Actually, children grow down instead of up. The head is almost fully formed at birth and the mind is functioning immediately. Babies can communicate through crying and laughing but have little or no control over their limbs or bodies, all of which twitch and jerk in constant motion.

Soon they discover their fingers and move them in fascination in front of their eyes. Then they reach for objects. The body's movement become more purposeful and less spontaneous. Then the legs become stronger and the baby can kneel, stand, crawl and finally walk. He has grown down from head to toes!

0-7
From birth to the age of seven, a baby is a sponge, absorbing everything he hears, sees or smells. During these formative years, children learn by imitating the people in their environment. For this reason it's vitally necessary that parents and care givers be positive role models since the lessons absorbed will form the basis for his entire life.

It is at this time that morals and virtues are established as they imitate what they are exposed to. Children under the age of 6 or 7 don't think of themselves as "I" yet. They're still imitating others and learning from them.

He's developing his senses and begins to externalize his spiritual qualities showing his love for color and music. He loves to paint, he loves to dance to music, he loves to be jiggled on Daddy's knee. Most of all, he loves to laugh and experience life every day. The arts -- painting, music, crafts, dramatics, puppetry, dance -- all are activities and tools for growth that allow a child to express himself creatively.

7-14
Around the age of six or seven, his second teeth appear and a major shift in consciousness takes place. His mind begins to develop and he knows the difference between right and wrong. He starts putting into practice what he's learned up to this time.

He's learning to concentrate and understands the difference between memory training and thinking, between objective events and their subjective causes. He's learning the law of cause and effect.

After the age of seven, the developed concentration will have stimulated and activated his intuition. By this time, he's in school and if he's fortunate to have a teacher who understands the stages of childhood, he'll retain everything he's learned consciously or subconsciously.

The teacher should allow the child to answer his own questions as much as possible. She should plant seeds of knowledge and allow it to grow in the child's mind until it blossoms forth with the right answer. And it will be his, not the teachers, not another student's, not from a book. Anything learned in this way is not forgotten.

The first years of school should be an atmosphere where the child feels free to express himself, and be treated courteously as he is expected to treat his teacher and peers.

If the teacher has patience, the child will see that obstacles are not failures, only a temporary impediment. Although the teacher must be flexible with her students, she still must maintain discipline. This is important, aside for the obvious reasons, to instill cooperation and a sense of responsibility as well as the necessity to listen and concentrate.

14-21
After the age of fourteen, at puberty, a child begins to really understand science. Until then, it's a gray area with basic ideas and thoughts that have formed, but the mechanics of science still elude him.

This has been, by necessity, a very brief and abbreviated description of the spiritual forces at work in the young child. There is nothing more rewarding for an adult than to be able to observe a child from birth to puberty and not only see, but understand, the stages he is experiencing.

It's the fortunate child who has parents and teachers who are knowledgeable and aware of the spirited child who sits before them.

For more information about the spiritual development of children, choose from Rudolf Steiner's vast selection of articles and books on education.