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Journey Through the Parenting Garden
Understand your child. Grow as a parent. Shape generations.
Biblically grounded parenting wisdom for real family life.
Every child is wonderfully unique. And every parent has something more to learn.
Journey Through the Parenting Garden is a biblically grounded, practical parenting course that equips parents with understanding, insight, wisdom and tools to navigate the different seasons of raising children.
Discover how your child’s temperament, developmental stages and individual needs influence their behaviour, how your own experiences shape the way you parent, and how healthy authority and compassionate discipline can help you cultivate stronger relationships and nurture character that will last a lifetime.
A different understanding
What if there’s more to your child’s behaviour than you realise?
Perhaps you’ve found yourself repeating the same instructions, getting frustrated by the same behaviour or wondering why something that works beautifully with one child seems to have the opposite effect on another.
Perhaps you’re trying so hard to respond appropriately, yet you sometimes find yourself reacting in ways you later regret. Or perhaps things are going reasonably well, but you know there’s more wisdom to gain and more you could understand about the children you’re raising.
Children don’t arrive with instruction manuals. Their temperaments differ, their needs change as they grow, and behaviour that appears to be deliberate defiance may have an entirely different explanation.
Journey Through the Parenting Garden invites you to look beyond the behaviour and discover what may be happening beneath the surface.
Because sometimes the greatest change in our parenting begins not with a new technique, but with a new understanding.
The way forward
Understand your child. Understand yourself. Parent with intention.
Understand your child
God has created each child uniquely, with their own temperament, strengths, needs and potential. Learning to recognise these differences can transform the way we understand and guide them.
Explore not only the familiar physical milestones of childhood, but also the emotional, moral and psychosocial stages that influence behaviour and relationships. Discover why a child may respond in ways you didn’t anticipate, what is reasonable to expect at different ages and how to adapt your approach accordingly.
Temperament offers valuable insight, but it doesn’t determine a child’s character or limit who they can become. Understanding a child’s natural tendencies helps us recognise the areas in which they may flourish easily and those where patient, intentional guidance will be especially valuable.
Understand yourself
Every parent brings a history into parenting.
Our upbringing, temperament, expectations, beliefs and learned responses all influence the way we guide and discipline our children, often without our realising it.
Sometimes we discover that we’ve been repeating approaches we grew up with, even when they aren’t producing the results we hoped for. Understanding these influences allows us to recognise our own emotional triggers, reconsider unhelpful patterns and take responsibility for how we respond.
We cannot always control our children’s behaviour, but we can learn to take greater responsibility for our own.
Parent with intention
Understanding becomes most valuable when we begin putting it into practice.
Learn to establish healthy authority, set appropriate boundaries, practise compassionate discipline and recognise different types of misbehaviour. Discover how to respond with greater wisdom rather than simply reacting out of frustration, fear or a need for control.
The goal is not merely to correct behaviour after something goes wrong. It is also to anticipate challenges, teach necessary skills, model the character we hope to develop and create an environment in which our children can flourish.
Authority with affection
Discipline is about far more than punishment and reward
A garden doesn’t flourish simply because we keep cutting back what we don’t like. It needs thoughtful cultivation, nourishment, guidance, patience and care appropriate to each season.
Parenting is much the same.
Discipline involves teaching, modelling, correcting, encouraging and preparing our children for life. It requires both healthy authority and genuine affection. Sometimes it means setting firm boundaries; at other times, it means recognising that a child needs understanding, guidance or a skill they haven’t yet developed.
And often, the first person who needs to practise self-control is the parent.
The aim isn’t to produce perfectly behaved children or eliminate every difficult moment. It is to nurture character, strengthen relationships and help children grow towards responsibility and emotional maturity.
Faith in the everyday
Biblical wisdom, lived out in everyday parenting
Parenting is a God-given responsibility and an extraordinary opportunity to influence future generations. We are not simply raising children for today, but helping prepare them for the people they will become.
The course draws openly from Scripture and approaches children as uniquely created by God, entrusted to our care. Biblical principles are explored alongside practical tools that parents can apply in ordinary situations – from difficult mornings and bedtime battles to setting boundaries, navigating developmental changes and strengthening family relationships.
James 1:5 (opens in a new tab) reminds us that we can ask God for wisdom. As parents, we need that wisdom continually.
The course is warmly open to parents from different backgrounds, including those who are exploring faith or don’t currently identify as Christians. You will know from the outset that its foundation is biblical, and you are welcome to come, ask questions, discover and learn.
A fellow parent. Your facilitator.
Meet Linda
I’m Linda Kruger – a wife, mother of two young children and registered Evergreen Parenting facilitator.
Like most parents, I love my children deeply, but that certainly doesn’t mean I always know what I’m doing! Parenting has brought some of the most wonderful moments of my life, alongside a few that have left me wondering whether anybody remembered to include the instruction manual.
I’ve experienced firsthand how much difference the right understanding and practical tools can make. I am still learning and growing myself, and I approach other parents with warmth, humility and without judgement.
Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed and searching for answers, or simply want to become more intentional in your parenting, you’re welcome.
My heart is to help parents recognise what they’re already doing well, discover opportunities for growth and gain the wisdom and confidence to nurture stronger relationships within their families.
In Linda’s words
My Journey Into Evergreen Parenting
An empty backpack, four trees and an unexpected answer
When my oldest child was around twenty months old, the tantrums began, and I found myself completely out of my depth.
I desperately wanted to respond appropriately, but I simply didn’t know how. I remember crying out to God for wisdom and guidance.
Then I had a dream.
I was standing in front of a window, carrying an empty backpack. Outside, a river flowed past four trees, each illuminated by a different colour – red, blue, yellow and green.
As God began showing me what the dream meant, I understood that He was directing me towards Evergreen Parenting. I came to understand the river as representing the flow of the Holy Spirit, while the four differently coloured trees represented the four temperament types I would later recognise in the Evergreen Parenting framework.
My empty backpack represented how unequipped I felt and my need for the right tools. The window represented an opportunity being presented to me.
I knew I needed to take that opportunity.
Understanding changed the way I parented
Looking back, I realised how much of my parenting had been shaped by the patterns and approaches I had grown up with.
Without recognising it, I was often using a cookie-cutter approach, expecting the same responses and applying the same methods to children and situations that were vastly different.
Perhaps the biggest revelation concerned discipline. During the toddler years, I had been interpreting almost every instance of misbehaviour as deliberate disobedience or defiance. Looking back, I sometimes feel as though I was getting it wrong ninety per cent of the time!
I hadn’t understood that there were different types of misbehaviour, with different causes that required different responses.
Because I was treating almost everything as disobedience, I kept correcting behaviour in ways that weren’t working. Worse still, I could feel my relationship with my child beginning to suffer.
The course helped me realise that before I could respond appropriately to my child’s behaviour, I first needed to understand it.
Learning about developmental stages and temperament opened my eyes to an entirely different way of approaching parenting. I began to see my children’s behaviour with greater understanding, and I became more aware of the expectations and reactions I was bringing into each situation.
As my approach changed, the unnecessary power struggles became fewer. I found myself responding with more patience, compassion and wisdom, and the trust and connection that had begun to suffer were restored.
One of my greatest discoveries was that sometimes the first thing that needs to change isn’t our children’s behaviour, but our own approach to parenting.
Why I chose to become a facilitator
I initially chose to become an Evergreen Parenting facilitator for my own growth. I wanted to deepen my understanding and internalise what I had learnt, knowing that teaching these principles would continually challenge me to practise them within my own family.
But having experienced their value firsthand, I also wanted other parents to discover the same understanding, insight, wisdom and practical tools.
I’m not here as someone who has mastered parenting. I’m here as a fellow parent who has discovered just how much there is to learn, and how rewarding that journey can be.
Original website writing and personal reflections © 2026 Linda Kruger. All rights reserved.
Learning that becomes part of life
What to Expect From the Course
See dates & registrationJourney Through the Parenting Garden combines facilitator-led presentations, a structured workbook, discussion, personal reflection and practical application.
The course includes:
- Five live online sessions, approximately 2½ hours each, presented fortnightly.
- Session 1 is a free introduction, with no obligation to continue. No online materials or preparatory videos are required beforehand. Afterwards, you decide whether to continue with the remaining programme.
- 12½ hours of live learning, plus video preparation for Sessions 2–5. Parents who continue after Session 1 are required to watch approximately 50–90 minutes of assigned video material before each remaining live session. The online materials prepare you for the corresponding discussion and are additional to the live learning time. The fortnightly schedule gives parents time to reflect and put what they’ve learnt into practice.
- Opportunities for reflection and discussion, including questions and experiences arising from everyday parenting.
- Practical tools to apply at home, helping the learning become part of your family’s daily life.
The course explores parenting seasons, temperament, healthy authority, compassionate discipline, relationships and intentional character development.
Growing Kids with Character by Hettie Brittz is recommended as complementary reading but is not compulsory.
Room to learn. Room to grow.
Who Is the Course For?
The course is suitable for parents and caregivers of children aged 0–18 years, addressing the changing seasons and challenges of parenting.
Mothers and fathers are equally welcome. Both parents are encouraged to participate together where possible, helping them build a shared understanding and a more consistent parenting approach. Single parents are equally welcome, as are grandparents, guardians and others who play a meaningful role in raising children.
You don’t need to be struggling to benefit.
Perhaps you are looking for calmer routines, more effective discipline or a deeper connection with your child. Or perhaps you simply want to grow in wisdom, understand your family better and become more intentional about the legacy you’re nurturing.
There is always more to learn, and every new understanding creates an opportunity for growth.
Ready to Begin?
Your parenting journey deserves more than guesswork.
Discover greater understanding of your children, fresh insight into yourself and practical ways to nurture the relationships and character entrusted to your care.
Begin with a free introductory session. After Session 1, you decide whether to continue. The standard continuation fee is R975 per family for Sessions 2–5, including the online materials. Current intake dates, fees and registration availability are shown on the course schedule.
View Upcoming Courses & Registration
Registration requests are reviewed before places are confirmed. Linda will contact you with the next steps. If you choose to continue after the introduction, she will arrange invoicing and EFT payment details. See the Parenting course terms and refunds.