The Five Golden Keys by Helle Heckmann

The Five Golden Keys -Towards an embracing developing life with small children under seven years of age by Helle Heckmann

Following is a description taken from the back cover of the book ‘The Five Golden Keys – Towards an embracing developing life with small children under seven years of age’ – by Helle Heckmann. Below, you will find 5 videos where Helle talks about each key. After watching, please share your thoughts and let’s start a conversation about these topics!

“Helle Heckmann has many years of experience in taking care of small children in accordance with fundamental principles involving things like clar-ity, care, setting a good framework and the adult as a role model worthy of imitation. With her ‘five keys’ she offers a unique inroad to child rearing, describing in simple and practical terms the needs of small children, and how we as adults can meet these needs in the best possible way.

An important message here is to keep it simple. It mostly comes down to learning to listen to our own intuition again. We have all the answers inside of us already; we just need to learn to trust that they are adequate.

We do not need to make it complicated by having to live up to the many demands that we intellectually tend to put upon our own parenthood.

With calmness, love, time, and patience we can create the very best framework for the child who has chosen us as their guide in life.

They are only with us for a short time. Whilst the child is in our care, we need to guide them through the various stages of development as best as we can. A good beginning is to trust that simplicity is good because it offers peace and predictability.

Parenthood is the greatest gift of life, but it is also a development journey and an opportunity to get to know yourself better, adding another depth and dimension to life. So do approach this great task not as a heavy burden, but with joy and enthusiasm, and settle to the fact that the most important thing you can give your child is you and your pres-ence. It is demanding inner work to become aware of one’s own be-haviour, and how this has an influence on our children, but with time, patience and lots of love we are already ahead upon our journey.

From the introduction by Rikke Rosengren (Director of the Rudolf Steiner Kindergarten Bonsai)