Season 1- Episode 1: The Beginnings of Joyful Beginnings

Listen as Susan Weber and Nancy Macalaster share the history of the parent support work they began over 20 years ago at Sophia’s Hearth Family Center in Keene, NH. Listen as they share about the inspiration and motivation behind reviving and revitalizing this work into an online community for all those who share their lives with young children, aged pre-birth to three. 

Nancy Macalaster is a certified Parent Early Childhood Mental Health Clinician in the State of NH. She holds a degree in child development from Connecticut College and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Antioch University New England. She is a graduate of Sophia’s Hearth Birth to Three Specialization and has completed advanced training at the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary. She has completed training in maternal and infant mental health in Boston at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services.

Susan Weber was the Director of Sophia’s Hearth Family Center for many years. She directed and taught in the Waldorf early childhood teacher education program at Sophia’s Hearth as well as at Antioch University. She is recognized internationally as a leading lecturer and writer in the field of Waldorf early childhood education. She has focused upon the illumination shined upon the understanding of the first three years of the child’s life as understood in Waldorf early childhood education, especially in the light of the approach of the Pikler Institute. She has lectured internationally, most recently at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland and in Spring Valley, NY. She also led a multi-year course on the child in the first three years in Khon Kaen, Thailand, for teachers throughout Southeast Asia.