Overview of Essentials of Education Course 2023

TERM DATES: February – November (28 x 2/3-hour sessions)

Term 1: Feb. & March (Craft workshop March 11)

Understanding the essentials of how young children develop and learn and what supports whole child development in a healthy way

o   Holistic approach to Early Childhood and the 3-fold and 4-fold windows of human development

Storytelling 1: Creating a nature-based original story for very young children with felted puppets

Self-development: The principles of being a responsive, respectful, reflective and creative educator

Activities: Felting, Clay work

Term 2: April - June (Craft workshop June 3)

Creating a nourishing environment

o   Nourishing the senses with particular emphasis on Touch, Wellbeing, Movement and Balance

o   Child Contemplation – deep observation exercise

Storytelling 2: Creating an original story with songs and rhymes, using a moving picture

Self-development: Developing self-confidence and embodying learning and insights in movement, music and language development

Activities: Drawing, Making a moving picture

Term 3: July - Sept (Craft workshop August 26)

Knowing myself

o   The phases of human life development; Seven qualities underpinning adult behaviour

o   Deep listening skills, relationship building and working collaboratively

Storytelling 3: The fairy tale as a path of development for the soul. Creating a healing tale

Self-development: Learning how to build partnerships, welcome diversity, understand the self.

Activities: Painting, Building a shadow theatre, props, sets and puppets for the healing tale

Term 4: October - November (Craft workshop November 11)

Going beyond: Microcosm & macrocosm

o   A deep dive into the nature of sleeping, dreaming, birth and death and the earth’s evolution in relation to The Dreaming of First Nations.

o   Spiritual development; Working practically with the throat and heart chakras

Self-development: The importance of self-care, nourishing our well-being and finding balance; Weekly journal entries on insights, learnings and research questions from the sessions and readings

Activities: Creating new rituals/celebrations with story, song, poetry, movement