Significant moments and turning points

1994-8 The first workshop was on ‘Biography work’ in March 1994 in Spain. The next were on ‘Relationships’ in England followed by ‘Communication skills’ in both countries. ‘Development groups’ followed in England for two years, alongside further biography workshops.

The project title from this time on was ‘The Art of Living’

1998 A Biography workshop which ran in Forest Row, England give the impulse and inspiration for parenting work to begin its development.

• January A contribution to a World Events Conference in East Grinstead, England with ‘The Young Child in Today’s World’.

• February The first course was run for parents of children aged under three.‘Parenting the young child (from birth to three)’in Forest Row. England

• June A workshop organised by parents in the Waldorf School of South West London with ‘Parenting the young child (from birth to seven)’

• March and June Contributions to the first Parent and Child training in Reading with ‘Understanding the young child. (from birth to three)’.

1999 Workshops started in BARCELONA

* April The first event was in Sant Cugat at the ‘The UNESCO exhibition on
Walforf Education’ with the following:
- Talk: ‘How the Waldorf kindergarten meets the needs of the young child’
- Workshop: ’The young child (from birth to seven)’
- Radio interview on childhood
From all these activities and others, a Waldorf Kindergarten developed in Sant Cugat.

* June First workshops at Rosa d’Abril Waldorf Kindergarten, Barcelona with ‘Growing with my child – a journey through the first twenty one years of life’. This was a contribution to a meeting in support and preparation of a Waldorf school in Barcelona. This school started later in Sept. 2005.

From this time on courses are run in Rosa d’Abril three times a year.
The themes developed with participant’s questions and interest. Some of our themes have been: childhood and adolescence, play, creative parenting, working with healthy boundaries, biography work, and cultivating the inner life.

The work has been taken to other locations around Barcelona organised by parents and teachers mostly in main steam schools. The first talks took place in Granollers 2000 and Les Fonts 2001. Other talks followed in La Garriga y Vallvidrera. A talk was organised in a library by a mother and the local Women Association. There was also a talk on ‘The meaning of play’ in the kindergarten ‘La casita’. Some of these meetings have attracted about 80 people. And in 2005 this work continues, the last one: ‘Els Xipress’.

2000 Contribution to The world Events Conference. At the turning of the millennium we looked at ‘The Young Child in Today’s world’

2001 The ‘Play workshops’ started in Granollers, Barcelona in November 2001. This was a new development in which we could give extensive attention to this particular theme. Since then they have run several times a year in both countries.

1999-2005 Talks and workshops in support and preparation of new kindergartens with ‘How does a Waldorf Kindergarten meet the needs of the young Child?’ and other themes. These took place in Maidstone, England 1999. Tarragona 2000. Gerona 2000.
La Garriga 2002 and Premia de Mar (Barcelona) 2005 in Spain.

2002 The work travelled to London for the first time. The Snowdrop parent and child group organised ‘The care of the child’.

•July Contribution to Lifeways with ‘There is more to children than meets the eye’
This course was part of summer meeting for families in Emerson, Forest Row, England.

2003 A Parent and child group started in Brighton, England and ran for two years. This work and experience continued for two years. Some talks were also given.

• Abril The ‘New view’ magazine (Easter), publishes the article ‘A new awareness for Childhood’

2003-04 Contributions to the ‘Parent and Child Conferences’ in London. Themes:
* ‘Working with Parents’ at Temple Lodge (Christian community) 2003
* ‘Creating a Nourishing Environment’ at St Paul’s Steiner School 2004

2004 A new development: ‘Our time of childhood’. This is a workshop based on Biography work and addressed to adults looking for healing and growth. This was developed further and ran at the Rafael Therapy Centre in Barcelona in 2005.

• June Courses start running regularly in LONDON at Rudolf Steiner House. The themes were ‘creative parenting’ and ‘working with healthy boundaries’.

Participants organised workshops and talks in various venues such as in St. Michael Steiner School, London. This was a time (2004-5) of many activities in London which gave an impulse for continuation.
• October ‘A time for Childhood’ becomes a partner of the ‘Alliance for Childhood’

• November-May Contributions to ‘The first Three Years’ course begun in York with ‘Spiritual insights into the first three years’ and ‘Supporting parents’. Also from London 2005.

2005 A workshop was run in Norwich Steiner school with ‘The art of creative discipline’.

• February A workshop on ‘The Life and work of Gaudi in Barcelona’, ,resented by Magda Farre, was organized in East Grinstead England.

• March Contributions were made to the regional ‘Sure Start’ programme in London.

• March An interview with Radio Estel in Barcelona. Talking about our program in this city and questions on ‘parenting and the needs of children’
• October Contribution of a Chapter to the book by Judy Barber on working with questions.

2004-2005 This project was given its new title: ‘A Time for childhood’, which has its own website, and will also be the title of the forthcoming book.

Although we have worked with many different themes and travel to different venues during these years of activity, there have been several main threads running though such as:
*Attention to the early years in different ways.
*Support adults individually and in groups with their parenting and development questions.
*Building a sense for community, encouraging networking and dialogue.