This unit, entitled Loving Environments, has been developed to look at some of the practical ways in which a child’s essential need for love can be fulfilled. Among many of the subjects touched upon in this unit is that of building loving relationships, and some of the qualities, attitudes, skills and concepts involved that help us to create such relationships. We examine how attitudes and behaviours form, the crucial impact this has upon a child’s actions and perceptions and how this relates to family harmony.

The unit also looks at the importance of creating encouraging environments built upon love and discipline. The purpose behind love and discipline, as our course suggests, is to foster the inner motivation in children to make appropriate behavioural choices even when authority figures are not present, because according to their own understanding, it is the right thing to do. The unit sees love and disciplines as two sides of the same coin and asks participants to reflect deeply upon some of the methods and tools that they can introduce in order to foster inner discipline in their children. Rather than relying upon intervention strategies, we explore the use of educative and preventative measures, the foundations of which need to be in place early in a child’s life to enhance the development of sound judgement and inner discipline.

The course is designed to examine some of the capabilities necessary to promote environments conducive to learning. The word “environment” not only includes the preparation of the physical aspects of the home setting, but also the attitudes and qualities needed to foster the spirit of joyful learning conducive to establishing such environments. The unit starts from the premise that the child is a conscious and thinking member of his or her own family, who from an early age is capable of contributing to the wellbeing of the family home. As a result all educational activities to support children’s development throughout this unit are developed with this principle in mind.

Children find the world around them an endless source of interest and this is reflected in the questions of “Why?” Rather than giving children immediate answers, parents will learn strategies to help their children to observe and wait, as well as to understand the processes involved – increasing a child’s sense of wonderment and encouraging a deeper understanding of the world around them. Tools to assist rich learning experiences are covered throughout the course, as well as skills that lay the foundations for important linguistic, mathematical and scientific concepts.