Workshop

Baby's Place

Our tamariki are precious taonga and raising children is one of the most life-changing, incredible, overwhelming experiences available to us in life. Yet somehow our society isn’t set up to support our newest citizens and nurture the relationship of parent and child. From parental leave to overt and covert cultural messages, there is a fair share of learning and unlearning when it comes to parenting our tamariki.

Baby’s Place is a time and place to set the world aside and focus on the relationship between parent and baby, to acknowledge babies’ importance in our society and their place at the centre of the whānau.

Baby’s Place is a 10 week course for babies and their parents to come together with a small group of like-minded families to learn about how you can support your baby’s development in a  calm, peaceful and respectful environment.

It offers tools for partnership to nurture the bond between parent and baby. These are inspired by the approach of paediatrician Dr Emmi Pikler and childcare educator Pennie Brownlee’s Dance with me in the Heart.

In recent years it’s been called many things: respectful parenting, gentle parenting, heart-centred parenting, connection parenting - at Baby’s Place it’s about how we as parents can respond to our babies in a way that acknowledges their innate capacity to partner with their caregivers and participate in the world. (Don’t worry, we have another course for our Toddler’s too - some additional tools required for that growing autonomy).

To learn more please click on our brochure

2025 BP dates

Term 1: Wednesday Feb 5th and then every Thursday from Feb 13th to April 10th

Term 2: Every Thursday from May 1st to July 10th

Term 3: Every Thursday from July 17th to Sept 18th

Term 4: Every Thursday from Oct 9th to Dec 11th

Register your interest now!

What you can Expect:

  • Meet with like-minded families over 10 weeks
  • Learn about care moments and why they’re your go-to for connection with your baby
  • Set your baby up to grow the skills for independent play
  • What to do to support your baby’s physical movement and language development
  • How to fit self-care into everyday (even when your cup is empty)
  • Someone to make you a cup of tea
“This course should be taken by all parents – it helps to create a loving, connected relationship between parent and child – where every other course… helps to further the divide by creating expectations around age-related milestones, schedules etc.”
“Baby’s Place is so well named – it truly is a place for babies to feel seen, heard, nurtured, loved and safe.”

Baby’s Place is ideally suited to baby’s from 6 weeks to 1 year old. We have been facilitating these workshops in Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara since 2017. This course and the Pikler philosophy aligns the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Meet our Facilitators

Bronwen Olds
Facilitator

Bronwen’s vocation is focused on creating and supporting just and respectful relationships.

​Naomi
Facilitator

Naomi is an early childhood teacher with over 15 years of experience working with children under five.

Register Interest

Register your interest

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