in several states in Germany preparations are
How will it be when the underway to start elementary school earlier in state schools. And
group of oldest not only thatit will also no longer be possible to put children
back; until recently, children could be put back a year but this
children will no longer
will be forbidden in the near future, with very few exceptions.
be in the kindergarten? It is already quite common that parents are given the option to
send their ve-year-old to school earlier if they wish to do so (the
so-called Kann-Kinder [able children]); in cases where parents avail themselves of that
opportunity, there is no way back.

Even though the Waldorf schools are not obliged by law to join in lowering the elementary
school age, they would still have to comply with the ban on sending children back a grade.
This raises the question of how Waldorf schools can still attract students in the future, when
they stick to the traditional school age and refuse to take children a year earlier.

This also brings up the question of how life in the kindergarten will be affected. How will it
be when the group of oldest children will no longer be in the kindergarten because they
have already gone on to elementary school? Wouldnt it be much better pedagogically to
continue to carry this age in the kindergarten, but in a form specically tailored to them?
Might this be a Class 0 or some other transitional form that meets the state requirements?

82
 With respect to the discussion concerning these issues, a discussion which has already
started, the research group would like to stress that it does not consider it its task to nd the
right organizational form. Every institution will have to decide these matters for itself, taking
into account the local conditions and individual possibilities. The research group should
work together with the colleagues involved to tackle the question of how to pedagogically
shape the transition from early childhood into elementary school age. How do we safeguard
the developmental demands of the child when we shape a healthy and sensible transition,
independent from the organizational form in which it takes place?

Hence it was of great importance for us to begin by getting the input from colleagues who
are actually working with children between ages three and nine, and to nd out how they
judge the present-day situation from a pedagogical point of view. The rst results of our
questionnaire give the following picture:

An Assessment of the Situation in the Kindergarten

A summary of the most frequent responses to the 2004 questionnaire are listed below.
Striking was the strong response to the question Have you noticed changes in child
development during the past ten years?

There is a noticeable decrease in childrens ability to imitate and to play, and in the power
of imagination.
Childrens health is weaker, they are more nervous and fearful, and there is an increase in
allergies and infections.
In motor movement, there is less dexterity, a slowing in development, and more
feebleness.
Children play differently; they are louder and wilder.
Children talk a lot, are slow to get going, and have a hard time listening.
Todays children are very individual, strongly developed intellectually, and awake in their
heads.
They often have no sense of boundaries and are very much oriented towards adults; their
capacity for devotion is less.
Social skills and thoughtfulness can be counted on less.

It is noticeable that the enumeration of weaknesses and decits predominates. The number
of children having decits such as the ones listed above is estimated to be very high
(between fty and seventy percent). A comparable list of new capacities, which can be
valued positively, is generally absent. Are there none, or did the questionnaire not elicit these
explicitly enough?

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 Likewise, early childhood educators gave very differentiated answers to the question: What
would happen if children aged ve-and-a-half to seven would be missing from the group,
because they would be attending a preparatory class or would be in elementary school?
The tenor of the answers was usually as follows:

Younger children would miss the example of the older ones. Much would be missing in
the way of child culture, stimulus for playing, and richness of ideas.
Forming habits in the rhythm of the day and the course of the seasons, including also the
carrying out of practical activities such as washing hands and dressing, would be much
more difcult without the older children who remember how to do that. The grown-ups
would have to demonstrate much more, or explain.
It would only be benecial for many children to have a third year in the kindergarten and
thus remain longer in the activity of playing.
It would increase the number of younger children in every group, which would mean a
signicant change in the structure of the groups; groups would be much more difcult
to manage.
A different opinion: there would be more peace and quiet in the kindergarten and the
little ones would be able to play more in an age-appropriate way.
Something would be taken away from the older children, and this would especially
affect the great number who are only children. They would be missing out on the
social practice of learning with and from the little children in sharing responsibility and
developing care and empathy. They would not be able to feel pride about their own
abilities, nor would the resulting strengthening of self-condence be able to unfold.
On the other hand, when the older children would be more in a group by themselves,
they wouldnt have to put up with waiting times. Special challenges could be arranged
for them and they could be occupied with age-appropriate activities (something which
often is presently taking place in cases where special days or programs are arranged for
the older children).

Early childhood educators in Waldorf kindergarten are predominantly of the opinion that
the concept for the kindergarten as it existed up to now would come into question when
kindergarten no longer incorporates the ve and six-year-olds. This age group is seen as an
essential part of the culture of the kindergarten, and its absence would mean disadvantages
for all children.

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How Do Things Stand in Elementary Schools?
Elementary school teachers were also asked, Do you perceive general changes in child
development during the past ve years? Frequent observations were:

There are still many round, healthy children, but the number of unhealthy children is
increasing.
Children have less dexterity than used to be the case. Coordination and ne- and gross-
motor movements are developed less strongly (for example when children hop or stand
on one leg).
Illnesses are more frequent; children suffer pains, are pale, tired or have indenite
bellyaches or headaches.
The powers of imitation have waned. Even simple instructions are hard to follow for
many children.
The power of imagination has denitely become weaker.
Concentration is bad; children have a hard time listening, and their memories are weak.
Children are restless, they cannot sit still.
The sense of rhythm is often weakly developed.
The development of speech is often retarded (for example a smaller vocabulary, use of
shorter sentences, uncertainties in grammar, retelling stories is becoming harder).

Not only decits were noticed by teachers; a number of quite different, remarkable changes
were registered as well:

A much more individual approach has become necessary already in the lower grades.
There is a stronger need for personal attention, often connected with a lack of
boundaries and a decrease in perception of social needs.
The difference between boys and girls has become much more noticeable (ninety
percent of the difcult children are boys).
When entering the school, many more children than before know their letters and can
even read.
Children show strong practical abilities, they want to be outside and want to have more
time for play.
Children are more spontaneous and open in their contact with the world. They are often
sensitive, delicate, very awake, also critical at this early age.
They have a strong longing for spiritual matters and are often very spiritually oriented.
They are more independent than they used to be, dont want guidance, yet look for
orientation.
The nine-year change, through which the child feels more lonely and distanced from the
world, occurs earlier, as can be seen from the distance they show towards the teacher.

85
 As in the case of the questionnaire for the early childhood educators, the teachers were
likewise asked to consider how the lowering of the school age would affect their schools.
What follows are typical answers given to the question What, in your opinion, would the
effect be for your school of lowering school entry to age ve?

We nd no positive aspects to the projected change and cannot assess how we would
deal with it.
We would be forced to establish a class 0 (a preschool or entry-level class). We would not
be able to get around accepting ve-year-olds.
It would be necessary to collaborate more closely with the kindergarten.
The traditional Waldorf kindergarten would have to be rethought and tackled in a
different way.
The curriculum we have used up to now would not apply to the school anymore, and it
would be necessary to think of different educational concepts.
The existing architectural layout of the school would no longer be functional and a
complete remodeling would be necessary.
It would be necessary to work with smaller classes and more therapeutic assistance
would likewise be needed.
Parental involvement would have to be intensied.

There was general unanimity in the conclusion teachers came to: we will not be able to get
around establishing preschool classes. It will entail new pedagogical concepts, however;
the necessary research will have to be done both by local school communities and also on a
regional level.

Preliminary Conclusions of the Questionnaire

I t is clear that Waldorf schools are facing a new task: the transition from kindergarten to
elementary school will have to be thoroughly rethought and shaped anew. On the surface,
the point seems to be to nd an organizational form which can meet the changed political
requirements. Much more important, however, are the clearly stated grounds to turn our
full energy towards this task for reasons which have nothing to do with political pressure.
Again and again we are facing a host of well-known symptoms which are being reported in
kindergartens and schools. All of them point to the fact that the constitution of present-day
children has changed considerably. Children are different both in body and soul, and this
is certainly to be connected with the changed circumstances created by adults, which the
questionnaire did not address. Children bring completely new conditions, demands and
problems into schools than was the case ten or twenty years ago, and therefore they need to
be met pedagogically in a new way in order to do justice to our present time.

86
 But how do we get there? Colleagues see three things which would be needed:

1. Collaboration between free-standing kindergartens [of which there are many in

Germany not attached to schools] and elementary schools must be much more
intensive.
2. We must work at pedagogical concepts, basing ourselves in proper research which
takes into account how the human being develops and incorporates pedagogical and
medical/therapeutic viewpoints.
3. Parents and teachers must work together more strongly.

Project 1: Pedagogical Model for Education

between Age Three and Nine
T hese preliminary results strengthened the research groups intention to work with schools
and kindergartens to create a new pedagogical model that does not follow the traditional
division between kindergarten and elementary school. Instead, the development of the child
from kindergarten entry at age three up to nine is seen as an ongoing process of formation
and education.

In creating such a model, we have several targets in mind. On the one hand it should offer
colleagues, who are working with this age group, workable criteria based on real insight
into child development to use in shaping the transition from kindergarten into elementary
school. On the other hand it should offer parents criteria that clarify viewpoints coming out
of Waldorf pedagogy, in order to help them make up their minds when they want to send
the child to elementary school (insofar as they will still have the political freedom to choose
in this matter). The third aim is that this research should make our viewpoints clear to the
outside world. Several regions of Germany are currently preparing educational models for
early childhood education that will soon become anchored in the law. Therefore Waldorf
kindergartens will see themselves faced with the necessity to also formulate pedagogical
models which are in harmony with their practice. This formulation of pedagogical aims
will only be acceptable to the public when it is based on the latest scientic research.
More specically, they should take a stand in the current discussions in educational circles
concerning a suitable educational concept for early childhood. Teaching colleagues have
afrmed that such work cannot be accomplished by kindergartens on their own and calls for
a larger task force.

87
 Project 2: Standardized Criteria For School Entry
A second area of research is to investigate whether it is possible to show scientically whether
there is a connection between the point at which a child enters school and the subsequent
medical and educational history of that child. If so, is this demonstrable and can any
conclusions be drawn from it?

The prerequisite for the validity of the data is that the research be carried out according to
standardized criteria, something new for German Waldorf schools. In order to accomplish
this, Dr. Claudia McKeen created a standardized research form placed this at the disposal
of German Waldorf schools as a pilot project. Those items were selected especially which
appeared to us to indicate strongly whether the vital forces shaping the body have become
free or not. [These criteria await translation into English.]

We are also planning a retrospective study, which will investigate the development
and health of the youngest and oldest children in a given class. This project will have to
incorporate data from as many classes as possible and spanning as many years as possible.

Project 3: Salutogenetic Research

T he third project area aims to do long-term research in order to investigate the connection
between the development of a healthy constitution and the educational process. First
contacts are being made with experts in the eld of epidemiology and study leaders who
have experience with scientic studies of this kind. In addition we are presently in touch
with researchers of rhythm, who have developed new instruments and methods in order
to observe heartbeat-breath ratios, which could possibly recognize subtle inuences which
affect children in school and detect how denite, clearly denable activities, educational
content or methods work to strengthen or weaken health. In contrast to the kind of long-
term research which can only show a general correlation between health and educational
methods, styles etc., and are questionable in their methodology, in this case the possibility
would offer itself to point out a direct and measurable correlation between a quite denite
detail of education or of the instructional process and a strengthening or weakening of the
health of the child. We hope to get going in the next months with a concrete plan in this
direction.

88
 Part Two

89
Introduction

T he rst part of this book was dedicated to describing rst grade readiness indicators that
can guide us in observing a childs development. The rst section was the what. This
second section offers practical examples of how. Three different interactive models
are described here. One is that of the kindergarten teacher spending some special time with
each potential rst grader individually in the classroom. Another model involves two children
going through the imagination of a special journey. A third blends aspects of them both, as a
therapeutic teacher meets with each child. These are offered as examples for each teacher to
draw from, as each is found to be useful and appropriate to the child and to the culture of the
school.

These different approaches give ideas of how to collect our observations by guiding the child
into activity with playful imaginations. Included as well is the Observation Form developed by
the International Working Group. This gives an example of how we can keep a record of our
observations and organize them to picture the whole child in terms of physical, emotional, social,
and cognitive domains.

The only goal before us is that each child be observed with warmth and true interest. In some
settings that may be best accomplished by kindergarten teachers watching their children only in
the context of the class. That might be served by having small groups of children play readiness
games while the teacher observes and records. Interacting with a child one-on-one may be best
in another setting. Any combination of these may be an answer as well. No single approach is
recommended or endorsed above any other. Whatever helps us to look with attention and honors
the individuality and consciousness of the upcoming rst grader will be a right answer.

The recording forms included here are a guide, to help with the questions of what observations
to focus on and how to record them. May they prove helpful resources as we work to develop our
own individual approaches to serve the children.

91
 Developing our
Observation Skills
for Understanding
First Grade
Readiness
Ruth Ker

Determining which children are ready to begin rst grade can be a daunting responsibility. We
are called upon to collect the details of the childs readiness and put it into a whole picture. We
need to nd tools and activities, which we blend into a playful experience, that reveal the childs
developmental story. In this article a dedicated and pioneering kindergarten educator describes
her journey in creating rst grade games that are both practical and artistic.

I n Creating Partnerships with Parents in First Grade Readiness Decisions in Part

One of this book, I described some of the different ways that Waldorf schools in
North America cope with these decisions, and how after some years of struggle and
confusion I came to create a procedure for our school, one which included spending
individual time with each child. Research and consultation with other teachers and doctors
resulted in the development of an objective process including a checklist with criteria for
observations of the children. Because I do not feel comfortable with the word assessment,
I refer to the time I spend with the children as the rst grade readiness games, though, as
previously mentioned, the children themselves do not know the time has anything to do
with readiness.

So each year I play games with the children in the kindergarten, individually, for one hour at
a time. I realize as I spend the time with each child that this time together is only a snapshot
of his or her development. I know I have to be careful not to judge or generalize what I see.
This conviction was brought home to me this spring when I was completing the games with
a child and, as she made her Person, House, Tree drawing, she drew a gure with no arms.
Instantly I began to wonder, why? Later that same day she drew gures with arms during
our classroom drawing time. This was a reminder to me that when I observe something from

93
 a child during our rst grade readiness games I must remember that this is only a moment
in time and I must continually recheck my observations. Another case in point came when
I was with a little boy who seemed to use his right hand for drawing all throughout our
games time but, during the following weeks, I saw him several times changing the paint
brush and crayons back and forth between his two hands. These grade one readiness games
are only a tool for honing our observation skills as teachers. They are not meant to conjure
up judgments that freeze the childs development in time. They are a snapshot of a small
moment in time and they can give us more security in making the decision about the childs
placement for the following year.

When it comes time to begin the rst grade readiness games, my colleague and I discuss
when we should begin this process and whether there is need to call in a substitute to
assist her on the playground while I am inside with each individual child. Sometimes we
use this time as an opportunity for the two kindergarten classes to mingle by combining
the two groups together at outdoor time. This leaves the two groups of children supervised
by three adults. In this way, I and one of the other kindergarten teachers take turns doing
assessments on different days. This combined playtime can build relationships between the
two kindergarten groups that will continue on into rst grade.

Starting the Process

In the morning, our kindergarten group spends the rst hour of the morning in outdoor play
and on their morning walk. Near the middle or end of January, depending on how many
children are candidates for rst grade that year, I arrive on the playground and quietly tell
one of the children that it is his or her turn to play games with me. Most often the children
become very excited when they hear this and others ask when they can have a turn.
Deciding when the children have their turn can be part of the process too. Generally, only
one child plays games with me daily. If there are children who are taking their time in their
development then I will save their games time until the end of the assessment months.
Also, paying attention to the childs state of health is important. If he or she has been ill or
has had a late night the evening before then waiting for healthier timing will allow for more
stamina in the games. My goal is to have nished all of the assessments before we have our
March parent/teacher interviews, so I can feel more sure of the recommendation I have for
the parents then.

By this time of year I know some of the interests, ideas and imaginations of the children so
after I warmly greet them in the classroom, I can say, Today, lets pretend that were at the
circus (or on a farm or at the princess castle). Then the games are organized around this
theme. At each assessment, the same games are played with each child but the imaginations
may differ from child to child. The form that follows this explanation is organized according
to categories (physical, social, emotional, and so on) and is not in chronological order.
Because I am familiar with the form, I often change the order of the activities depending on
how the child is responding to the games.

94
 When the child comes into the kindergarten, the games begin right away as he takes off
his outdoor clothes and puts them away. The circus performers always make sure their
coats are zippered properly. Can you show me how you do that? How about the buttons on
your sweater? Then I give the child several instructions all at once and see if he is able to
remember them and follow through. Mr. Ringmaster, please put your boots by your cubby,
your gloves in the laundry hamper, your coat on the hook and bring your slippers back to
me. Following a number of instructions in a row is something that a child approaching
readiness for rst grade is able to do.

Let the Fun Begin

A fter the outdoor clothes are put away, the child then comes to help me unpack my magic
basket. I ask the child to unpack it with only one hand and the basket is situated on a table
directly in front of the childs torso (on the midline). Inside this basket are a number of things
that we use for the games. These items are listed below:

Three ballsA soft felt ball (with a bell inside it) for throwing and then putting to the
ear to listen for whats inside it; A hard cork ball for kicking between 2 goal posts or
under the playstands etc.; A medium-size bouncing ball for bouncing on the oor and
catching with one or two hands
One bean bag for tossing from one hand to the other and spatial orientation (see form)
One tone bar for making the tone and holding up a nger when it can no longer be
heard
A kaleidoscope for putting to the eye, looking at the end for eye tracking and for using
to draw circles in the air
Two seashells for listening into
A drum for repeating rhythms
Scissors and paper for cutting around a circle that I draw on the paper. Often the
children will call the circle a sun, moon or an apple when I ask them if they know what it is
A rope for tying knots
Needle and thread
Stick crayons for the drawing part of the games

Much can be understood by watching how the child unpacks the basket. Is she able to pick
up things with only one hand? Is the midline able to be crossed? Is the child interested in
new things? What about her stamina, ability to converse, understanding of new things,
willingness to try, and so on? Often the child will use this time to tell me things that she
wants me to know. Many tender and precious conversations have occurred.

95
 What follows is a series of imaginative requests as we progress through the list of criteria on
the rst grade readiness form. We use all of the things in the basket and do other activities
as well. I often ask the child to choose which item we use rst when we are playing with the
items from the basket. Its interesting to see if they are more captivated by the balls, crayons,
objects from nature, or the musical things. As we progress through the games I model some
activities rst for the child and sometimes I am just the viewer. Lets walk the tightrope.
When the bareback riders ride on the horses they balance on one foot with their eyes
closed. The elephant riders sometimes put their arms up over their ears. Lets do that. I
once saw a clown hopping on one foot. Lets do that.

For the hour that we are playing these games, everything is done in the spirit of fun and
adventure. If something seems too tricky for a child then we quickly go on to the next
thing. Some children may say I cant and I may say, Yes, I know. Its a little hard, isnt
it. However, some children need a little gentle encouragement because this might be
something new for them and they feel uncertain about it. They feel good about themselves
if they are able to try it out and often, after the assessment is over, they will practice this for
months to come.

Jeffrey comes to mind. During Jeffreys games time we ipped over one of our long benches
which doubles as a balance board. Jeffrey was sure that the sherman could not walk along
the edge of the deck of the boat. So, instead, I took one of our long ngerknitted ropes and
lay it down on the oor. Then the sherman (Jeffrey) walked with careful balance along the
long shing line. After that day and for months to come, Jeffrey incorporated into his daily
play laying ropes down on the oor and walking along them. The ropes were highways,
docks, tightropes. Eventually one day weeks later, Jeffrey must have felt accomplished in his
practice and now he was able to take the next step. He ipped over the long bench and he
made his epic journey along the balance board.

While we are playing these games there are four key questions that I ask the child. If the
imaginations of the games are so vivid that it would be an intrusion to ask them in the rst
part of our time together then I save the questions until the drawing time at the end. The
four questions are (1)Its been a long time since Ive been to your house.
Everything is done in What does your bedroom look like now? (2)What do you like to do in the
kindergarten? (3)What story did we hear yesterday? and (4)Suppose you
the spirit of fun and
woke up one morning and there was a beautiful fairy on your bed. And she
adventure. said to you, Sam, you have been such a helpful boy that you can have any
three wishes you want. What would your wishes be? The answers to the rst
three questions tell me a lot about the childs memory capacity. Has the ability to retrieve
memories arrived? I often see the children looking out and away as if they see the picture in
their minds eye of what they are describing. These are all signals of changes in memory and
picturing ability that arrive at the time of the change-of-teeth.

96
 The fourth question about the three wishes is a precious one because it allows me to see
if the child is gaining more access to the feeling life that is stirring within her. Can she also
describe the ideas and pictures she is seeing? Tears and gratitude often occur when I later
share the childrens answers (particularly about their wishes) with their parents.

Endings
The last movement-oriented thing that we do is a series of clapping and jumping movements.
Audrey McAllen mentions these in her book The Extra Lesson as being important before
doing drawing exercises, particularly before the Person, House, Tree drawing.

Then I sit to the right of the child and there are a variety of drawing exercises that we do
together. My role is a passive one for most of this last part of the games time. At this point
the child has experienced a kind of a tune-up because of the various exercises that have
addressed his whole physical body. Now he is ready to sit down and concentrate in a
different way.

Next I give the children a large piece of paper and ask them to make a person, a house and
a tree. You can make it as beautiful as possible. As I wait quietly and the child becomes
absorbed in her drawing I have often felt that this is, for me, the most informative time of
the whole assessment. So much streams into our time together as I sit there quietly doing
my teachers work and looking on. Some children will talk while they are drawing, some
are very quiet, but whatever is the nature of the child as she approaches a new task tends
to present itself then. Is the child cautious, full of self-doubt, condent, so verbal that the
task is not being initiated, calm, pensive, happy to let the drawing unfold? Does she need
encouragement?

The Person, House, Tree drawings have been tremendously helpful to me throughout the
years. If the parents and I are carrying doubt about whether the child is ready to go into
grade one, often the PHT drawing helps with this decision. Frank comes to mind when I think
about this. Frank was taking his time with his development. Even though he had been in our
kindergarten for two years and would be fully six and three quarters by September of his
grade one year there were many milestones that he had not embraced. He also seemed to
be playing with the younger children in the kindergarten, not the older ones. When Frank
made his PHT drawing what revealed itself on the paper were some vague forms hovering
on the top of the page. The person, house and tree were not apparent. After considering all
the variables, not just the PHT drawing, we made a decision to keep Frank for another year in
the kindergarten. As a result, Frank turned seven in November of his last kindergarten year
and, in the early spring when he made his PHT drawing, lo and behold, there appeared three

97
 very clear forms of a person, house and tree. Frank is in sixth grade now. He still is taking his
time with his development and he is accepted and helped along in school by his peers and
his teachers. This story brings home something worth emphasizing, the whole point of this
assessment. Working with a more involved assessment process gives us the tools and the
inspired moments which inform us about the proper placement of the children. There have
been very few children like Frank who have needed to spend so long in the kindergarten, but
I shudder to think what it would have been like for him if he was in a class that was a whole
year ahead of him. As teachers, we also have to be careful about keeping children back in the
kindergarten who really need to move on and develop along with their proper peer groups.
When these difcult decisions need to be made, parents tend to be more willing to trust and
to place their condence more easily in teachers when they have some concrete assessment
tools to offer.

Other Drawing Fun

On letter-size paper, and using imaginations we have built up during our time together, I ask
the child to make a circle, square and triangle (sun, box, teepee?). Then, on another piece of
paper, we experiment with making straight and wavy lines. For the straight line (going from
left to right and then back again from right to left) I use the imagination of walking to town
and buying groceries and then walking back home with the groceries. For the wavy line, I
use the imagination of packing up some of the groceries into a picnic lunch and going on a
boat ride, stopping on an island to eat lunch, and then coming home again. First I draw the
two straight lines and then the child copies. The same happens with the wavy line. One of
the primary things this shows me is if the child is able to follow instructions. Can she cross her
midline? What hand does she use to draw? How does he hold the crayon? Does he switch
crayons to another hand when he crosses the midline?

Then, on another paper, I begin to draw the four petals of a ower but I do not nish the
picture. I ask the child what he thinks it is. Some children say a buttery or a four leaf
clover. The main thing is that the child is able to complete the picture out of her own
imagination. I then ask the child to nish the picture for me.

The next task is to ask, Please make a blue moon and a red sun. Do the children hear the
whole request? Is the moon on the left side and the sun on the right side? What do the
sun and moon look like? Audrey McAllen in The Extra Lesson gives indications for the Blue
Moon, Red Sun exercise on page 55. Joep Eikenboom also speaks about this in his article,
Foundations of the Extra Lesson.

98
Some Things to Look For
Following this article is the most current revision of a First Grade Readiness form that I have
developed over the years. Please feel free to adapt this as a tool for your own use. I think
it will continue to be a work in progress for me. This year I will be meeting with a group of
teachers and doctors in Sweden and we will be working further into these ideas so there is a
good chance that the form will change again.

When I rst began to work with someone elses rst grade readiness form there were many
criteria that I didnt understand. (Perhaps this is your experience too.) I also knew that I
wouldnt be experienced in the detailed understandings that remedial teachers and doctors
have. Nevertheless, I knew that I just needed to begin. So I just set aside the time to be
individually with the children and I began to observe them. At rst, I wasnt quite sure what
I was seeing. Instead of worrying about doing everything perfectly I did what I am going
to recommend to you. Take joy in the time you spend with the individual children. Even if
you arent feeling ready to understand everything you see, much will still come from just
being in the moment with the children in a gesture of love and joy. Depth of perception and
observation skills will develop over time.

Each year I emphasize to the parents that they mustnt tell their children about the games.
Its important that the child, the parent and the teacher do not make this an over-serious
event. Its a playful time that brings fresh understandings at an important transition time in
the childs life!

The children are not used to being with me when I am relating to them in this more direct
way during the games time. When the games are over our relationship easily slips back into
the usual kindergarten way of being together. However, I always feel that something special
has happened in our bonding process and much has been revealed to me that I never would
have known if I hadnt taken these moments to be alone with them. Sometimes ideas arise
about helpful things that I can be doing during the rest of the kindergarten year to assist the
child in his or her development. If I hadnt taken the time to be present individually with this
child I might not have seen this.

The Form
Having said all this I would like to make a few comments about the form itself. It is divided into
several categoriesphysical, social/emotional, soul life, and drawing. Some of the form can
be lled in by the teacher when the child is not present; the research happens while viewing
the childs interactions in the kindergarten (e.g. longer-term friendships, able to wait for
turns). Other parts of the form are lled in while the games time is happening. I make sure
to tell the child that I have to do some teacher work while we are playing games and then,
every once in a while, I write down the childs responses to the activity or the questions while
he or she is repeating an activity that Ive already witnessed.

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 The Physical part of the form is fairly straightforward and the Drawing section includes
several Extra Lesson exercises from Audrey McAllens book. As Ive already mentioned,
reading her explanations about these exercises can be very helpful.

When using the form, I do not go through it in the chronological way that it is written. Once I
familiarized myself with all of the games then they could unfold as they t into the particular
imagination that was unfolding with the child.

Many people reading this article may have developed an assessment process already. If so, I
hope that this article and the grade one readiness form are of assistance to you. If you do not
have a process already perhaps some of the criteria will appeal to you.

There is one last word of caution that I offer. Please remember that these games and this
form are not diagnostic tools! Please use them to hone and deepen your own observation
skills and enjoy the deeper connection to the child that they will foster. The games are
intended to help you come to an understanding of the childs readiness that is not based
solely on the date of birth. What is most important is that we learn how to recognize the six-
year-old transformation and meet it with the kind of self-assurance that makes this transition
time understandable and more comfortable for the parents and the children.

References and Suggested Reading

Almon, Joan. First Grade Readiness, in The Developing Child: The First Seven Years, edited by
Susan Howard (Spring Valley, NY: WECAN, 2004).

Bates Ames, Louise and Frances Ilg. Your Six Year Old (New York: Delacorte Press, 1981).

Glckler, Michaela. Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy: Understanding the Dream
Consciousness of the Young Child in The Developing Child: The First Seven Years, edited by
Susan Howard (Spring Valley, NY: WECAN, 2004).

McAllen, Audrey. The Extra Lesson (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1998).

_____________. Reading Childrens Drawings (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press,
2004).

Additional information gathered through consultation with Dr. Claudia McKeen and
Kyle Morton and reference to earlier out-of-print articles by Nancy Foster and Margaret
Meyerkort.

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First Grade Readiness Form
Developed by Ruth Ker, Sunrise Waldorf School, Duncan, BC

Todays Date _________________________________________________________________

Childs Name_________________________________________________________________
Childs Birth Date _______________________ Kindergarten __________________________
Teacher _______________________________ Years in Kindergarten ___________________
Family situation ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Warmly welcome the child into the space and then give the child 4 to 5 directions at the
same time (e.g. Please take off your outdoor clothes and hang them in your cubby, put on
your shoes and come to see my magic basket). Child unpacks basket with one hand.

Physical
1. Lost teeth # ________________________ Six-year molars coming in? _______________

2. Limbs: elongated? ___________________ Touch ear with opposite arm extending over
the head (keep the head straight when this is done) ______________________________

3. Handshake: is thumb separating from ngers ___________________________________

3-point grip ________________________ Cross over midline ______________________

4. Disappearance of baby fat:

Facial features dened ________________
Neck ______________________________
Fingers slimmed ____________________
Waist indentation____________________
Arch of foot ________________________
Skin (pale, ruddy) ______________________
Wrist _________________________________
Knuckles showing (dimples gone) _________
Visible joints (kneecaps, wrist bones etc.) ___

5. Ability to hold posture: Stand upright, slouch? __________________________________

Stand still briey? ____________________ Sit down quietly? _______________________
Sit with stillness (brief or long time?) __________________________________________

6. Walks with cross-pattern (opposite arm and leg)? ________________________________

7. Hopping: 1 foot (which one?) __________

2 feet _____________________________ Forward/backward _____________________

8. Climb and descend stairs with alternating feet __________________________________

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 9. Jump rope with consecutive jumps:
Self-propelled ______________________ Turned by teachers _____________________

10. Walk beam, log or line without falling: _________________________________________

Condent? _________________________ Graceful? _____________________________
Too fast? ___________________________ Too concentrated?______________________

11. Balancing on one foot, counting to 10:

Eyes open __________________________ Eyes closed ___________________________

12. Ties knots __________________________ Ties bows ____________________________

Buttons ____________________________ Zippers _______________________________
Strings beads _______________________ Threads needles _______________________
Thumb says hello to all ngers _________

13. Use of scissors: ______________________ Left, right? ____________________________

What does child call the circle? _______________________________________________
(Child puts own name on the circle drawn by the teacher that he has cut out)
Printed name? ____________________________________________________________

14. Finger dexterity (sewing, beeswax, nger games): _______________________________

________________________________________________________________________

15. Sensory processing: (Have the child close his/her eyes and then touch him or her on the
arm. Then have the child point to the place where he/she was touched) _____________
________________________________________________________________________

16. Playing catch:

Catch with both hands _______________ One hand ____________________________
Moves to the ball ____________________ Waits for it to arrive _____________________
Eyes (open/closed?) __________________
Throwing the ball:
With one hand? _____________________ Both hands? ___________________________
On target? _________________________
Bouncing the ball and catching it with one hand_________________________________
Both hands _________________________

17. Tossing the bean bag from one hand to another across midline ____________________
Tossing the ball into a basket: Right hand?
Left hand? _________________________ On target? ____________________________

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18. Spatial orientation: putting the bean bag in front of you __________________________
behind ____________________________ beside _______________________________
on top _____________________________ under you ____________________________
all around you ______________________
(Its surprising how many children are confused about how to cross the midline when
passing the bean bag all around them. Its important to just say the directions at rst
without showing the child how to do it. Also, often the children will put the bean bag on
the tummy or crotch area for the request to put it under them.)

19. Dominance:
Eye (kaleidoscope) R ______ L _______ Eye tracking ___________________________
(Child focuses on end of kaleidoscope and follows with eyes, not moving head)
Hand (catch, etc.) R ______ L _______
Foot (leading foot) R ______ L _______
(Child kicks a ball between two sides of a playstand, also watch on which foot he/she
balances)
Ear (seashell) R ______ L _______
(Put seashell in front and center of the child.)
R hand to R ear ______________________ R hand to L ear_________________________
L hand to R ear _____________________ L hand to L ear _________________________
Listening for tone:
echo tone and pitch (singing) __________ echo rhythm (drum) ____________________

20. Body Geography: touch your head, belly, ankles, knees, neck, chin etc.
(Many children are not yet in touch with their ankles and heels or their waist)
________________________________________________________________________

21. Crossing the midline: touch both of your elbows_________________________________

Touch opposite shoulders _____________ knees ________________________________
ankles ____________________________ Make Os in the air ______________________
(Ask the children to do these tasks; do not demonstrate. For making Os, teacher may
stand facing the child and make a circle in the air if s/he does not understand that
request. The child may not be able to replicate this without turning sideways if he/she is
not comfortable with crossing the vertical midline)

22. Language development:

use of words? variety? ________________ clarity of speech _______________________
sounds difcult to pronounce __________ say (4-5x): animal ______________________
hospital ___________________________ spaghetti _____________________________

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 23. Anything else? (appetite increase, increase in mobility, interest in others bodies)
________________________________________________________________________

24. How well is the child able to:

Jump as high as possible 3 or 4 times __________________________________________
Clap: in front and behind 10x __________ Above and below 10x ___________________
Above and in front 10x _______________ Above, behind, in front counting to 12 ______
Repeat this sequence while clapping, counting and jumping _______________________
(This is done near the end of games time just before the drawing time)

Drawing
1. Person, House, Tree (done right after the clapping and jumping sequence)

2. Lines: Straight ______________________ Wavy ________________________________

3. Flower: __________________________________________________________________

4. Blue Moon and Red Sun: ____________________________________________________

Eye color afnity is usually established between 6 and 7 years (p. 55 of The Extra Lesson,
Audrey McAllen)

5. Draw Circle ________________________ Square _______________________________

Triangle____________________________

Memory
1. What does your bedroom look like?

2. What do you like to do in the kindergarten?

3. What story did we hear yesterday?

4. If you could have three wishes, what would they be?

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Social/Emotional
(These are things that can be observed and recorded out of everyday play experiences)

1. Feeling for the needs of others

2. Longer term friendships

3. Able to join in offered activities: circle, handwork, snack, etc.

4. Able to share teachers attention and wait for a turn

5. Able to follow instructions and carry through with task

In sequence ________________________ Begins impulsively______________________
Can wait to listen ____________________

6. Unduly dependent on security item (thumb, dolly)

7. Shows tendency to outwardness or inwardness?

8. Describe the childs play. Vitality in play? Stationary or active? Watching, solitary, parallel
or group co-operative play mostly?

9. Can the child visualise the play without the props?

10. Has child become bored in play, listless or stuck in repetitive play scenarios?

Soul Life
1. Willing: Has the child developed goal consciousness (sets tasks for self, plans with
purpose, puts things right, able to complete)?

2. Feeling: Can child handle feelings with less adult intervention? Care for others?

3. Thinking: Beginning of causal thinking (ifthen, because) Making up rhymes?

4. Ability to imitate? Do opposite?

5. Enjoys humor? Attempts jokes?

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 6. Speaks uently and can express ideas clearly

7. Ability to concentrate on a chosen task for 1015 minutes

8. Listens to story with keen interest

9. Is memory becoming conscious and retrievable?

Anything else?

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The Red Queen:
A First Grade
Assessment Story

Story and Movement Instructions

prepared by Valerie Poplawski, Celia Riahi, and Randi Stein
In this deeply researched, thoughtful assessment imagination, children are led through a journey
to help the Red Queen, bringing to her the water of life. This journey shows how we can protect the
children from feeling observed by wrapping them in the cloak of story pictures. The commentary
describing each task provides explanations of what is being looked for and what difculty with
an activity might suggest to us. This observation can help us not only look for readiness but also
begin to develop therapeutic looking.

M y experience in early childhood education spans more than 30 years, in both

Waldorf-inspired home program settings and as kindergarten teacher in both the
Rudolf Steiner School in New York and the Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley,
Massachussetts. While I was teaching in a school setting, I was always drawn to the older
child in the kindergarten. When should these children stay in kindergarten and when
should they move on to rst grade? The grade teachers at the Hartsbrook School had
questions about our decisions, wondering why we sent a certain child on or why we even
accepted another. In considering these questions, we kindergarten teachers wanted to be
condent of an informed decision which would ensure a smooth transition for the child,
parents, and teachers into the rst grade.

We had already begun to send children from our early childhood classes to both the public
school system and private therapists for evaluation for a number of reasons. One of our
questions was whether a child was ready to go on to rst grade. As we researched what
others did and began to ask for help, we came up with The Red Queen assessment.
Beyond myself, our team included kindergarten colleague, Valerie Poplawski, who is also
a trained eurythmist; and Randi Stein, our schools remedial teacher, who joined us for

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 all the assessment. We developed a keen interest in the Primary Reexes and how they
were an indicator in the development of the child. We were also able to speak with a local
practitioner of Body Mind Centering a number of times about the reexes, which were her
specialty. We read Sally Goddard Blythes book on the reexes as well. From our research we
would change, add, or remove activities from the assessment as we saw t. I had been lucky
enough to take courses with both Audrey McAllen, founder of the Extra Lesson, and Ingun
Schneider, a remedial teacher with both anthroposophic and mainstream special education
background. This information helped inform our work as well.

We tried many different methods and ways of observing the children, both in the group
setting of the classroom and in individual assessments of the children going on to rst grade.
My colleagues and I were eventually inspired to transform a story I had from an unknown
teacher into The Red Queen. We constantly asked ourselves if this was the correct way
to work with these kindergarten children. Was it too individual, too awakening? Seeing
the children two at a time and asking them to follow directions on demand helped us
determine who was ready, who needed an outside evaluation, and who would benet
from another kindergarten year. This mode of assessment provided a preview of how the
children would respond to doing work on demand in rst grade. By doing exactly the same
assessment with each child, we were able to notice things that might have escaped our
attention in the classroom.

During these sessions we always had two children at a time, after lunch, with two
kindergarten teachers and our remedial teacher. One teacher was telling the story as
she moved with and guided the children. The second teacher, along with the remedial
teacher, was observing the children. If there is no remedial teacher in your school, perhaps
the eurythmist can help instead. All supplies were in good order and kept ready for the
assessments. If a child was not feeling well, we postponed the session. For a child who
applied to the rst grade from outside our kindergartens, we always paired him or her with
a dependable child so he or she would not have to do the journey alone. It was also very
helpful to have the same three or four people do all the assessments. As the same eyes were
always observing, we were better able to compare notes in a consistent context.

We hope you nd this helpful and urge you all to do your own research. Try out The Red
Queen but make it your own. Over the years many children have visited The Red Queen. It
has always been a deeply moving experience to see what each child was able to bring to the
session.

Celia Riahi

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T he room is set up as though for an obstacle course or movement journey. Two (or
more) teachers are present: one is at a small table taking notes (the Red Queen); the
second teacher leads the children in all of the movements. The table is covered with a
red cloth; the Red Queen teacher might wear a red cloak. Two children do the assessment
together. It lasts 45 to 60 minutes. The children wear eurythmy or soft-soled shoes. The girls
would be more comfortable wearing pants. Hair should be tied back. When it is time to
draw, be sure that the children are sitting far enough apart that they do not copy from one
another. The assessments and drawings are led in each childs le when all the assessments
and parent conferences are over. The notes on the form are to aid the teachers in making
decisions; the information gets shared with the parents but not the completed form.

The movement teacher greets the children and invites them to sit on the two chairs that
have been readied for them.

1. Handshake: The teacher holds out her hand to receive a handshake from each child and
says a few words of welcome.
Purpose: This is the rst opportunity for general observation. How does this child
approach me? With eagerness, shyness, discomfort, directness? Does the child have
warm, hot, cool or cold hands? Think about warmth as a quality of the etheric body and
how warmth affects the ability to learn.

2. Listening to Story: The teacher begins to tell the story and note is taken of the manner
in which the children listen to the story.
Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, there lived a queen. She ruled over her kingdom
wisely and well, and all the people were happy. One day a spell was cast upon the kingdom,
and all the rivers ran dry, the streams ran dry, the wells ran dry, and even the Red Queens well
ran dry. There was not a drop of water left in the kingdom. The queen called the people to
her and asked, Who will nd the water of life, that this spell might be broken? I will! said a
faithful servant, And I have two children who can help me. (Teacher gestures to herself and
the two children.) Good! said the Red Queen. Do they have clever eyes and clever ears?
Oh, yes! Do they have clever ngers, strong arms and strong legs? Oh, yes! Good! Then
have them nd me the Water of Life!
Purpose: Can the child focus and pay attention? Is there curiosity, interest?
The teacher then does various activities, always encouraging the children, speaking
positively, and working within the context of the story. The children generally take turns
doing each task.

3. Dominance: A large seashell and kaleidoscope are used to test for dominance of eye,
ear, and hand. The teacher places the shell on the oor directly in front of the child and
asks the child to pick it up and to listen for the sound of the ocean. The child is given the

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 kaleidoscope, directly at the midline, to look through, and is asked which color she sees
rst. Notice is taken of which hand the child reaches with, which ear the shell is put to,
and which eye looks through the kaleidoscope. Repeat this two or three times.
Purpose: If there is mixed dominance, particularly where hand and eye are not the same,
the child may have difculties. When a child is doing any task, if the body parts that have
to carry out the task are not organized in the same way, there may be a slowing down
of automaticity in initiating and completing tasks. Spatial orientation is often affected
resulting in physical awkwardness, fatigue and challenging social behaviors. How free is
the child in her body? We need the child to be free, so that she can easily sit still at her
desk. If she is not in balance in rst grade she will compensate for this lack of balance, by
moving at her desk in ways that may be distracting to others.

4. Ball: The teacher tosses a large soft ball to the child, throwing and catching with both
hands. If the child can do this easily, the teacher throws a smaller soft ball, rst throwing
and catching with both hands, and then throwing with one hand and catching with two
hands. The throw is always underhand. Note is taken of the ease in which the child moves
and throws, and which hand he uses. The teacher then rolls the ball to the child who in
turn kicks the ball gently back. Note is taken of which leg does the kicking.
Purpose: Checking for dominance, for ease with which the child does this, and for
retained reexes.

5. Beanbag: Teacher and child throw a bag underhand to one another, throwing with one
hand, catching with both hands. Again, note is taken of the ease with which this is done
and which hand is used. Teacher and child each hold a beanbag in their own hand and
begin to toss the bag from one hand to the other. The teacher continues the story: We
will come to a lake. In the lake lies a sea serpent. If she wakes up and rises, we must put her
back to sleep. This is how we do it. The teacher shows the child the movements, while
giving verbal instructions and the child imitates the movement:
Passing the beanbag from one hand to the other, around the body in a circular
movement, front to back, in a clockwise direction.
Passing the beanbag from one hand to the other above the head and down, in a
clockwise, roundabout direction.
Passing the beanbag from one hand to the other through the legs, in a lemniscate from
the right, through the middle, around and under the left.
Purpose: Look for ease of leg lift, indicating an integrated horizontal midlineor does
the childs hand get stuck under the leg? If so horizontal midline may be retained.

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6. Tracking: The teacher takes an object (a pencil, a jewel, or a wand) and moves it in
different directions. The child follows the directions moving only the eyes, not the head
or the body. The eyes move up, down, right, left, and diagonally, as shown on the sheet.
Observe: Can the eyes cross the midline without strain? Without excessive watering of
the eyes or excessive blinking? We want the child to be able to move all parts of the body
independently of the others. The ease with which the eyes cross the midline may affect
reading later.

7. Body Geography: The teacher verbally instructs the children to touch different parts of
the body: head, shoulders, waist, elbows, knees, toes, knees, waist, elbows, shoulders,
head, face! Particular note is taken of how the child touches her elbows.
Observe: Knowledge of body geography affects orientation in space, which is essential
for all movement activities, including reading and writing as well as eurythmy and other
activities. If the child cannot touch both elbows this may be another indicator of midline
retention.

8. The Queens Salute: Dear children, when we reach the Red Queen we must give her a very
special salutethe Queens salute! With feet together we reach one arm straight up, high
into the sky, and then bring it over the head to touch the opposite ear; rst the right arm, then
the left. These children are good and ready! Dear children, we will go on a journey to nd the
Water of Life. We will know that we are close to the Red Queens castle for we shall see her ag
ying high. It is a red ag with a blue bird on it. A red ag with a blue bird on it. Now lets go!
Purpose: The memory test. This is a verbal clue given to the childrenthey will later be
asked to describe the queens ag.
The teacher demonstrates the next exercises and the children follow in turn. We are
looking for balance, levity, gravity, rhythm and freedom of movement.

9. Bridge: First we must walk over the golden bridge, and then the silver bridge. Look straight
forward, try not to look down. Hold your arms out like this, and walk slowly. Walking
over a long narrow plank on the oor, and then a thin rope. The teacher leads and
demonstrates, walking slowly as the children follow. The head is held high and the arms
are outstretched to the sides, walking in a queenly manner. Does the child use her arms
to balance? How quickly does she walk? Speed can compensate for lack of balance.

10. One Foot Balance: We are coming to the land of the Wood Elf. If we meet him this is his
salute. Teacher stands on one leg, bending the other leg behind. Cross the arms over the
chest. The teacher asks the child a simple question, for example, What did you have for
lunch today? and the child answers. The child then does the exercise with eyes closed.
Purpose: What is the effort required to bring the body into such balance? Can the child
balance while speaking?

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 11. Jumping: This is the Wood Elfs pond. (Teacher gestures to a small cloth on the ground.)
He likes to jump in it, but now it is all dried up, so instead he jumps over it, just like this!
Jump, with feet together, forward over the cloth, two times or have two ponds ready.
Purpose: Look out for one foot lagging. Look for degree of levity and gravity.

12. Bunny Hop: Here come two bunnies through the wood! Hop, dear children, like bunnies.
The teacher sings a bunny song whilst the children hop with two feet together, like
bunnies, around the room.
Purpose: Look for levity, balance and gravity.

13. Hopping: The bunnies have led us into the fairy meadow. Through the meadows we will
hop . The teacher sings and the children hop around the room, on one foot and then
the other.
Purpose: Look for levity, balance, dominance and gravity.

14. Skipping: The same song, but now skipping.

Purpose: Look for levity, balance and gravity.

15. Crawling: And now crawling.

Purpose: Look for cross-lateral crawling. Does the child drag the knees, is he or she
moving homolaterally, are palms down?

16. Jumping Rope: Here we need the Red Queens help! The two teachers turn the rope
whilst one child at a time jumps. Be positive and encouraging, as some children may not
have had much practice.
Purpose: The sense of rhythm, levity, balance.

17a. The Lion: Symmetric Tonic Neck Reex: Above the meadows is a hillside, and in the
hillside is a Lions Cave. Watch carefully to see if he comes out. His great head moves this way
and that. The teacher demonstrates the movements: she is on her hands and knees in
table position. Only the head moves, no other part of the body, rst looking to the
right, then to the left, then down and through the legs, and nally up to the ceiling. The
teacher then kneels in front of the child whilst he does it. It is important that the teacher
only helps the child verbally to begin in the correct position.
Observe: Can the child move the head independently of the trunk? In rst grade, the
child begins the process of the head becoming the thinking pole; previous to this time
the head acts as a limb. In order for the child to be free for thinking, the head needs to
be somewhat free of the movements of the body and the body free from the effects of
the heads movement. Also note any bending of the arms or legs as this is a soft sign of
retained reexes.

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17b. The Eagle: Tonic Labyrinthine Reex: Above the lions cave ies an eagle. This is how
he looks. Again the teacher demonstrates and then kneels in front of the child while the
child does it. Lie outstretched on the oor, belly down, feet together, arms outstretched.
Bend the arms in and bring the hands to the shoulders. Raise the legs, head, arms, and
chest off the oor. Remain in this position for the count of twenty.
Observe: Is lifting a great effort? Note any bending of the arms or legs as this is a soft
sign of retained reexes.

18. Walking up and down steps, stools, or benches: The eagle ies through the sky and
leads us to the mountains. Up the mountain, down the mountain, and through the valley
below. Repeat. The child walks up and down stairs, over a childs play bridge, or up and
down benches or stools.
Purpose: Check for balance, dominance, ability to judge distance, overall effort required
to accomplish this task.

19. Memory Check (red ag with a blue bird): Children, over the mountains and beyond the
lake stands the Red Queens Castle. I can see her ag ying in the wind. Whisper in my ear and
tell me what it looks like. Each child tells the teacher what she remembers of the ag. The
teacher responds in such a way that makes it clear if the child remembered correctly: Ah!
Yes indeed! or Mmmm!

20. Sea Serpent (beanbag second time): Now we must cross the lake, but ah! The water is all
dried up. The sea serpent is crawling around. Children we must put her to sleep. The children
each stand on a bench and repeat the three beanbag exercises. Now she is asleep! Lets
cross over the lake, but be sure not to waken the serpent. The children follow the teacher
around the room. Children, if you see water anywhere, tell me.

21. Carrying and Pouring Water: The children invariably see the two bowls of water that
have been placed in the corner of the room waiting to be discovered. Thats it, children!
The Water of Life! You have found the Water of Life. Lets take them to the Red Queen. Each
child lifts one bowl and carries it carefully to the Red Queens table. Dear Queen, these
children have found the Water of Life and now the spell will be broken forever. The Red
Queen replies: Thank you, my children. Please pour the water into my well. (A larger,
empty bowl stands waiting.) Each child pours the water into the larger bowl.
Purpose: Check for spatial orientation, sense of self-movement, the appropriateness of
the muscle response to the required movement task. Do they kneel or bend? Spill or not?

22. The Queens Salute: I salute you, children. The children and the Queen salute one
another two times (arm over the head touching the ear.)
Red Queen, may we enter your Gallery and draw some pictures for you?

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 23. Bowing: Enter through the magic doors! The teacher holds out a eurythmy rod or a
wooden wand and asks the child to go under each of the three doors. The teacher lowers
the rod each time. Most children bend at the waist and go under head rst; others have
different ways to move under.
Purpose: This is an extra check for the horizontal midline.
The children are then led to their places at the table. Each child is given a thick pencil,
a basket of block crayons, and a basket of stick crayons. All the colors are available,
including black, white, brown and pink.

24. Does the child know: a. Colors. b. Subtraction: Please take out your red, yellow, and
blue crayons. Now take out two more crayons, any color. How many crayons do you have?
(Five.) The teacher takes away two. How many do you have now? (Three.) And how many
did I take away? (Two.) Be sure that the children are sitting far enough away from each
other so as not to copy from one another. For the subtraction the same applies and you
should choose another problem for the second child, for example, take away three or
four.
Purpose: Is the child able to see the whole picture? Notice how they sit on their chairs.

25. Pencil Grip and Name Writing: The child takes the pencil and is told to write her name,
or any of the letters in her name if she cannot write it. Note is taken of the way in which
the child holds the pencil. How many letters are in your name?

26a. The Blue Square and the Red Diamond: A sheet is held up before the children,
showing a drawing of a blue square over a red diamond. The children are asked to copy
it exactly, using the blue and red stick crayons. They can turn to look at the teachers
drawing. These two shapes are on the Red Queens favorite shield. Please try to draw these
two shapes just like they are on this piece of paper.
Purpose: This is a drawing that reects the childs inner sense of self in space. Has the
child mastered the diagonal?

26b. The Lemniscate: The teacher takes a sheet of paper and draws a vertical line straight
down, dividing the page into two unequal parts. The child is asked to point to the larger
side. The teacher draws the pattern on the left side of this line and asks the child to draw
the exact same pattern on the other side. The Queen loves maps. This is the map that she
follows when she goes for a walk. I am going to draw a map here and I want you to try to copy
it exactly on that side. Here is the castle, (Teacher draws a dot two inches from the top of
the page,) and here is the pond. (Teacher draws a dot two inches from the bottom of the
page.) The Queen begins here (above the top dot, moving to the right). She goes around
her castle, through the middle of her garden, around the pond, back through the middle of
the garden, to the place where she began. (A lemniscate has been completed.)
Very good, children. Before we do our last drawing for the queen, lets do a jumping game.

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27. The Jumping Sequence: Teacher and children go through the following sequence:
Three big leaps into the air.
Then standing do the following:
Clap alternately in front and behind the back while counting aloud up to 10 (one number
per clap),
Clap alternately above the head and behind the back while counting aloud to 10 (one
number per clap),
Clap alternately above the head and in front of the body, counting aloud up to 10 (one
number per clap),
Clap above the head, behind the back, then in front of the body, in this order, counting
up to 12 (one number per clap);
Repeat the four steps of this sequence while counting aloud, clapping and jumping at
the same time.
Purpose: To precede the drawing, in order that we do not get an imaginative or
thinking picture but an imprint of the childs relationship to his body and to space
around him, we ask him to do the jumping exercise.

28. The Drawing of a Person, a House, and a Tree: Please draw a picture of a person, a
house, and a tree, and anything else that you want to put in to make it look beautiful. And do
your best work. Repeat the instructions again reversing the order of tree, house, person.
The children draw their pictures and the teachers take note of the sequence of drawing.
Now lets take these to the Red Queen!
Observe: Are heads or mouths moving? How is the child sitting? Is she making noises?
This drawing gives us much information about a childs sense of self. What order did the
child draw in? Is there a ground and a sky? A sun in the sky? Does the person have hands
and feet? What shape and color is the house and where is it placed? Are there windows?
Light in the windows? Curtains? A chimney? Smoke? Does the tree have roots? Branches?
Fruit? Leaves? How large is the gure and where is it placed? What is the overall soul
mood?
The Red Queen speaks words of praise and thanks. She asks if the child has lost any
teeth or has any wiggly ones. The children are then led back to the chairs from which
they began to change shoes and say goodbye. Take my hand, children. Close your eyes
and count to three. 1,2,3. Open them! Now we will be where we shall be! Lets go back to your
classroom. Thank you so much for coming. Teacher shakes each childs hand, and leads
them away.

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 29. Comments and Review: The teachers complete the sheet and review all that happened,
writing down any notes that need to be remembered.
The kindergarten teachers share relevant information from the assessment with each
childs parents during a Parent-Teacher Conference. If necessary, they also share it with
the Educational Support Group and/or the wider circle of faculty.

116
First Grade Assessment Form
Developed for use with the Red Queen assessment story by Valerie Poplawski, Celia
Riahi, and Randi Stein, Hartsbrook Waldorf School, Hadley, MA (January 2007)

= yes X = no

Todays Date _________________________________________________________________

Childs Name_________________________________________________________________
Childs Birth Date _____________________________________________________________
Interviewing Teachers _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Other Child __________________________________________________________________

Dominance
Hand L _______ R _______
Ear L _______ R _______
Eye L _______ R _______
Leg L _______ R _______

1. Handshake (warm? cold?):___________________________________________________

2. Listening to Story (attentive, restless, dgety, dreamy, other): ______________________
3. Dominance: see chart above
4. Ball:
Large Heavy Ball Large Felt Ball Small Ball
2 Hands-Toss _____________ 2 Hands-Toss ______________ 2 Hands-Toss___________
Catch ___________________ Catch ____________________ Catch_________________
Other Hand _______________ Other Hand ___________
Kick _____________________

5. Bean Bag: (gross motor, proprioception)

Toss _____________________ Catch ____________________ Hand-to-hand _________
Above/below ____________ Around body ______________ Under/over leg ________
Balance on head __________

6. Tracking: (crosses midline)

Pauses __________________
Jerks ____________________
Loses Object______________

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 7. Body Geography: (midline)
Touch: Head ______________ Shoulders _________________ Waist _________________
Knees _____________ Toes _____________________ Elbows _______________

8. Queens Salute: Hand to opposite ear _________________________________________

9. Bridge: (balance)
Walking over plank (Golden Bridge) _____ then rope (Silver Bridge) ________________

10. One Foot Balance:

Eyes open L _______ R _______
Eyes closed L _______ R _______
Speaking L _______ R _______ arms crossed

11. Jumping:
Together forward ____________________ One foot lags __________________________

12. Bunny Hop: ______________________________________________________________

13. Hopping on One Foot: (gravity, balance, limb independence) L _________ R _________

14. Skipping: (levity, rhythm)

Rhythmical _______________ Off the ground _____________ Forward ______________

15. Crawling:
Contralateral _______________________ Homolateral ___________________________
Drags legs__________________________ Other ________________________________

16. Jumping Rope: (levity, rhythm) _______________________________________________

17. Primitive Reexes: show them the position and give verbal instruction onlywe are not
teaching how to do movement
Lion: Symmetric Tonic Neck Reex: (do arms or legs bend when they turn head? Is there
freedom of movement?)
________________________________________________________________________
Eagle: Tonic Labyrinthine Reex: (can they get off the ground, legs bent, hold to count
of?)
________________________________________________________________________

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18. Walking up and down steps, benches or stool (dominant foot rst?):
________________________________________________________________________

19. Memory: (red ag with blue bird) (etheric) ______________________________________

20. Sea Serpent: (bean bag second time)

Above/below _____________ Around body ______________ Under/over leg _________

21. Water: (spatial orientation, proprioception)

Carrying _________________ Pouring ___________________ Noticing ______________

22. Queens salute: ____________________________________________________________

23. Bowing: (horizontal midline)

Bending from knees: _________________ or bowing from waist: ___________________

24. Does the child know:

Colors ___________________________________________________________________
Subtraction (e.g. 52=3) ____________________________________________________

25. Pencil grip: (ne motor) _____________________________________________________

How to write his or her name ________________________________________________
How many letters in name __________________________________________________

26. Could he or she copy:

a.

b.

Show direction of drawing __________________________________________________

27. Jump, Clap, Speak: _________________________________________________________

28. Drawing:
House ___________________ Tree ______________________ Person ________________
(order: 1, 2, 3)

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 29. Comments:
General Appearance/Proportion, Health _______________________________________
Dentition ________________________________________________________________
Quality of Movement _______________________________________________________
Speech __________________________________________________________________
Following Instructions ______________________________________________________
Cooperation _____________________________________________________________
Attention ________________________________________________________________
W Sitting on Floor (soft sign of retained reexes) _______________________________
Other Comments __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

120
The Red Queen Materials List
We keep a box labeled and put away just for the Red Queen assessments:

3 beanbags
1 large felt ball
1 small felt ball
Large jump rope for the 2 adults to turn
2 planks for the Golden Bridge
1 nger knitted rope for the Silver Bridge
1 large shell
1 or 2 kaleidoscopes or telescopes
Small star wand for tracking
3 bowls for the pouring of water into the queens well
Eurythmy rod or a stick for the Magic Doorway
Cloths for the Wood Elfs pond, the Red Queens tablecloth
2 complete sets of both block and stick crayonsall colors including black, brown, white and
pink
2 fat, colored pencils
Drawing papercut to standard size as to make it easier for ling in the childs le
Drawing mats

121
Reference List for The Red Queen
In preparation

123
 A Therapeutic
Educators Approach
Keeping It Imaginative
and Playfully
Objective
Nancy Blanning

Described here is an observational approach used by a therapeutic educator. Using the same
readiness guides as the other models from this section, the observer is also trying to sense
if questions about therapeutic support are called for. Many children are showing uneven
development in different domains. As educators, we are challenged to discriminate between
ripening or time issues and those calling for therapeutic attention that another year in the
kindergarten will not resolve.

D uring a readiness observation children are carried along by the playful imaginations
that guide and even entice them to display their developmental maturation. We want
this to be as gentle as possible and not so awakening to self-consciousness that the
child might feel exposed. Yet the step into rst grade is also a threshold, a passageway into
a whole new phase of school life. Not everything will be imaginative. There will be simple
requests and directions given in an objective way in their new class. So it can be helpful
to also offer some tasks that have more of this avor to ll out the observations about the
child. The following readiness observation format strives to strike this balance.

The observation session is composed of two partstable tasks, with which we usually
beginand full-body movement with the guiding imagination of playing in the meadow
and then going on a little journey to the mountain wildower eld and playing games along
the way. The children are invited one at a time to play six-year-old games. We are careful
to not say rst grade games in case a child is too young developmentally to go on to the
grade school. The six-year or almost six designation applies accurately to all. We usually

125
 begin with the table tasks, to give the child a chance to look about and settle in, unless it
is sensed that the child is agitated and may feel more at ease in moving rst. While what is
described below is a typical order, there is always the possibility of adjusting it according
to the needs of the moment. We might sit a little, move a little, return to the table, or begin
right away with movement as the childs needs are sensed.

Most of the children are feeling quite big and capable and love to have that pointed out.
Children who are six (or almost six) have grown so much and can do many new things. One
thing that happens is that their teeth wiggle. Do you have any wiggly teeth? Are new big
teeth growing in the back of your mouth? If none are observed then the child is assured
that this will happen soon. Continuing observations are made in this spirit.

If we continue at the table, the child opens a zippered bag containing all the things we will
need to check dominance and ne motor skills (listed in the equipment list on page 145).
This is a good place to start, as the three telescopes/kaleidoscopes in the bag are intriguing,
giving amusing or beautiful new views of the world. These are placed on the table directly
in the center of the childs torso so as to favor neither side of the body. Which hand and eye
the child uses is noted on the recording form. This is also the case for the shells and ears.
The shells are arranged horizontally rst. If the child uses left hand and left ear on that side
and then switches to right hand and right ear, the shells are then lined up vertically as the
telescopes had been. With the switch of hands and ears, the child might be demonstrating
a reluctance to cross the vertical midline. To check this, the vertical arrangement of shells is
neutral and lets the dominant side reveal itself more clearly. If there is still variation, a wrist
watch can be set down neutrally in front of the child to be listened to. In a conversational and
casual way, the child is further invited to tie a bow, unbutton a pouch which holds a sparkle
bead to roll between ngers, and nally cut with scissors.

Two nger puppets are waiting in the bag to come out to play. These gure prominently in
the imaginations to follow. One is Niggles, the mouse, and the other her companion Rascal
Red Bird (Rodney Rooster or Peter Parrot also make appearances).

The children are often intrigued by Niggles, who opens the way for drawing tasks with her
story. Two yellow-orange dots are drawn horizontally (to check vertical midline maturation)
on a paper. The story tells how Niggles is looking for food and creeps out of her mouse hole
to see which piece is bigger. She runs crissing and crossing around the pieces (horizontal
lemniscate is drawn) until she gets so dizzy that she just stops and has to rest. That paper is
withdrawn and dots drawn on another piece. The story continues, Niggles comes out again
to decide which piece of cheese to take. She has to be quick because the cat may be coming.
Now you take a crayon and draw how Niggles ran crissing and crossing this time. One
observes whether the curving lines cross or circle around in loops instead.

126
 Rascal Red Bird comes to check eye tracking. The children are told: Red Bird thinks he is
very beautiful with his ne feathers. He actually thinks that when he is in the room he should
receive all the attention. He is going to y around (scanning side-to-side about ten sweeps)
and up and down. Keep your eyes on him wherever he goes. One looks for jerkiness, erratic
movement, or over-shooting of the eyes where the eyes jump ahead and have to pull back to
re-nd the target. The story continues: Red Bird also likes to play teasing games and make
you look cross-eyed. That is what he is going to do now. Keep your eyes right on the tip of his
beak. The nger puppet comes in toward the nose to a distance of three to six inches away,
and eye movement is observed. Red Bird continues to insist that we play more bird games,
such as Birdie ies to the tree. . . to look for nger dexterity. He rescues Niggles the mouse
(as explained below) and needs more admiration for his good deed. Red Bird
The shapes are guides the posture and movements to check for retained reexes (see The
presented in a little Red Queen for a description of how this is done). He also guides us to the zoo
story about a family where we must see the birds and practice being a sleeping amingo.
in the old days when
As part of the drawing tasks, the Niggles lemniscate and several geometric
people traveled by shapes from the Gesell Test of School Readiness are always included, along
wagon. with one or two others described on the form. The shapes are presented in a
little story about a family in the old days when people traveled by wagon.
They were looking for land in the open country to build a new farm. They needed to nd a
pond (circle) to provide them with water. They came to cross-roads (equilateral cross) where
many wagons had gone before them. Following along one road, they came to a village of
native people who all lived in teepee-like shelters (triangle). Not wanting to disturb them,
the family drove on and found just the right place to build the square bottom of their new
house (square). Mother had a treasure box (horizontal rectangle with perpendicular lines
touching the sides of the gure and dividing it into equal quarters, and then diagonal lines
drawn from corner to corner, all lines intersecting in the center of the gure). But she had a
surprise one day when she opened it and found a spider in the box with his legs stretched
out. She whooshed the spider out into the grass outside. Then she took out her rst jewel
(vertical diamond) and then the second (horizontal diamond). The child is invited to draw
each shape as it is presented. These drawings give another picture of the childs relationship
to the diagonal line.1

Before we leave the table, most of the auditory/listening/speaking games are played. The
animal naming comes also from the Gesell Test of School Readiness. It has been useful in
showing the childs recall and word-nding abilities. If a stop-watch is used, it is called the
animal clock that likes to listen to animal names. It tells the teacher when to say please

1 Please refer to Reections on First Grade Readiness in Part One of this volume for Margret Meyerkorts
observations about the diagonal.

127
 start and when it has heard enough names. Most children are intrigued and are eager to
whiz through the names they know. In the many years this has been part of the games, only
one child has declined to do this game. That was useful information in itself, and we just
moved on to the next thing.

If all the table activities are done at once, we may be seated at the table for almost half an
hour. This is intentionally a long stretch for the child. It gives a good picture of how long the
child can sustain attention and stay engaged. We switch between many activities so there is
much variety and playful newness. But if a child shows that this is too much, it is broken up
into smaller segments and interspersed with more active movement.

When we get up to move, an imagination is given of children running out to the spring
meadow to play. They are so happy they skip. They feel the ground tremble and see a huge
black horse galloping toward them. Like the horse, Midnight, they gallop. To avoid the
horses huge energy, they shufe sideways around the meadow and back. Then they notice
that the grass is rustling; something is crawling through. Now down crawling on hands and
knees, they follow and discover Niggles again looking for food. But Niggles does not know
that the cat is following him (now creeping with forearms down on the oor). Just as the cat
is readying to pounce, there is a squawk heard. Red Bird has come to save Niggles. Now that
he has done such a good deed, he would like to be thanked by having more attention. He
ies around again and practices being an eagle, a bird he most admires (reex testing).

It is such a lovely day that the children proceed on their walk. They cross a bridge (balance
beam) to a meadow where they pick wildowers. To get water to keep the owers from
wilting, they pump water like a windmill by moving their arms in big circles right in front of
their bodies. They stop to play gamestouching game (with both hands touch your head,
tummy, elbows), catching and tossing a playground ball and bean bag, hop-scotch using
either foot, kicking a stone (bean bag) in the road, visiting the zoo and the amingo birds,
and so on. Other parts of the observation not described here are woven in through light,
playful suggestions, sometimes spontaneously as the particular session and child suggest.

The last activity to be specically described is Peter Rabbits Garden, which we usually
encounter after visiting the amingos. Five rods or ribbons are laid out parallel on the oor,
about two feet apart, creating the path to Peters garden. The story explains that Peter
decided never to return to Mr. McGregors garden. He has planted his own and loves to
have children come visit. But they must jump in on bunny feet. This imagination guides the
children into a proprioceptive task that looks at stamina, muscle control of lower limbs and
feet, levity, rhythmic movement, and ability to initiate and arrest forward body movement
with control. The story further explains that Peter has gone off to play and his mother is
waiting for a helper to bring her vegetables from the garden. The child then jumps in and
out of the garden ve times to fetch different vegetables.

128
The child is usually tired out by this jumping, so we follow it with the auditory game of
listening to, remembering, and performing three directions in a row.2 This allows the child to
catch her breath, and then we nish with jumping rope.

In doing observations such as these, one of the challenging practical questions is how to
record what one sees. The following recording form has evolved over many years. To be
able to circle or check which descriptors apply is a big help, especially in the beginning. The
descriptions include common ways children have been seen to perform these tasks over the
years and can guide the teacher in what things to look for. In time, experience deepens our
observation skills through practice and such an exhaustive list can be condensed or replaced
by our own shorthand.

And how do we begin to understand all these things we have observed? What are the
children showing to us? What is the importance of whether midlines are present? How does
balance/vestibular sense and self-movement/proprioception gure into a childs readiness
for the grade school? This is a huge topic that remedial/therapeutic study works with deeply,
so what follow are only some indications that can guide us in putting our observations
together into a whole picture.

When the horizontal midline, separating the body into above and below, and vertical
midline, dividing right and left sides, are still present, the child is essentially divided into
quarters. Each area might be imagined as a little kingdom that may not have much
awareness of the others. The goal is to have all parts unied into a wholeness that follows
the intention of the individuality inhabiting the body. The horizontal midline integrates
usually at about four years of age. When it is integrated, the child will bend over at the waist
and let the head drop below shoulder level, rather than squat down to pick something up
off the oor, holding the back and head erect. The vertical midline becomes integrated over
time. It is common to see some remnant of the midline in a six- to seven-year-old child these
days. However, if the child shows very strong signs of vertical midline retention, this would
be signicant to note. Signs of the midline maturing externally convey news that things
are maturing neurologically as well, with the two hemispheres of the brain coming into a
supportive relationship of communication and cooperation.

In jumping/proprioceptive tasks, we are looking to see how well the body is controlled all
together, as well as the individual limbs. It is through proprioception that we have a sense of
body geography and awareness of where the limbs are in relation to one another. Through
this awareness, we are able to direct the limbs and ngers to where we want them to go.
We look at how far proprioception has descended into the periphery of the body when we
look at ne motor development. In jumping tasks, levity and rhythmic movement are signs

2 One can do research into this by adding a fourth direction to the series. Information given at a workshop on
rst grade readiness by developmental pediatrician Dr. Susan Johnson reports that a six-and-a-half year old can
recall four directions in a row.

129
 that the etheric forces are birthed from the lower limbs, the nal one-third of the body.3 We
can see that the childs control of the body and intention for movement have descended all
the way down through the feet. This, too, is a developing system and is far from complete
with the six-year-old, so we do not expect mastery. However, observations of difculty in
managing fairly even bunny hops, feet widely splaying, excessive heaviness in jumping, and/
or tumbling forward through unrestrained momentum all call for attention.

The balance/vestibular system is of immense importance to a sense of stability and security

in standing on the earth. This is the master sensory system through which other sensory
systems funnel, including vision. Secure physical balance allows us to nd stillness and is
also the physical foundation for emotional stability and security. Children who are wiggly
and in constant motion often have an inefcient balance system. They require frequent, if
not continuous, movement to give sensory stimulus to the balance
The balance/vestibular apparatus of the semi-circular canals in the inner ear. Fidgeting,
system is of immense rocking, and squirming are lling a physical sensory need for
importance to a sense continuous stimulus so the inner gyroscope will4 register where
one is. This is a system under threat in our times.
of stability and
security in standing We see balance maturity displayed in many ways. Hopping on
on the earth. one foot requires balance. Can the child do so without having to
quickly put the other foot down? Walking across a balance beam
slowly with gaze straight ahead rather than looking down at the feet gives another picture
of vestibular development. If the child tips wildly across the beam or steps off, balance is
likely compromised. When we ask a child to stand on one foot with eyes closed, a rst grade
ready child used to be able to hold this stably to a count of ten. This is less commonly seen
today. Holding balance without touching down with the other foot to a count of six to eight
is more commonly seen, with some modest wobbling possible as well. Notable would
be obvious difculty in standing on one foot; quickly touching down with the lifted foot;
and/or dramatic wobbling, swaying, or scootching of the standing foot across the oor. The
indicators described for both the proprioceptive and vestibular systems may well suggest
immaturity in these systems.

It used to be that we would see a generally consistent maturation of physical body,

foundational senses, and movement coordination across the board. It is increasingly
common to nd inconsistencies and disproportionate development now. Children showing
clear readiness in other areas may show immature proprioceptive and/or vestibular
development. This information has to be factored into the whole picture of the child. We
are seeing more and more children who are chronologically well within the age band we

3 See The Birth of the Etheric in Youre Not the Boss of Me! 21.
4 There are many environmental inuences interfering with healthy vestibular development. Ear infections and
their treatment may affect vestibular development. The decreasing opportunities for children to freely move,
climb, and balance restrict the chance for this system to have enough practice to develop well.

130
 picture as going on to rst grade, yet with weaknesses in these areas. We may be seeing
not insufcient readiness but something the child will carry along with him- or herself
irrespective of age. If a child shows some difculties here, youngness in other areas, and is
one of the younger ones considered with a late spring or summer birthday (if the guideline
extends beyond June 1), an additional year in kindergarten would be an option to consider.

But, if we decide that another ripening year is best for a child who has some of the challenges
described above, we cannot assume that time alone will solve the difculties. We must be
very attentive to the childs development and provide movement activities that support and
encourage continued development.5 If ne motor skills are the question, then enticing the
child to draw and do simple handcrafts, especially if the child avoids them because they are
difcult, is our pedagogical responsibility. This would apply both at school and at home.

As Waldorf early childhood educators, we are attempting a remarkable task. We need to be

objectively and even scientically knowledgeable about the foundational sensory systems.
We need to know the physical signs that announce the birth of the etheric forces for grade
school tasks. We factor these together with chronological age and a global impression
of the child. We look for discontinuity in development and seek insight into what this says
about the child. And we do this with openness and warmth of heart, striving only to serve
the childs individual welfare and destiny. This requires both objective observing and artistic
sensing. What a task and what a deed this is to devote such interest to another human
being.

References
Blythe, Sally Goddard. The Well-Balanced Child (Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press, 2004).

Gesell Test of School Readiness (New Haven, CT: Gesell Institute of Human Development,
1980).

Johnson, Dr. Susan. Informal handouts shared at a First Grade Readiness workshop, Rudolf
Steiner College, February 2009.

Ker, Ruth, ed. Youre Not the Boss of Me!Understanding the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation
(Spring Valley, NY: WECAN Publications, 2007).

Kranowitz, Carol. The Out-of-Sync Child (NY: Berkley Publishing Group, 1998).

_____________. The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun (NY: Berkley Publishing Group, 2003).

5 See Activities to Support Healthy Development list which follows this article. Further description of the
proprioceptive and vestibular systems are found in The Out-of-Sync Child and ideas for activities in The Out-of-
Sync Child Has Fun by Carol Kranowitz.

131
First Grade Readiness Observation
Complied by Nancy Blanning in collaboration with teachers of Denver Waldorf School
(revised March 2009)

Todays Date _________________________________________________________________

Childs Name_________________________________________________________________
Childs Birth Date _____________________________________________________________
Kindergarten Teacher/Class _____________________________________________________
General Observation/Impression:
Large headed? ______________________ Small headed? _________________________
Cosmic? ___________________________ Earthly? ______________________________
Fantasy rich?________________________ Fantasy poor? _________________________

Enters the session (circle appropriate descriptor)

Condently, eagerly?
Shyly, reluctantly?
Relaxes and becomes more animated through session?

Yes No Comments
Physical Indicators:
1. Appearance of 6 year molars? ____ ____
2. Loosening or loss of baby teeth? ____ ____
3. Hand reaches over head to other ear? ____ ____
4. Visible waist indentation? ____ ____
5. Elongation of neck? ____ ____
6. Visible joints (knuckles and kneecaps)? ____ ____
7. Arch in foot? ____ ____
8. Individualized facial features? ____ ____

Movement: Please noteIn all of the following movements, note whether the movement
seems spontaneous or has to be throughtfully preplanned. In the comment section,
please note any preplanned movement with a /P/.

1. Handshakeseparate thumb from ngers? ____ ____

Offer correct hand (R to R)? ____ ____
Reach out condently? ____ ____
Extend hand shyly, uncertainly? ____ ____

2. Hop on either foot? ____ ____

Right stronger, hopped rst? ____ ____
Left stronger, hopped rst? ____ ____

133
 Yes No Comments

3. Walk in cross pattern (opposite arm, leg) ____ ____

4. Climb and descend stairs with alternating feet? ____ ____

5. Can jump rope? ____ ____

Stand in center and have rope turned? ____ ____
Can jump to 10? ____ ____
Jumps on two feet? ____ ____
Has small hop between jumps? ____ ____
Levity in jump? ____ ____

6. Can gallop? ____ ____

Which foot leads? L R

7. Can skip? ____ ____

Smooth rhythm or choppy? (circle) ____ ____
Upper and lower body both involved? ____ ____
Cross-lateral movement of upper and lower? ____ ____

8. Can shufe sideways? ____ ____

More able to one side than the other? ____ ____
More able side? L R

9. Crawls in cross-crawl pattern? ____ ____

Note any irregularities:
Palms held off oor, hands sted? ____ ____
Choppy? ____ ____
Homolateral / Bear crawl? ____ ____

10. Crawls with forearms on oor? ____ ____

Maintains cross-crawl pattern? ____ ____
Lapses into homolateral crawl? ____ ____

11. Toss and throw a playground ball? ____ ____

Tosses overhand? ____ ____
Tosses underhand? ____ ____
Bounces ball once between self and adult? ____ ____
Fearful of ball? ____ ____
Poor aim in return? ____ ____
Weak return throw? ____ ____

12. Kickingwhich foot kicks ball? L R

134
 Yes No Comments

Sensory Integration
1. Vestibular
Balancing on one foot, eyes open ____ ____
How long (slow count to 10)? ____________
Balancing on one foot, eyes closed ____ ____
How long (slow count to 10)? ____________
Standing on both feet, close together,
Arms extended in front,
Eyes closed (slow count to 10)
Stands steadily? ____ ____
Loses balance, tips? ____ ____

2. Beam walking steady and balanced? ____ ____

Wobbly, tippy, walking insecure? ____ ____
Steps off beam? ____ ____
Walks too fast? ____ ____

3. Proprioceptionhold feet tog. in bunny hops? ____ ____

Jumps through ladder on oor? ____ ____
Jumps and forward motion controlled? ____ ____
Cannot stop forward motion at end? ____ ____
Jumps a uid series? ____ ____
Jumps heavy and separated? ____ ____
Feet splay or jumps irregular? (circle) ____ ____

[For teachers knowledgable in reexes observation]

4. Reexesare any evidenced?
ATNR ____ ____
TNR ____ ____
TLR ____ ____

5. Horizontal midlinebends over at waist? ____ ____

Bends knees, squats? ____ ____
Bends to step through hula hoop? ____ ____

6. Vertical midlinearms cross midline of body? ____ ____

Arm circles in front of bodyarms cross? ____ ____
Passes object across midline of body? ____ ____
Passes objects hand-to-hand at midline? ____ ____
Rotates torso instead of crossing midline? ____ ____
Touches elbows in touching game? ____ ____
Bends forearms up and back, looks down
at elbows perplexedly? ____ ____
135
 Yes No Comments

7. Eye movementEyes track smoothly? ____ ____

Eyes evidence jerkiness? ____ ____
Eyes overshoot? ____ ____
Circle appropriate descriptors:
Jerky eye movement
Watery eyes
Excessive blinking
Moves head instead of eyes
Compaints of strain or tiredness
Convergenceeyes pull together to follow target coming close to the nose?
(allowing 10 trials of bringing puppet to within 3 in. of the nose)
____ ____
Eyes do not pull together? ____ ____
One eye non-converging? ____ ____
Which eye? L R
Number of successful trials? ____ /10

8. Gaze
Looks directly outward, eyes focused forward,
head held upright? ____ ____
Head tipped down, looks out from
under brows? ____ ____
Avoidance of gaze of the other? ____ ____

Dominance and Directionality

1. Handwhich hand writes and draws? L R
Throws beanbag? L R
Catches? L R
Grasp in catchingopen and stiff? ____ ____
Open and shut? ____ ____
Circle appropriate descriptors:
Skilled throw, condent
Controlled throw
Stiff
Clumsy
Hesitant
Backs up
Arms loose
Estimates distance to catch accurately
Wild throw
Does not aim
Throws too forcefully
136
 Yes No Comments

2. Eyewhich eye views through telescope arranged vertically? (3 trials)

Hand Eye
L/R L/R
L/R L/R
L/R L/R
Which eye sights through hole in card? L R

3. Earwhich ear used to listen to sea shells? (3 trials)

Horizontal: Hand: L/R L/R L/R
Ear: L/R L/R L/R
If vertical midline retention is suggested, test again in vertical position:
Vertical: Hand Ear
L/R L/R
L/R L/R
L/R L/R
To which ear is a watch lifted to listen for ticking? L R
Which ear is turned to the table to listen
for knocking? L R

4. Footwhich used for hopping? L R

Which foot for kicking? L R
Which foot leads downstairs? L R
Which foot is pivot when turning
in a circle? L R

5. Can follow a sequence of movements, imitating the teachers gestures:

Touch top of head ____ ____
R hand across to L shoulder ____ ____
R hand on R hip ____ ____
L hand on R ear ____ ____
L hand on R hip ____ ____
Touch knees ____ ____
Touch toes ____ ____
Can the child follow consistently,
whether mirroring or reversing? ____ ____
Mirrors movements? ____ ____
Reverses movements? ____ ____

Directionality: Does the child demonstrate

knowledge of R and L sides? ____ ____

137
 Yes No Comments

7. Knows R hand? ____ ____

Answers the question How do you know? ____ ____

Dexterity
1. Oppose thumb with each nger individually.
Birdie ies to the tree,
Lands in the nest so quietly.
____ ____
Can do with dominant hand? L R

Which ngers can? index middle ring little

With non-dominant hand? ____ ____
L R
Which ngers can? index middle ring little
Better with which hand? L R

2. Can rotate a raspberry bead or marble

between thumb and index nger? ____ ____
between thumb and other ngers? ____ ____
3. Can open and shut a zipper? ____ ____
4. Can button? ____ ____
5. Can cut with scissors along circle? ____ ____
Describe anything notable:

6. Can tie a knot or bow (circle which)? ____ ____

Eye-Hand
[Note: Many drawing imaginations are described below. Select 34 as seems appropriate.
The rst and second are always included in this assessment.]

1. Lemniscate: Teacher draws two dots on a piece of paper, placed horizontally, and draws
a continual gure 8 around the dots for several times. Teacher then draws two new dots
on a large paper and asks the child to draw the same. Take teachers example away and
see if child can draw from memory. If not, offer the example to copy.
Draws easily without model? ____ ____
Needs model but successful? ____ ____
Does not cross lines in drawing? ____ ____
Draws loops instead of crossing? ____ ____

138
 Yes No Comments

2. Geometric shapes: Have child copy these shapes onto own piece of paper, with the
model shapes viewed on the table (same plane as the childs paper).

circle cross square triangle

Rectangle with perpendicular cross and crossing diagonal lines inside

Diamondvertical Diamondhorizontal

3. Divide horizontally placed piece of paper unevenly, with a vertical line making one side
larger than the other. Ask the child to choose the larger part for her/himself.
Correct? ____ ____

On teachers side, draw the following form on the smaller side, rst with your nger and
then with crayon, with the following imagination. I am walking away. I turn around and
come to a little lake. I walk around it and then come back to the path and keep walking.
And I can make a sh in the lake. Now ask the child, Can you go into your eld and
down the path, too? Show me rst with your nger and then draw with your crayon.
[from notes on First Grade Readiness from Dr. Michaela Glckler.]
Correct? ____ ____

4. Form drawing on the blackboard: Have the child imitate these forms on paper at the
table, copying from teachers example on the chalkboard. Forms can include saw-tooth
(mountains), circle (sun), straight vertical lines symmetrically arranged on either side of
the circle.
Can accurately follow sequence? ____ ____
Correct placement? ____ ____
Adds embellishments? ____ ____
Draws from own imagination? ____ ____

[Note: These additional drawing imaginations are from Audrey McAllens The Extra Lesson
and are quoted by kind permission of Rudolf Steiner College Press.]

5. Drawing straight and wavy horizontal lines: On a large piece of paper (approximately
1822 x 8) placed horizontally and centered in front of the child, ask him to draw a line
across the paper from left to right. Then ask him to draw a line underneath going in the
opposite direction.
Does the child freely cross the vertical midline? ____ ____
Twist or turn sideways? ____ ____
Move paper to avoid crossing? ____ ____

139
 Yes No Comments

Now ask the child to draw a wavy line from left to right, then another wavy line going
from right to left.
Is the hand skilled? ____ ____
Wrist moves freely? ____ ____

6. Four-Petalled Flower: The teacher draws the empty form of a four-petalled ower and
asks the child what it is. Drawing on the concept sense and ability to inwardly visualize,
most children will answer that it is a ower, a four-leaf clover, or a buttery. Then ask the
child to nish the drawing.
Limited embellishment and detail? ____ ____
Rich detail provided? ____ ____

Listening and Speaking

Speak the following phrases to the child and have him repeat as spoken. Circle any
omitted words or incorrect articulations:
The fat cat in the tree / ran to the top / and then hopped on a wall. / From there/ the cat
leapt to the ground to go home. / On the way, / the cat fell in the well. / Ding, dong, dell.
Pussys in the well.
Child could repeat each phrase? ____ ____

2. Are there speech immaturities? ____ ____

/th/ lisp? ____ ____
/r/ lisp? ____ ____
sound substitutions? ____ ____
List:

3. Can the child repeat clapping rhythms? Offer 510 patterns of increasing complexity.
Accurate always? ____ ____
Correct rhythm but not number? ____ ____
Successful on easy patterns? ____ ____
Loses pattern or sequence on hard? ____ ____

4. Can follow a sequence of oral directionsteacher gives all three directions in a row
before the child can begin.
Child can wait to listen? ____ ____
Begins impulsively? ____ ____

140
 Yes No Comments

Hop to the door

Run back to me
Touch your head ____ ____

Turn around once

Stamp your foot
Wink one eye ____ ____

Stand on a chair
Rub your tummy
Say your name ____ ____

5. Animal naming: [Gesell item from Stanford Binet] Say to the child: I bet you know the
names of many animals. Lets see how many you can name. Ill tell you when to stop.
Teacher can casually time one minute on wrist watch or on a stop watch introduced as
the animal clock that likes to hear children say animal names.
[6-year-olds are ususally intrigued by the stop watch; if the child seems intimidated
by this request, it is omitted] Record all the responses and note how long the child
sustained the responses, up to one minute.

6. Have the child hum or sing Twinkle, twinkle

Melody correct? ____ ____
Pitch high or low (circle)? ____ ____
Monotone? ____ ____

7. Ask the child to sing another song, preferably one from the kindergarten. If unable to
think of one, suggest a well known tune, such as Happy Birthday.
Sings without prompting? ____ ____
Melody correct? ____ ____
Remembers words, right order? ____ ____

Memory
1. Ask the child, What are some things you do in the kindergarten?
2. Story retellingWhat was the last story your teacher told you or Tell me a story you
remember hearing in kindergarten. [Note: It is recommended to have 23 stories you
know the child has heard to suggest if there is no spontaneous response.]

141
 Yes No Comments

Child selects a story from his memory? ____ ____

Child tells story without much prompting? ____ ____
With prompting? ____ ____
Retold with rich detail, accurate sequence? ____ ____
Retold accurately but little elaboration? ____ ____
Trouble nding precise words to describe? ____ ____
Cannot remember any story? ____ ____

Person-House-Tree Drawing:
Take child through the clapping and clapping/jumping exercise from The Extra Lesson.

Can child imitate/follow order? ____ ____

Description notes of childs drawing:

Order of elements drawn

Crayon grip
Thumb plus 2 ngers
Thumb plus 3 ngers
Thumb plus 4 ngers
Fisted grip
Other? Describe.

Position of feet and posture while drawing?

Flat on oor? ____ ____
Crossed? ____ ____
Ankles wrapped around chair legs? ____ ____
Mouth moving while drawing? ____ ____

Does child rotate paper

or wrist to draw? ____ ____

Additional Notes
Interaction:
Child appropriately conversational? ____ ____
Quiet but answered appropriately? ____ ____
Child talked excessively, off topic? ____ ____

142
 Yes No Comments

Attention and focus: Did the child

Appropriately respond to requests? ____ ____
Ask to have directions repeated? ____ ____

Sustain attention? ____ ____

Sustain energy, vitality? ____ ____
Tire easily? ____ ____
Move about impulsively? ____ ____

Was the child

Distracted by objects in the environment? ____ ____
Distracted by sounds? ____ ____

Additional Observations and Impressions:

143
Equipment List
For table tasks
Zippered treasure bag to hold all the objects listed below:
Three telescopes or kaleidoscopes
Three large seashells
Ribbon for bow tying
Small pouch with button closure
Raspberry bead or marble that rests in the pouch
Mouse nger puppetor equivalent according to the imagination used
Bird nger puppet
Scissors, child-sized for use with either hand

Copy formson individual cards shown one at a time

Circle, cross, square, triangle, spider in the box rectangle
Vertical diamond, horizontal diamond

Small blackboard (if this drawing task is included)

Paper for drawing
Stick crayons in wide array of colors, including black
Optional: stop watch for the animal clock

For large movements

Balance beam
Rods or ribbons (5) to jump over in a series as the bunny garden path
Long jump rope for teacher to turn, tied to chair or door handle
Playground size ball
Beanbag
Optional: hula hoop to check horizontal midline

145
Activities to Support
Healthy Sensory Development
Compiled by Nancy Blanning

Spinning activities and spinning around in place

Going in a circle, as in circle games
Rocking side to side
Partner swings for older children
Bending over forward to look back between our legs
Walking on tiptoe
Skipping around the circle
Twirling in place

Follow these activities with proprioceptive jumping, hopping, clapping, etc. to provide
grounding for the vestibular stimulation that can carry the children out.

Additional proprioceptive activities we can include in our movement imaginations are:

Stretching upward on tiptoes (really stretching)
Wheelbarrow walking
Push-pull movements in partners
Walking with weighted bean bag on the head

On the playground we can encourage the children toward:

Tire swing
Swings
Merry-go-round
Slides
Hand-over-hand bars
Balance logs
Cargo ropes
Firemans pole
Sled riding
Scooter riding
Tree climbing
Somersaulting

147
 We can create a journey with the children in the morning rst thing where we can
Roll down a hill
Jump rope
Leap from place to place
Balance on rocks, stumps, logs, and other uneven surfaces

For a classroom obstacle course we can:

Crawl under play stands and tables
Jump over a rod
Bounce on a trampoline and then off to the oor
Walk over tipping river stones in sock or slippered feet
Walk up and/or down an elevated beam
Walk over a rocker board

In the classroom we offer:

Sanding
Sawing
Hammering
Mashing
Cutting
Kneading
Grinding grain
Walking balance beam
Carrying heavy objects
Stirring heavy dough or batter

The tactile/touch sense is cultivated by

Sandbox (both inside and outside the classroom)
Felting
Kneading dough
Water playwashing dishes, clothes

148
Observation Form
for the Documentation
of Development
and Learning

International Working Group on the Transition

from Kindergarten to School

T his observation form is offered as a resource to indicate aspects we might consider to

picture readiness. European and British schools are under new legal requirements to
document and validate how school entry is determined in Steiner/Waldorf schools.
This form was one response to that requirement and does not stand as an ofcial statement
from the Working Group or any single country. It is a working draft offered for use in our
own research. Much further work has been done since this was published, which awaits
translation into English.

The Working Group on the Transition from Kindergarten to School has developed the
following survey forms. They are offered as working instruments to serve the documentation
of observations, development and learning in children in Waldorf early childhood programs
and in the rst years of Waldorf school.

The observation form, to be lled out by early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers,
and school teachers, focuses on questions of development in children ages three to seven.
For parents, there is also a questionnaire for describing the health of the child and the childs
everyday life at home. The Working Group can send you this form if you request it.

To the extent that parental permission has been given, the information on these forms can
also be used as a basis for conversations and exchange between parents and colleagues in
kindergartens, as well as the circle responsible for admission in the future school. If used in
this way, regulations regarding condentiality must be carefully followed.

Additional questions that seem relevant may be added to these observation forms, at the
discretion of the user. These documents do not in any way replace the deepening activity

149
 and observation of children (e.g. bodily constitution) as they can be undertaken out of
Waldorf education and the insights of an anthroposophical view of the human being, in
order to achieve an understanding of the being and individuality of the children.

For teachers, a form is included for systematic individual interpretation and evaluation.

This tool is currently under development. The Working Group would be pleased to receive
input and comments regarding its usefulness and understandability, as well as your
additions and experiences.

For the Working Group,

Margarete Kaiser
Stuttgart, December 14, 2006

Members of the Working Group:

Margarete Kaiser, Claudia McKeen, Martyn Rawson, Konrad Schmidt

150
Observation Form
for Early Childhood Educators
International Working Group on the Transition from Kindergarten to School

Name of kindergarten or childcare program _______________________________________

(Attach ofcial seal)
Address _____________________________________________________________________
Form completed by ___________________________________________________________
Childs Name_________________________________________________________________
Childs Birth Date _____________ Childs Current Age _________ (years) ________ (months)
Length of Observations: From _____________________________ To ___________________
How long has this child attended this kindergarten or institutions programs? ____________
How many programs outside the home has this child already attended? ________________
How many such observation processes has this child experienced? ____________________
Date of last observation ________________________________________________________
I am aware of condentiality regulations. __________________________________________
Date _________________________________ Signature _____________________________

151
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

Imitation
____________________________________________________________________________
The child acquires new phrases
and vocabulary words
____________________________________________________________________________
The child sings
____________________________________________________________________________
The child imitates gestures and
movements in circle/rhythmic games
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs play reects puppet plays,
festival celebrations, and work activities
the child has been exposed to
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can imitate sequences
(setting the table, cleaning up)
that have been demonstrated
____________________________________________________________________________
Further relevant observations and comments:

____________________________________________________________________________
I experience this child in the realm of imitation, relative to his/her age, on a scale of one
(younger) to ten (older) please circle:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
younger age appropriate older

152
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

Play Behavior
____________________________________________________________________________
The child orients him- or herself
to the adult or to other children
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs play is stimulated
through objects in the room
____________________________________________________________________________
The child takes on a role
in group creative play
____________________________________________________________________________
The child creates and builds
play landscapes
____________________________________________________________________________
The child comes into the group
with ideas for creative play (sometimes
from themes played on previous days)
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs play extends over a period
of several days
____________________________________________________________________________
The child indicates a need to play out
quite accurately his/her idea of things
he/she has experienced
____________________________________________________________________________
Other typical aspects of the childs play, or other observations:

____________________________________________________________________________
I experience this child in the realm of play behavior, relative to his/her age, on a scale of one
(younger) to ten (older) please circle:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
younger age appropriate older

153
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

Movement
____________________________________________________________________________
The child sits securely in his or her place
____________________________________________________________________________
The child moves freely and condently
in the room
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can walk easily up and down stairs
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can hop on one leg
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can walk backwards
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can balance freely
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is learning to jump rope
____________________________________________________________________________
The child climbs (trees, on stone walls, etc.)
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can lift, move and carry objects
with ease
____________________________________________________________________________
The child has mastered the use of knife
and scissors
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can set and clear the table well
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can pour tea into cups
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can easily put on his or her own
shoes
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can tie his or her shoelaces
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can button buttons or use
a zipper on a jacket easily
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is condent using pencil
and paintbrush
____________________________________________________________________________

154
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

The child can thread a needle

____________________________________________________________________________
Further relevant comments and observations:

____________________________________________________________________________
I experience this child in the realm of movement, relative to his/her age, on a scale of one
(younger) to ten (older) please circle:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
younger age appropriate older

155
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

Speech Behavior
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs articulation is clear
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs vocabulary is age-appropriate
____________________________________________________________________________
The child uses grammar and syntax
age-appropriately
____________________________________________________________________________
The child understands the meaning
of what has been said
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is able to perceive well
acoustically
____________________________________________________________________________
The child takes initiative in speaking
with others
____________________________________________________________________________
The child enjoys re-telling stories
he or she has heard
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is able to verbalize feelings
____________________________________________________________________________
Further relevant observations and comments:

____________________________________________________________________________
I experience this child in the realm of speech behavior, relative to his/her age, on a scale of
one (younger) to ten (older) please circle:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
younger age appropriate older

156
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not
applies somewhat apply

Attention, Perseverance, and Memory

____________________________________________________________________________
The child is able to listen
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can stay with an activity
over a period of time
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can take on and carry out tasks
____________________________________________________________________________
The child follows with interest logically
related sequences of activity
____________________________________________________________________________
The childs drawings are recognizably
representative/gurative
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can remember rhythmically
recurring events
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can remember at will
____________________________________________________________________________
The child can order experiences in time
____________________________________________________________________________
Further relevant observations and comments:

____________________________________________________________________________
I experience this child in the realm of attention, perseverance, and memory, relative to his/
her age, on a scale of one (younger) to ten (older) please circle:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
younger age appropriate older

157
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not Any change Any change
applies somewhat apply since last since last
year/last year/last
observation? observation?
YES NO

General Health and

Well-Being of the Child
____________________________________________________________________________
The child enjoys
coming to the
kindergarten
____________________________________________________________________________
The child separates
easily from the parents
____________________________________________________________________________
The child appears
well-rested in the
mornings
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is happy
to participate in
group activities
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is bored
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is happy
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is tired
and oppy
____________________________________________________________________________
The child seems stressed
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is bad-
tempered
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is full of drive
and initiative
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is unsettled,
out of balance
____________________________________________________________________________

158
 Applies Mostly Applies Does not Any change Any change
applies somewhat apply since last since last
year/last year/last
observation? observation?
YES NO

The child is pale

____________________________________________________________________________
The child is nervous
and wiggly
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is fearful
____________________________________________________________________________
The child has little
appetite
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is satised
____________________________________________________________________________
The child is aggressive
____________________________________________________________________________
The child seems to feel
well within his or
her skin
____________________________________________________________________________
In terms of general well-being, I experience this child as please circle:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Feels well Does not feel well
____________________________________________________________________________
In terms of health, I experience this child as please circle:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Healthy/balanced Something is not right

159
 Summary and Further Action

Observation number __________________________________________________________

Results of observations in various categories:

____________________________________________________________________________
Imitation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Play Behavior 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Movement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Speech Behavior 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Attention, Memory 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
and Perseverance
____________________________________________________________________________
Well-being 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Health 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
____________________________________________________________________________
Summary in your own words:

160
No special measures are needed:

Recommended next steps: (e.g. parent meeting, medical exam, therapy, etc.)

Parent conference on (date): ____________________________________________________

Participants in the conversation: (teacher, doctor, therapist, etc.)

What needs to be achieved:

Next recommended observation or renewed consultation date ________________________

Date _______________________ Signed _________________________________________
Childs Name_________________________________________________________________
Current Age ___________________________ years__________________________ months

161
Contributors

Joan Almon
Joan Almon is the Coordinator of the U.S. branch of the Alliance for Childhood, and former
chair of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America. She is internationally
recognized as a consultant to Waldorf educators and training programs and the author
of numerous articles on Waldorf Education. Ms. Almon is former editor of the Waldorf
Kindergarten Newsletter and a board member of the International Waldorf Kindergarten
Association.

Nancy Blanning
Nancy has taught within Waldorf education for twenty-ve years as a lead kindergarten
teacher and presently serves as a therapeutic and remedial teacher at the Denver Waldorf
School. Her special focus is on developing movement enrichment for young children. With
her colleague, Laurie Clark, she has co-authored the book Movement Journeys and Circle
Adventures. She also does consulting work with Waldorf schools in North America, teacher
training and mentoring. She is a member of the WECAN board. She was also a member of the
WECAN Working Group on the Older Child in the Kindergarten and a contributor to the book
Youre Not the Boss of Me!

Melissa Borden
Melissa Borden is a kindergarten teacher at the Seattle Waldorf School, where she has taught
for twenty years. She had a sabbatical year experience at the Edinburgh Steiner School.

163
 Louise deForest
Louise has been a Waldorf kindergarten teacher for many years and is now the Pedagogical
Director of the Early Childhood program at the Rudolf Steiner Waldorf School in Manhattan.
Louise has taught classes at Sunbridge College for many years, as well as offering workshops,
support to homeschooling families, parent consultations and traveling to mentor and
evaluate teachers and early childhood programs nationally and internationally. Louise
is a WECAN board member, a regional representative of WECAN in Mexico, one of the
representatives from North America to IASWECE and leader of the Waldorf early childhood
teacher training in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was also a member of the WECAN Working
Group on the Older Child in the Kindergarten and a contributor to the book Youre Not the
Boss of Me!

Nancy Foster
Nancy Foster has been a Waldorf kindergarten teacher since 1973 at Acorn Hill Waldorf
Kindergarten and Nursery in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she now works with parents
and teachers in parent-child groups. She also lectures, gives workshops for teachers, serves
as a mentor for new teachers, and is on the visiting faculty of Sunbridge College in Spring
Valley, New York. She is the author/editor of Let Us Form a Ring and Dancing as We Sing,
two collections of seasonal music and verse, and the author of In a Nutshell: Dialogues with
Parents at Acorn Hill, a Waldorf Kindergarten.

Michaela Glckler, MD
Dr. Michaela Glckler has been Leader of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, the School
of Spiritual Science in Dornach, Switzerland since 1988. Until 1988 she was a colleague in
the childrens outpatient clinic at the Community Hospital in Herdecke and served as school
doctor for the Rudolf Steiner School in Witten, Germany. Michaela has many publications in
German. Her publications in English include Medicine at the Threshold, A Healing Education,
Developmental Insights, and A Guide to Child Health.

Wolfgang Goebel, MD
Together with Dr. Michaela Glckler, Dr. Goebel is co-author of A Guide to Child Health, the
classic anthroposophical reference book for parents and teachers.

Kim Holscher
Kim is a class teacher at the Seattle Waldorf School. She is nearing the end of the eight-year
cycle with her second class. She is noteworthy for how she has worked sensitively with both
children and parents as they have made the transition from the kindergarten into the grade
school.

164
Ruth Ker
Ruth has been a teacher of early childhood education for over thirty years, rst in mainstream
education and then at Sunrise Waldorf School in British Columbia, Canada. Ruth is presently
in the mixed-age kindergarten classroom with her beloved six-year-olds, is a member
of the WECAN board, and a teacher trainer and mentor for the early childhood teacher
training program of the West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy. Ruth was also a
facilitator for the retreats attended by the WECAN Working Group on the Older Child in the
Kindergarten, and editor of the resulting book Youre Not the Boss of Me!Understanding
the Six/Seven-Year-Old Transformation.

Janet Klaar
After working in mainstream education and bringing up three children, parenting them
through Steiner education, Janet joined the Early Years team in 1988 at Elmeld Rudolf
Steiner School, Stourbridge, England. She was an active member of the Steiner Waldorf
Early Years Group and later became an Early Years adviser. For a number of years she was
a member of the international birth-to-three group, the World Wide Initiative for Early
Childhood Care. She now works part-time for the Plymouth University Steiner/Waldorf early
childhood training, holds a parent and child group once a week locally, and is a trustee of
Elmeld Rudolf Steiner School.

Bettina Lohn, MD
Dr. Bettina Lohn is an Anthroposophic pediatrician and a school doctor for schools in
Stourbridge and the West Midlands, UK.

Audrey McAllen
Audrey McAllen began her work in Waldorf education in 1942 as a class teacher at Michael
Hall in England. She is well known for her work as a remedial teacher and for the Extra
Lesson exercises she developed from Rudolf Steiners indications. She has also taught in
the Kindergarten Training Course at Wynstones and lectured internationally. Of her many
published books, the most recent one guides teachers in understanding person-house-tree
drawings.

Claudia McKeen, MD
Claudia McKeen, MD worked as the school physician for the Uhlandshhe Waldorf school in
Stuttgart and presently works at the Institute For Pedagogy, Ecology of the Senses and Media
Studies (IPSUM) in Stuttgart.

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 Rainer Patzlaff
Dr. Rainer Patzlaff worked for a long time as a Waldorf teacher, media researcher and
publicist. Since 2001 he leads the Institute For Pedagogy, Ecology of the Senses and Media
Studies (IPSUM) in Stuttgart, which he founded.

Valerie Poplawski
TK

Martyn Rawson worked for over 25 years as class teacher, speech teacher and high school
teacher in Great Britain and Germany. Since 2003 he teaches at the Freie Hochschule
Stuttgart (Free College in Stuttgart), the seminar for Waldorf pedagogy, and at the
pedagogical research department of the Association for Waldorf schools in Stuttgart.

Celia Riahi
TK

Wolfgang Sassmannshausen
Along with Dr. Patzlaff, Dr. Sassmannshausen was the principal author of the rst part of
a study on the education of the young child commissioned by the German Association of
Waldorf Schools and the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens. The rst two
parts of the study are available in English from AWSNA as Developmental Signatures: Core
Values and Practices in Waldorf Education for Children Ages 39.

Randi Stein
Randi Stein is a dance/movement therapist and Waldorf Remedial Educator. She co-authored
The Red Queen at the Hartsbrook Waldorf School, where she has been Educational
Support Coordinator for the past four years. Additionally Randi consults with Waldorf schools
in New England, offering developmental assessments, therapeutic movement programs for
learning challenged children, and faculty workshops on these topics.

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