Montessori on the Farm

The parent course · live online

Learn to give the lessons yourself

12 live sessions of 2 hours, one a week for a term, taught by Julia. The whole of the second plane at a parenting level: the great stories, how to give a lesson, and what to do when a child stalls. No teaching background needed, and nowhere to drive to.

What it is

The adult half of the campus

The campus teaches your children. This teaches you. It follows the same spine, so the week you sit down with the Coming of Life on the campus is the week you have just been shown how to tell it. You do not need the campus to take the course, but they were built to fit.

Live, not recorded

You are in the room with Julia and the other families, asking about your own child. Every session is recorded as well, so a sick week costs you nothing.

Practice, not lecture

You watch a lesson given, then you give one. Most of the value is in the second half of that sentence, which is why the course is live at all.

Small on purpose

Cohorts are kept small so everyone can speak and ask about their own child. When one fills, the next one opens rather than this one growing.

The programme

Twelve sessions, in Montessori's order

Five sessions on the Five Great Lessons, because that is where cosmic education starts. Seven on the work of actually doing it at your own table.

1
The child in front of you
The second plane, and what changed at six: reason, imagination, fairness and the sudden need for a group.
Read first: The Parent and Caregiver Guide, 1 to 4
2
Telling the Great Story
The coming of the universe and the Earth, told as drama. You will tell it before the session ends.
Campus: The Universe
3
The Coming of Life
The long unfolding, the timeline, and how one story opens biology, botany and ecology.
Campus: The Coming of Life
4
The Coming of Human Beings
Three great gifts, and the doorway into history, culture and what it means to be human.
Campus: The Coming of Human Beings
5
Communication in Signs
How a thought was first held in a mark, and how that story carries reading, writing and grammar.
Campus: The Story of Writing
6
The Story of Numbers
Fingers, knots and marks, and why mathematics is a human story before it is a subject.
Campus: The Story of Numbers
7
Giving a lesson
The three period lesson, the art of saying less, and the hardest part: stepping back and letting it be theirs.
Practice session
8
Following the child
Observation that is useful, records that hold up, and what to do when a child stalls or refuses.
Practice session
9
The prepared environment at home
A kitchen table, a shelf and a budget. What matters, what does not, and what to make rather than buy.
Practice session
10
Going out, and the work of the hands
Turning a lesson into something built, grown, measured or walked to, and why that is not an extra.
Practice session
11
Te ao Māori in your home education
Kaitiakitanga as the cosmic task, the pūrākau as great stories, and the maramataka as a way of watching the year.
Campus: the Te Ao Māori strand
12
The year ahead
Rhythm rather than timetable, planning a block, and keeping the record your exemption asks for.
You leave with your own plan

What it costs

One price, everything in it

$595

12 sessions, about $50 each. All prices include GST.

12 live sessions of 2 hours with Julia
Every session recorded, yours for the year
Two half hour phone calls, whenever you need them
A monthly group clinic, open to every cohort
The Parent and Caregiver Guide, 18 lessons
Notes and printables for every session

Taking a campus place too? The course is 20 percent off when both are booked and paid in full together: $476. Join the campus and tick the box.

Cohorts start through the year. Register your interest and we will confirm the next dates with you before you are asked to pay anything. Taking a campus place at the same time is the easiest way in: tick the box when you join and the course is yours at 20 percent off.

Your place

Register your interest

No payment, no obligation. We will email you when the dates are set, and you decide then.

We will only email you about this course. Nothing is charged now, and there is no card on file at any point.

In the meantime

You can start tonight

The campus is open now, and three lessons are free with no account needed. Every subscription includes the Parent and Caregiver Guide, which is the reading this course is built on.

See the campus Play a lesson now