Parent Education Programs

The Infants’ Home runs a number of education and support programs each year to provide parents and carers with information and support on aspects of parenting, as well as the social, emotional and communication tools to help develop their parenting skills. Our parenting courses are often run in collaboration with external expert agencies.

The courses help parents to be more sensitive to their child’s emotions and more able to positively guide their behaviour, better understand their child’s needs, and to be calm and more purposeful in their play and interactions with their child.

Information regarding Term 4 2024 programs will be provided once course and booking details have been confirmed.

Bringing Up Great Kids

Bringing Up Great Kids is for parents and carers of children aged birth to 12 years. The program supports the development of mindful and positive relationships between parents/carers and children through interactive activities and discussions. It will support parents and carers to:

• Learn more about the origins of their own parenting style and how this can become more effective
• Identify the important messages they want to convey to their children and how to achieve this
• Learn about brain development in children and its influence on their thoughts, feelings and behaviour
• Understand the meaning of children’s behaviour
• Discover how to overcome some of the obstacles that may be getting in the way of being the kind of parents they would like to be
• Discover ways for them to take care of themselves and to find support when they need it.

Baby Bonding Program for Expecting and New Parents

This is an eight-week program for parents and carers that nurtures and promotes a secure attachment in the parent-child relationships from 28 weeks of pregnancy to baby’s first steps.

The group will help you to:

• Enjoy simple, gentle, and playful activities focused on parent/carer and baby wellness
• Enjoy a space to just ‘be’ rather than ‘do’ with your baby
• Learn how little ones develop and how you play the most important part of all!
• The group is facilitated by two experienced Play Therapists from the Rev. Bill Crews Foundation.

Tuning in to Kids

Tuning in to Kids is a six-week program for parents and carers of children aged 3 to 8 years.

Would you like to:

• Be better at talking with your child?
• Understand your child better?
• Help your child to learn to manage their emotions?
• Help to prevent challenging behaviours in your child?
• Teach your child how to deal with conflict?
• Support your child to develop emotional intelligence?

Tuning in to Kids shows you how to help your child develop their emotional intelligence.

Tuning in to Teens  

Tuning in to Teens is a six-week program for parents and carers of adolescents.  

Would you like to learn how to:  

• Be better at talking with your teen?  
• Be better at understanding your teen?  
• Help your teen learn to manage their emotions?  
• Help to prevent behaviour problems in your teen?  
• Teach your teen to deal with conflict?  

Tuning in to Teens shows you how to help your teen develop emotional intelligence.

Circle of Security

Circle of Security is an eight-week program for parents and carers of children aged birth to 8 years.    

All parents can feel lost or unsure about what their child might need from them at times. Imagine what it might feel like if you were able to make sense of what your child was really asking of you. The Circle of Security Parenting™ program is based on decades of research about how secure parent-child relationships can be supported and strengthened.  

This program can help parents and carers to:

• Understand their child’s emotional world by learning to read their emotional needs  
• Support their child’s ability to successfully manage emotions  
• Enhance the development of their child’s self esteem  
• Honour their innate wisdom and desire for their child to be secure.

Cool Little Kids

Cool Little Kids is an early intervention program that teaches parents how to help and parent their overly anxious, shy or inhibited young child.

The program is free and is aimed at parents of preschoolers (children aged 3 to 6 years) who experience excessive shyness and fearfulness. This might look like your child:

• Worries a lot
• Is scared to speak to others
• Is fearful of animals
• Complains of tummy pain or other physical complaints
• Has great difficulty relating to others
• Is described as “slow to warm up” in social situations
• Has difficulty separating from parents.

The program will build progressively each week.

Please note that this program is for parents only—children do not attend, and childminding will not be available.

We will advise our community when dates, times and booking details for each of our parenting programs become available. For further information or to make an enquiry, please call us on 02 9799 4844, or email mail@theinfantshome.org.au.

We are working with our partners to plan for our parenting programs for 2025. We will advise our community via our website and social media platforms in 2025 when programs are confirmed. Course booking links will be published on this page as these become available.