Creating a Home for Body, Soul, and Spirit: A New Approach to Childcare

“This book is about a new approach to childcare based on twenty-five years of practice from an anthroposophical understanding of the human being. It is concerned with what is involved in providing support of the child and family in the day nursery, based on the understanding of the archetypal home and the homemaker. The focus is on the practices at Awhina Day Nursery and Kindergarten in New Zealand. What spoke to me was the consciousness with which the practices are penetrated in order to protect the development of body, soul, and spirit in the most healthy way. “Bernadette brings a new insight into childcare work by picturing the day nursery as a fourfold reality. As the human being has a physical, etheric (life), astral (soul) and ego organization, so also can this fourfoldness be seen in the day nursery as sheaths that protect the child when their essence is understood and worked with in the right way. She elaborates an understanding of these sheaths in a detailed and comprehensive way. The ego of Awhina is the anthroposophical foundation that permeates all aspects of the work.” —Marjorie Thatcher Director, Early Childhood Program West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy British Columbia, Canada