Early childhood educators carry something profound in their daily work, the knowledge that the early years are the foundation of life. The relationships children form, the environments they grow up in, and the care they receive in those first years shape who they become, and in turn, where we are headed as a society.
Child Honouring offers a framework for putting that understanding into everyday practice. The Child Honouring Covenant was developed by beloved children’s troubadour and child advocate Raffi Cavoukian and is rooted in the belief that designing society for the greatest good begins with meeting the priority needs of the very young. Child Honouring affirms that all children are created whole, born with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, and worthy of respect. Every child is entitled to love, to dream, and to belong to a loving community.
The Nine Principles
For Early Childhood Educators, the principles of Child Honouring offer something rare, a framework that names what so many in this field already feel to be true, and gives it shape.
At the heart of everything is the principle of Respectful Love. It means seeing each child as a whole person, a legitimate being with their own voice, their own wisdom, their own way of being in the world. When children experience this kind of love, from caregivers, educators, and the wider community, it becomes fundamental in their development. It builds self-worth. It makes everything else possible.
From that foundation, the principles ripple outward. Nonviolence asks us to ensure there is no physical harm, but also to go beyond this to something active, living with compassion in our homes, our classrooms, and our communities. Emotional Intelligence reminds us that the early years are a time for exploring feelings in a safe setting, and that self-regulation, cooperation, play, and creativity matter more to a child’s long-term flourishing than any academic measure. When children feel loved, when they grow up free from violence, and when they have emotional intelligence modelled for them, they are more able to learn and more able to show compassion for others.
Safe Environments are the soil in which all of this grows. Young children need to feel secure and to belong. They need protection from neglect, from overstimulation, from the commercial forces that seek to shape their minds before they have the tools to understand what is happening. ECEs are often the ones holding that protective space, and Child Honouring affirms the profound importance of that role.
The principles also honour the richness children bring into our care. Diversity, in all its forms, is understood as abundance: a wealth of cultures, intelligences, ways of being human, and ways of experiencing the natural world. Introducing children to human and ecological diversity builds on their innate curiosity and teaches us all to delight in our differences.
And then the framework asks us to look even further, to the Caring Community required to raise a child well, to the Sustainability of the world those children will inherit, to the systems of Ethical Commerce that will shape their futures. And Conscious Parenting and Caregiving, the kind that requires caregivers and educators to reflect on their own upbringing, to practice their own emotional regulation, and to ensure they are caring for themselves as they care for little ones. It is something that can be taught, practiced, and shared, and it is a skill and a gift, passed from one generation to the next.
Taken together, these nine principles are not a checklist, but instead a way of seeing the possibilities that exist in the Child Honouring approach.
A Framework That Supports the Whole Educator
For ECEs, these principles are not abstract ideals. They are a daily practice and a source of meaning. What happens in the early years shapes the kind of world we are building together. The educator who greets a child at the door, who responds with patience to a moment of overwhelm, who creates space for play and creativity and belonging, is doing work that matters far beyond the walls of any classroom or childcare space.
Child Honouring also expands the lens outward, from child and family, to community and planet. This wider view is one of its most sustaining gifts for educators. It locates the daily work of early childhood education within a much larger story. Early Childhood Educators are involved in the project of building a more just, more peaceful, more loving world. On days when the work is exhausting, when the systems feel inadequate, when the weight of what children carry into our care is heavy, that larger sense of purpose can be a genuine source of grounding. Child Honouring reminds ECEs that they are not simply managing behaviour or meeting developmental milestones. They are, in the truest sense, helping to shape the future. That is not a small thing. It is, as Raffi has long insisted, the most important work there is.
Learn More with the Raffi Foundation
The Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring offers an 18-hour evidence-based online course that guides educators, parents, and community members through the Nine Principles, with practical tools and “take action” segments in every module, empowering educators to be effective changemakers with real tools that make a lasting impact. The course is self-paced, accessible on any device, and designed for busy people. The Raffi Foundation also offers workshops and webinars for organizations, teams, and communities interested in learning more about Child Honouring.
CCCF members receive a 40% discount on the course as part of our partnership with the Raffi Foundation. To learn more, visit www.raffifoundation.org or reach out at admin@raffifoundation.org.
Together, We Honour Children
Child Honouring is ultimately an invitation to give children the experience of being seen and loved for who they are, to build the communities they deserve, and to recognize that in doing so, we are also becoming more fully ourselves. For early childhood educators, who have chosen a path of caring for the very young, this philosophy a way to deepen and ground the work you’re already doing. The Raffi Foundation is grateful to be in partnership with the Canadian Child Care Federation in bringing this work to the ECE community across Canada.
