Nurturing the Roots:
A Three-Year
Advanced Therapeutic Course
for Early Childhood Educators

with Nancy Blanning, Laurie Clark,
and Dr. Adam Blanning

July 2025 – July 2027 • Denver, Colorado

We are pleased to be able to offer a new round of the course, beginning July 6-11, 2025 in Denver, CO.

Registration is now open on the “appointments” page of the website—scroll to the bottom and you will see

“Nurturing the Roots Course, Session I”

Click on “BOOK” and you will be taken through the application process

Important: Registration Deadline

is May 1, 2025

Course Overview:

There are many children in the classroom today who are calling for our extra consciousness and guidance. Their incarnation process is challenged. This may be expressed as disruption, aggression, or strong sensory-seeking behaviors, but is really an expression of how difficult it is for them to find a comfortable home in the body, or a harmonious interaction with the world around them. This course is designed to provide both practical tools for pedagogical and developmental assessment of the individual child, and provide the necessary supports in order to meet the child’s needs. The course will work through the important milestones of physical development and will examine the changing spiritual physiology of the child from pre-earthly experiences through age nine.

This course is designed as an advanced professional development experience for experienced Waldorf early childhood education teachers. The course comprises three week-long July summer conferences (Sunday evening through Friday noon), complemented by two January four-and-a-half day workshops (Thursday evening through Monday noon). The summer weeks will be devoted to instruction in child observation, hygienic circle movement, constitutional polarities, and developmental assessments for the kindergarten, first grade and second grade child.

The winter workshops will focus more on practical implementation of these topics in the classroom setting.

A letter of application is required for admission to the program and a certificate of completion will be given at the conclusion of the full course. Those working for the certificate will have homework to complete in child observation and study, movement work, classroom plans, and plans for individual children.

Tuition will be $725 for summer July sessions (2025, 2026, 2027),
$625 for winter January sessions (2026, 2027).

Please note: program is subject to change.

Nurturing the Roots Course Curriculum:

Year One (July 2022): Where did my ‘I’ begin?—Pre-earthly Experience and Descent into Life

The first year curriculum will explore the journey of embryologic development from pre-birth decisions and development, through the birth passage, and into the great deeds of walking, speaking, and thinking as a foundation for health during the first three years of life. We will look at how the inherited body is transformed, and how that progress is expressed through polarities of movement. Play-based sensory developmental screening of the 4-5½ year-old child will be explored.

Year Two (January and July 2023): My Body, My Home

The second and third sessions focus on the ripening of the etheric body and the formation of the organs, and how this manifests in the kindergarten child. The proper balancing of organic growth and wakeful sensing as a foundational experience for the child will be explored through the constitutional polarities, including the Large-headed/Small-headed polarity. We will explore the maturation of the foundation senses (touch, movement, balance and life). Assessment of first grade readiness, informed by a knowledge of sensory and perceptual development, the integration of movement, auditory capacities, and vision screening will be taught.

Year Three (Jan. and July 2024): Waking to the World Around

For the seven to nine-year old child, incarnation evolves from a primary process of bodily growth to exploration of the world. The child has to learn how to breathe through the body, moving from point to periphery, from self to world. Observing how the young child socially interacts and participates in group activities will help us build an understanding of the waking and sleeping activity of the Epileptic and Hysteric polarity. We will examine this breathing process on the levels of wakeful sensing, temperament, and movement patterns. The third year will also include practical instruction in second grade developmental assessment.

January meetings will generally be held over the MLK holiday weekend, and July 2023 and 2024 sessions the week following the 4th of July holiday. We will confirm exact dates at the start of the course.

Goals:

At the conclusion of the course, each teacher will be prepared to:

  • Bring health-developing/salutogenic movement enrichment to the early childhood classroom and outdoor play and activities. This will be through circle work, movement journeys, practical work, games and outside play opportunities.

  • Select specific movement experiences that will serve individual children.

  • Expand and refine child observation and child study skills by developing a “therapeutic eye”

  • Have a framework for developing a therapeutic/care circle within one’s school, coupled with learning which mainstream resources can be helpful to the children.

  • Administer developmental assessments kindergarten through 2nd grade

Costs:
Course fees are $575 for the summer meetings and $475 for the winter workshops. Course fees includes tuition, materials and mid-morning and afternoon snacks. There is a non-refundable $100 deposit that must be submitted with your registration for the July 2022 session–this will be applied to your tuition for the fifth and final session in July 2024.

Registration: is now closed. If you are interested in participating in future Nurturing the Roots offerings, contact us and let us know.

Online Courses with Dr. Blanning:

Continuing October 2025 to March 2026:
Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs in Children YEAR 2 (sessions 7-12)

an online course for Waldorf teachers, anthroposophic physicians and therapists

This will be the second half of a two-year course.

This online teaching project includes a large international community, with two parallel
teaching times offered so that people in all parts of the world can take part (meaning, the same material is taught twice—you choose the timing that works best for you):

  • Tuesdays 10:30am U.S. Mountain time (evening in Europe/Africa)—

    includes live translation into Estonian and Hungarian

  • Fridays 4:30pm U.S. Mountain (Saturday morning in Australia/Asia)—

    includes live translation into Spanish and Chinese



This set of online sessions, designed for Waldorf school teachers and anthroposophic therapists and doctors, will draw from Dr. Blanning’s book, Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs. These online workshops assume that participants already have foundational knowledge of anthroposophic concepts and vocabulary (it is not intended as an introductory course). The course has developed out of specific requests from groups of teachers in many countries who have been working closely with the material.

The main focus of the course is developing greater capacities for child observation while also learning about important developmental patterns and rhythms of childhood. It provides a pathway for greater understanding and providing practical support for the children we work with.

Topics covered in the first year:

Session 1(October 2024): The Fourfoldness of the Human Being

Session 2 (November 2024): Observing the Incarnation Process through Movement

Session 3 (December 2024): Morality as an expression of the earthly and cosmic polarity

Session 4 (January 2025): The Inner Sensory Path for Self-Soothing

Session 5 (February 2025): Learning Styles—the “Large-headed” and “Small-headed” Polarity

Session Six (March 2025): Ripeness of development—Observing First grade readiness

Topics that will be explored in Year Two:

Session 7 (October 2025): Epileptic Constitution

Session 8 (November 2025): Hysteric Constitution

Session 9 (December 2025): Aggressive Behaviors

Session 10 (January 2026): Patterns of Memory

Session 11 (February 2026): Biographical Rhythms of Childhood

Session 12 (March 2026): Gifts and Challenges of the Constitutions

Planned meeting dates for 2025-2026 (please note, schedule subject to change based on Dr. Blanning’s travel schedule, though we hope that won’t be necessary). You can compare your time zone with Denver (U.S. Mountain time) on this website: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html

  • Tuesdays 10:30am U.S Mountain Time(more for those in the Americas, Europe, Africa):

    Oct. 14, Nov. 11, Dec. 16 (2025), Jan. 20, Feb. 24, March 24 (2026)

  • Fridays 4:30pm U.S. Mountain Time (for those in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Asia):

    Oct. 17/18, Nov. 14/15, Dec. 19/20, (2025), Jan. 23/24, Feb. 27/28, March 27/28 (2026)

Tuition for the course is $155, which covers all six sessions in the second year (October to March). We wish for this course to be available to as many people as possible, so a discounted tuition ($120) is available using the code “UDDN-DISCOUNT”. We also recognize that income levels and economics vary widely, especially in different countries and continents, so a hardship/solidarity tuition ($85) is available using the code “UDDN-HARDSHIP". If these levels are still not accessible to you or if you have a larger faculty group that would like to participate, email us and we will see what is possible.

Thank you for your interest, registration for year 2 will open in May.

If you would like to receive notices about future courses, please sign up for the medical practice newsletter at the bottom of our HOMEPAGE.