A Living Ecosystem for Learning
in Vilcabamba, Ecuador
The Nest Learning Center...
...is the incubator and cradle of the FERN Model, a living learning ecosystem where childhood and healthy human development are placed at the center of the equation.
Here, learning is not treated as a curriculum to deliver or behavior to control.
It is understood as a biological, relational, and nervous-system-driven process.
We are not here to shape children into predefined outcomes.
We are here to protect the conditions that allow development to unfold.
A Place Like No Other
Located in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, The Nest exists within a unique global convergence.
Families from all over the world come here because they are ready to do things differently.
They are questioning traditional education, rethinking childhood, and choosing a more conscious, life-aligned path.
The Nest is not just a school.
It is a meeting point for a new story — one where:
Children
not rushed out of childhood
Sensitivity
is not pathologized
Learning
is not separated from life
Families
are supported, not isolated
The FERN Philosophy
The FERN Model is rooted in a simple but radical understanding:
Learning is not a cognitive act. It is a nervous system state.
From this lens, everything changes.
- Regulation comes before education
- Safety comes before performance
- Connection comes before instruction
- Autonomy emerges from co-regulation, not control
FERN understands development as a living system — not linear, not standardized, not forced.
Children are not empty vessels.
They are complex, intelligent, adaptive beings whose growth depends on:
- Nervous system safety
- Relational attunement
- Environmental coherence
- Freedom within regulation
Facilitators are not teachers.
They are regulation anchors who hold the conditions where learning can emerge naturally.
More about The FERN Model here
Our Origins
The Nest was founded by Katta and Eric under the vision of New Earth School Teachings.
Katta, the heart and head of the project, brings over 30 years of experience in education in Sweden, where she dedicated her life to creating alternative spaces for children, spaces where learning could be human, relational, and alive.
Her work has always gone beyond traditional teaching.
Through art, music, and deeply attuned presence, she has guided countless children through processes of expression, regulation, and transformation.
Katta doesn’t “manage” children. She meets them.
With a rare sensitivity and depth of attunement, she created the original container that would later become The Nest, a space where children are not expected to fit, but are allowed to unfold.
Alongside her, Eric, her husband, brings a complementary presence that grounds and stabilizes the ecosystem.
A former international chef, Eric carries a refined sensitivity and a natural ability to connect with children, meeting them with warmth, presence, and authenticity.
He offers a steady energy of wisdom and strength, creating a sense of safety and continuity that beautifully supports the diversity of activities children are drawn to in a self-directed environment.
Where Katta opens and attunes, Eric anchors and sustains.
Together, they hold a field that is both nurturing and steady, allowing children to explore freely while feeling deeply supported.
As families from around the world began to arrive in Vilcabamba, this space naturally became a point of convergence.
Children of different nationalities, languages, backgrounds, sensitivities, and life stories began to gather here.
And something organic started happening.
Not a system.
Not a method.
But a living ecosystem.
Later, Gaby Portilla joined the project, bringing the FERN Model into the foundation of The Nest.
This marked a turning point, where the intuitive, relational foundation Katta had been holding for decades met a structured, nervous-system-informed framework that could support and expand the vision.
Since then, The Nest has been in a continuous process of transformation, growing into a more coherent, embodied, and developmentally aligned ecosystem.
Today, it is held by a combination of:
- Deep experience and intuitive attunement
- Nervous-system-based understanding of development
- A multicultural, neurodiverse evolving community of families
- And a shared commitment to doing childhood differently
Together, we are creating a space that can truly hold children, not just physically, but emotionally, relationally, and developmentally.
A space where they are supported not only to adapt but to develop, express, and ultimately thrive as who they already are.
What We Are Creating
The Nest is not a fixed model.
It is a living ecosystem.
It evolves with the children, the families, and the facilitators who are part of it.
We are not building a better version of school.
We are participating in the emergence of something else entirely.
A place where:
Childhood is honored
Nervous Systems are understood
Learning is living system
Development is allowed to unfold
Inside the Nest
a gallery of activities in our Leaning Center in Vilcabamaba
STAY CONNECTED WITH US!
