seven stages of a child's life


 

P.1358 - §2 There were few homes in the gentile world of those days that could give a child a better intellectual, moral, and religious training than the Jewish homes of Galilee. These Jews had a systematic program for rearing and educating their children. They divided a child's life into seven stages:

  1. The newborn child, the first to the eighth day.
  2. The suckling child.
  3. The weaned child.
  4. The period of dependence on the mother, lasting up to the end of the fifth year.
  5. The beginning independence of the child and, with sons, the father assuming responsibility for their education.
  6. The adolescent youths and maidens.
  7. The young men and the young women.