This study presents first-hand information on aspects of the developmental process during the first five years of life in rural Teyateyaneng in Lesotho, a small country surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Implicit in the study is the assumption that a relationship exists between informal education at home and formal education at school. The data were compiled in structured interview settings with thirty mothers. Using descriptions and narrations, the study examines the influence of taboos, beliefs, indigenous cultural influences, and differences in mothers' educational background on: practices in childbirth, breastfeeding, weaning, birth control, and pregnancy; preferred family size; child sex preference; home births and hospital births; and child care during infancy and the early childhood years. Traditional child rearing practices are described, particularly the socialization of the child into Sesotho (the language of Lesotho) culture and differences in methods used by educated and uneducated mothers. Based upon the data collected, the study hypothesizes that the education of the mother has no substantial influence on the methods of child rearing. This hypothesis may be attributable to the following factors: (1) the present generation of mothers has been reared in homes in which cultural practices were strictly observed by mothers with lower educational backgrounds; (2) the rurality of the Teyateyaneng area is a representative setting for tribal society and for the conscious or unconscious continuity of traditional practices; and (3) the type of education the mothers have had. (DST)