The LifeWays San Francisco Bay Area Training is an eleven-month long course, meeting two Saturdays a month, which includes three retreat weekends. Our rhythmical schedule allows you to work and parent throughout the week and attend enlivening and enriching classes on alternate Saturdays starting in early August 2025 and is ideal for those living in Northern and  Central California and the Sierra foothills. 

This is our 16th year of the LifeWays Training in the Bay Area. Scholarships and financial aid are available.

Completing the LifeWays Training can open NEW Opportunities for you:

• Childcare providers in homes and centers
• Early childhood assistants, teachers and nannies
• Parents and grandparents
•  Parent-child teachers
• Early Childhood Aftercare teachers
• Homeschool parents.
• Become the parent or early childhood professional you long to be.

LifeWays students learn from master teachers in 200+ in-class hours over a year’s time. Additionally, mentor-supported independent study enriches learning between sessions. The LifeWays curriculum is divided into four categories:

• Human Growth and Development – based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner and others
• Child, Family and Community – home health care practices, unique and beautiful handwork, gardening and meal planning, meaningful celebrations and festivals, self-care and more
• Program Curriculum – deepening your classroom and in-home practices (artistic and practical, nature and nurture); fundamentals of establishing child care, parent-child, after-school and daily homeschool rhythms; and more
• Living Arts – learn the Living Arts as developed by LifeWays and the keys to joyful, purposeful living through Practical Activity, Nurturing Care, Creative Exploration and Social Awareness

LifeWays students graduate with a renewed sense of joie de vivre in their daily lives. Strengthened by an amazing view of the developing human being, a lifted experience of personal growth, guidance in establishing successful programs and a sense of being grounded in the practical, artistic and nurturing skills, they tell us over and over again that this training was a life-changing experience for them.

“Today, as we went from painting to snack to working in the garden, I felt so grateful to have had my Lifeways training so I can support my child during these uncertain times. I’m so grateful for this network and the love and care we show for each other.” Amy Jo, LifeWays 2013-14