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CHAPTER 14

Create a Conscious Space in Your Child’s Life

he years from birth to age six are especially a time when
children don’t need to be thinking about soaring to life’s heights,
but instead need the leisure to flap their wings around in play
and exploration, with lots of space for rest and simply doing nothing.
These are the years in which our children can be allowed the delight of
getting to know who they are. It’s a time to master small tasks, reach for
tiny goals, the most important of which involve exploring and enjoying
their own body and spirit. They need to be allowed hour upon hour of
idle play, dates with buddies, walks in the park, or rides along the beach.
They need uninterrupted hours of twiddling their thumbs, painting
nothing in particular, kneading dough, playing with sand, crumbling
paper, and rummaging through toy boxes. They need to dress up in
costumes, pretending to be kings, queens, and dragons. They need to be
permitted hours to stomp in their room and make mistakes. They need
the time, freedom, and absolute permission to follow their heart.
This is a period in our children’s lives when our children get to sow a
variety of seeds and see which take root and eventually bear luscious
fruit. This is so much more fulfilling for a child than having the parent
plant a single tree, then inject it with steroids so that it bears barrels of
tasteless fruit.
Beyond the age of six, and especially as they reach seven and eight,
our children begin to develop mentally in a way that marks a major shift