The Heart Spaces course is year-long and part-time. More than 85 % of our graduates have either found work in Steiner Early Childhood settings, Family Day Care or Bush kinder or community projects. Some educators were in mainstream settings already and have transformed the way they work with children. Others are involved in Steiner educational roles, further training, or in community child care services.
The program is run by Carol Liknaitzky, who has been an adult educator for the past 40 years, and has extensive experience in the early childhood sector, human and child rights and works in a variety of settings including universities and remote communities in Africa and Australia. She has been running the Heart Spaces Course in Australia for the past 12 years.
For more information and to enrol please go to:
https://www.heartspaces.com.au/education-courses
Testimonials
‘One may think one is enrolling in a child-study course, but it is so much more than that. It is a place of playful, yet deeply reflective self-learning and understanding - inner work can actually be fun, pleasurable, creative, engaging and socially inclusive! On the way to discovering the joys of relating with children, I feel I have uncovered and retrieved my own happy and vital inner child - the greatest blessing.’ (SL: 2020)
‘Carol presents Steiner Education in a way that is relevant for our current world. Her course is a breath of fresh air that prepares us to meet the challenges of our time with courage in our hearts.’ (RB: 2020)
The basics of the course
- Open and accessible to anyone, parent or educator who wishes to take this journey
- Each term has 8 sessions of 3 hours each with content, exercises and group discussions
- Attendance at least 90% of the course and all projects are completed for certificate of attendance with a detailed letter outlining the content and skills
- The Heart Spaces Essentials course fee: $2000 per annum ($500 per term)
Course leader:
There are two parallel courses in 2024! There is an in-person course in the Sunshine Coast as well as an online course.
The in-person course takes place in Eumundi, on seven Thursday mornings (11am - 2pm) and one Saturday afternoon (2.30 - 5.30pm) each term.
The online course takes place over eight sessions per term, on Monday evenings from 6 - 9pm (AEST), plus a face-to-face Intensive on the Sunshine Coast on 20, 21, 22 and 23 September.
This course offers a nurturing space to develop as an educator and / or parent through a range of experiential learning techniques, groupwork, discussions, facilitated processes, lectures and reflections. It also serves as professional development for experienced educators to renew and recharge their forces.
You are provided with opportunities to develop skills in a variety of crafts such as dollmaking, puppetry, felting, silk dyeing and papercrafts (moving pictures and shadow theatre), and create and tell stories, do presentations and get constructive peer feedback. We regularly practise movement, singing, painting, drawing and claywork.
This course is for those who wish to be authentic artistic educators and parents, joyfully engaged with children’s development and learning, supported by Rudolf Steiner’s wealth of insights into human development. The course provides a foundation for educators at all levels (Early Childhood, Primary and High School) and is particularly helpful for those who work in a Steiner setting without previous training in this approach to education. It provides very practical and imaginative essences of anthroposophy that empower educators, and also facilitates the development of creative storytelling skills over four major projects. This course helps parents who want to understand how to support each child’s unique development process and to be confident and creative in their parenting skills, as well as in homeschooling.
People can still enrol for the course from Term 3 onwards and complete the course by the end of Term 2 in 2025.
TERM 3:
- IN-PERSON: 25 July - 5 September
7x Thursdays 11am - 2pm
1x Saturday 17 August, Crafternoon 2.30 - 5.30pm
or
- ONLINE (Zoom): 22 July - 9 September
8x Monday evenings 6 - 9pm
CONTENT:
Knowing myself
- The phases of human life development; Seven qualities underpinning adult behaviour
- 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
20, 21, 22, 23 September: INTENSIVE in-person for online and all participants on the SUNSHINE COAST
TERM 4:
- IN-PERSON: 24 October - 5 December
7x Thursdays 11am - 2pm
1x Saturday 16 November, Crafternoon 2.30 - 5.30pm
or
- ONLINE (Zoom): 21 October - 9 December
8x Monday evenings 6 - 9pm
CONTENT:
Going beyond: Microcosm & Macrocosm
- A deep dive into the nature of sleeping, dreaming, birth and death
- The earth’s evolution including the connection to The Dreaming/Creation stories of Australian First Nations.
- 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
...and in 2025
TERM 1:
CONTENT:
Understanding the essentials of how young children develop and learn and what supports whole child development in a healthy way
- 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:
CONTENT:
Creating a nourishing environment by developing practice in observation skills
- Nourishing the senses with particular emphasis on the transformative process from birth to adulthood
- Language development in relation to music and movement - birth to adulthood
- 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, creating a simple song, making a moving picture