Welcome to Child of the Redwoods!
We’re Aubrey and David Hargis, and we founded Child of the Redwoods in 2017 to help parents and caregivers bring the Montessori method to life in their own homes.
Wherever you are on your journey — be it full-time homeschooling, looking for ways to enrich your child’s after school and summer learning experiences, or simply trying to understand what’s happening in your child’s school — we welcome you.
OUR APPROACH
Our vision is to help ALL parents and caregivers — regardless of background, income, or geographical location — bring Montessori to life in their homes.
That means creating an approach that goes beyond curriculum. Like all educators, homeschool families need to understand the how and why behind learning science, not just have the what.
This is where the typical “plug-and-play” system — those that focus on student workbooks, apps, or pre-made albums — often fall short. They cover the content but give little or no support to the teaching.
These limitations are even more dramatic when it comes to the Montessori approach. As Maria Montessori herself tells us, materials aren’t what really matters. It’s the method!
In short, you really can’t bring Montessori to life at home unless you have the HOW, the WHY, and the WHAT.
For Wherever You are on Your Journey
We know that no two people arrive at Child of the Redwoods with the same needs.
Some arrive wanting a deeper understanding of Montessori’s work and philosophy – how to give core lessons and use classic materials, what it means to “follow the child.” and how to create a supportive environment for a child’s specific stage of development. For these members, we suggest beginning with Homeschool of the Redwoods. We offer two versions - Primary (for parents with Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Kindergartners) and Lower Elementary (for parents with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Graders).
Others arrive with some understanding of Montessori or with a set of practices and routines that already work well for their family. What they’re after is a Montessori-aligned homeschool curriculum — one filled with activities that support a spiraling approach, that emphasizes freedom and natural learning over prescriptiveness, and is modified specifically for use in the home. For these members, we suggest beginning with Constellation.
Regardless of where you begin, we want to ensure you’re completely supported in your journey - that you have the what, why, and how. That’s why we’ve built all of our homeschool programs around five core properties:
A unified academic framework that organizes the learning content into 10 subjects
A leveled curriculum that helps parents and children understand the sequencing of ideas
A simple to use understanding matrix to help guide the learning journey
A focus on thematic learning to support spiraling and discovery
A Coaching-Curriculum-Community approach that ensures both parent and child are supported throughout the journey
Curriculum: Our Montessori-aligned, child-centric curriculum provides the depth and quality homeschooling families deserve. In our foundations programs (Homeschool of the Redwoods), you’ll find comprehensive lists of core lessons and activities, organized into easy to navigate sets of subjects and levels. Meanwhile, our practice program (Constellation) provides engaging, thematic learning that introduces and reinforces core concepts.
Community: Our private community provides members a place to learn and share with Montessori parents from around the globe and get guidance and support from Child of the Redwoods’ Montessori-certified experts.
Coaching: Our group coaching sessions give members a place to deepen their understanding and get expert feedback and advice in a group setting. Foundations programs include a series of live coaching sessions focused on the core academic subjects plus planning. Meanwhile, Constellation provides two coaching events a month. Replays are always available within 48 hours.
A JOURNEY WE TAKE TOGETHER
Thank you so much for visiting. Take a few minutes to explore our site and learn more about our different programs. We’ve got lots of free resources, including printables, videos, a live YouTube show, and a podcast, to help you along the way You can also join our mailing list to get tips and motivation delivered to your inbox!
And if you have any questions, just reach out! We’re here to help.
