Montessori Parent & Child Class Sydney's Northern Beaches

Classes from 4 months - 3 years in Manly and Forestville

Little Hands at Work is a Montessori parent and child centre on Sydney's Northern Beaches, in Manly and Forestville. We've been running classes for families with children from four months to three years since 2017.

Our work is led by AMI-trained Montessori practice — the Association Montessori Internationale is the international body that protects and develops Maria Montessori's original work, and it's the training tradition we use in every class.

Three things shape what we do: we inspire children to follow their own curiosity, empower parents to do this work at home, and involve families in the day-to-day practice — instead of handing it off to us.

If you're looking for a quieter, slower way to be with your child in the first three years, you'll find your people here

Nido (Parent/Caregiver & Infant Class)

4 months - 12 months Monday & Tuesday 11am - 12pm

In the first year, your baby is communicating constantly — with their hands, their gaze, their rhythm of movement — long before they have words. Nido is an hour each week to slow down and learn to read that language. In a room prepared with floor beds, low mirrors and simple wooden materials, you'll put your baby down, step back, and watch what they do when the world is built for them.

What Nido is really about:

Observation, not entertainment. You'll be coached to watch before you intervene — the single hardest shift to make with a baby and the one that sets up everything else.
A space where your baby is already competent. Floor-level work, low shelves, pincer-grip objects and freedom of movement, so you can see what independence looks like at this age and copy it at home.
Pre-verbal communication and early language. Real objects named in real time, songs, and recitation — how language is built before the first word arrives.
A soft landing into parenthood. No toys-as-stimulation, no screens, no comparisons — a quiet community of parents doing the same work.

Toddler (Parent/Caregiver & Walking Infants)

12 months - 24 months (Monday and Tuesday 9am - 10am)

Toddler class is an hour where you stop doing things for them, and learn how to set up a home where they can do things for themselves. You'll leave with specific changes to make — often small ones — that turn the ten daily negotiations (shoes, coat, lunch, bath) into work your toddler takes pride in.

What Toddler class is really about:

Designing the home for independence. Hooks at their height, water they can pour, clothes they can choose — the concrete changes you can make this week.
Real language, not baby-talk. How to name the world around a toddler — and why it matters at this exact stage.
Holding limits without raising your voice. What is a real limit, what isn't, and how to stay with the "no" when it comes.

Young Child (20 months - 3 years)

Thursday 9:00am - 10:30am

At around two, children begin to concentrate — long, quiet stretches of focused work on a single activity, often surprising to the parent watching. The Young Child class protects that emerging attention, and shows you how to protect it at home. This is why the session is ninety minutes, not sixty: children this age deserve a full work cycle, and you deserve the time to see them complete one without interruption.

What Young Child is really about:

Ninety minutes of self-chosen activity — the longer session is deliberate. Children this age can concentrate far longer than we give them credit for, and the class is built around that.
The parent's job is to do less. You'll be guided through when to step in, when to wait, and when to let frustration do its work.
A bridge to school. Self-care, concentration and social skills that make the transition to a Montessori 3–6 classroom (or any preschool) feel like a continuation, not a rupture.