Laying Foundations
Towards Inner Freedom in the Young Child
By Lisa Bono
with Contributions from Lisa Romero, Sarah Mecca and Brigitte Ryan
The adult’s exploration of the consciousness of the young child, supports the child’s development and lays a pathway towards inner freedom for the child that supports them throughout their lifetime and beyond.
Through this course we can begin to bring the children we know, the children we love, and the children we have yet to meet with us in our hearts.
The Young Child is LOVE
To discover the consciousness of the young child is to be given a treasure, a secret into the mysteries of what it means to be human and the profound interconnected nature of human life and the evolution of consciousness which we will be working with in lessons to come.
Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world.
By whom?
Love is in the center of this work. Love for humanity and our future. Love in the sense of and interest in freedom for all.
Creating inner freedom which can manifest in outer freedom, giving us the power to transform and evolve. It is as lofty as that. We must have courage to speak it and begin to open up to the way in which childhood shows us the future. We will fail and fall short and keep trying again just as we see reflected in the child learning to become upright as they move into becoming and incarnating here upon the earth.
Growing with them, learning with them, from them.
What a Human Being Is, by Hilma Af Klint
For parents, teachers, caregivers, and anyone seeking to explore and deepen their relationship with young children.
This year-long course offers participants an experience into the life and consciousness of the young child. Through exercises, contemplations, and explorations into the consciousness and development of children pre-birth to seven, we shall come closer to understanding why the first seven years of life are considered the foundation for the whole of life, as well as come to better understand ourselves and our role in relation to the young child of today.
The writings in these lessons are a contribution to our collective knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the young child of today. The ideas laid out come from contemplations of Rudolf Steiner and others, from a lifetime of experience being with (guiding) young children, teachers-in-training, and inner work.
12 Written Lessons
The 12 lessons attempt to present higher pictures that surround the task arising out of an anthroposophical worldview, striving to cultivate a living relationship to the world of spirit. After building the ideals and higher imaginations in each lesson, they are brought into practical ideas, examples, and offerings for our modern, daily life with young children.
The EduCareDo or other foundation course experience and a relationship to Anthroposophy is valuable for this course but for those who are new to Anthroposophy and feel called to this course an existing background is not essential. Participants may choose to enrol into single lessons from the Foundations in Anthroposophy Course to especially accompany the Twelve Senses and the Health and Illness lessons.
All lesson art on this page is by Lisa Bono, course author
1. Beginning to Be Human →
- LESSON 1 — Beginning to be Human
2. Perceiving→
- LESSON 2 – Perceiving
3. Becoming Human →
- LESSON 3 — Becoming Human by Lisa Bono
4. The Twelve Senses→
- LESSON 4 – The Twelve Senses by Lisa Romero
5. Spirit’s Task in the Young Child’s Life →
- LESSON 5 — Spirit’s task in the Young Child’s Life by Lisa Bono
6. health and Illness→
- LESSON 6 – Health and Illness by Sarah Mecca
7. Space and Environment →
- LESSON 7 — Space and Environment by Lisa Bono
8. Movement→
- LESSON 8 – Movement by Lisa Bono
9. Rhythm →
- LESSON 9 — Rhythm by Lisa Bono
10. Inner Freedom and Play→
- LESSON 10- Inner Freedom and Play by Lisa Bono
11. Bringing Ourselves to Story →
- LESSON 11 – Bringing Ourselves to Story by Lisa Bono
12. transitions →
- LESSON 12 – Transitions by Lisa Bono
Receive Tutoring & Gather
The course is designed for self-paced and self-directed distance learning. Enroll at anytime.
Lessons are written in a sequential order that gradually unfold, and are available to work with at your chosen pace for meeting your capacity to absorb and integrate the content.
Along the way you have the aid of communication with Lisa Bono, the course author, in participant study groups as well as individual feedback when you submit a diary sheet that accompanies each lesson. Engaging with these optional inclusions to the course can become a support to helping understand and enliven the content in a way that your soul forces may reach further into the spiritual foundations of this content.
Lisa holds an online study group for course participants. Open the 2024 Study Group Schedule →. Developing the Self Developing the World host a study group in the NSW Northern Rivers District. Contact us to enquire.
Read Articles by Lisa Bono
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In-person Intensives
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Lisa Bono
Lisa Bono began working with young children and families in 2000. After meeting Anthroposophy and discovering Waldorf Education in 2003, she along with her husband received their M.S.Ed in Waldorf Education from Sunbridge College.
Lisa is the founding teacher of the New Amsterdam School, a Waldorf School in NYC, where she became the Director/Faculty Chair and taught Early Childhood, birth to seven for ten years. After supporting the growth of three Waldorf School initiatives through work with young children, teachers and families in the greater NYC Metro area, Lisa and her husband moved to Kathmandu, Nepal.
Lisa is the co-founder of Sano Taraharu (“Little Stars of Nepal”), an organization working in orphanages and children’s homes in Kathmandu.
Other current projects Lisa has contributed to include Abiding – Heart Education, and designing for Burning Heart Clothing. She is also a contributor to the work of Developing the Self Developing the World.
Lisa currently lives with her husband and daughter in Portland, Oregon, USA and teachs Early Childhood classes at the Cedarwood Waldorf School.
The inner work path informs and guides Lisa’s work with young children and with communities around the world.
“When thinking about my contributions to EduCareDo and why I place my efforts here, I consistently experience a resounding expression of “freedom” and “future” that wells up in my inner life. Since encountering anthroposophy in 2000 and then in 2008 the Inner Work Path, I have been walking a different life than before. The spiritual nature and accessible content of these impulses, have shaped my inner landscape profoundly and in turn my outer life has also unfolded differently. I have found that in these times my work with the young child and my own self development of the spirit requires the support of a group of individuals that are guided by a shared commitment to volunteering in support of an organization working on behalf of our spirit nature, through which inner freedom and commitment to the future tasks of humanity on the side of true freedom, lives, weaves and works between us. It is a true gift of my life, striving to serve from inner knowing and guidance. For this I am forever grateful.”
“Oh my goodness, this course has opened up so many questions for me in my work with children, in my parenting/homeschooling and in my own inner work! It has really left me open to so many new possibilities as well as re-confirmed previous beliefs and actions. It has been such a treasure to read through the modules and try on the contemplations and exercises. They were all very rich and diverse. This course really had me recommitting to my own inner work and seeing how it can serve not only myself but the greater growth of humanity. All those ripples we set in action through our inner work spread wide and far, even when we feel small in relation to the big picture.
What a gift.”
Marina Unger