Ages 10–14 · Ten lessons · 40 minutes

Your child has a story. This finishes it.

Story Lab is ten short animated lessons. Your child starts with a blank page and ends with a story they made themselves — a comic, a short film, an audio play, a YouTube video or something written down. Whatever they want it to be.

Tumi stands in a wheat field under a wide sky, holding the kite she has built.

What happens in the ten lessons

Each lesson teaches one idea, then shows it working on the same story — a girl called Tumi who wants to win a kite competition, and has to choose between winning and something that matters more.

A glass jar labelled Your Idea Jar with ten coloured seeds in the bottom.
Lesson 2 — ten ideas, before judging a single one of them.
A card on a kitchen table headed The Story Recipe, for Tumi and the Thunder Kite.
Lesson 3 — the four things every story needs.
A rollercoaster track with eight numbered stops marked along it.
Lesson 7 — the shape of a story, drawn as a rollercoaster.
A character card for Tumi listing her role, traits, want, need, flaw and superpower.
Lesson 4 — and then your child fills one of these in for their own hero.

Nothing is filmed. Coach Ferdi is a cartoon. There is no chat, no comments, no profile and no way for your child to message anybody. They watch, they make something, they show you.

Who made it

Coach Ferdi, a drawing of Ferdinand Gernandt, mid-sentence with one hand open.

Ferdinand Gernandt is a produced screenwriter and director with more than twenty years of work behind him. Story Lab is built from the course he has taught adults since 2021, rewritten from the ground up for children — same four pillars, none of the grown-up examples.

Coach Ferdi is him — drawn, not filmed. He presents all ten lessons and he is the only grown-up your child ever sees.

What it costs

Story Lab

R999One payment · yours to keep

All ten lessons. Watch them as often as you like, whenever suits you. The whole printable Story Lab Kit: the notebook, the 54-card Story Deck, the Story Wall and a guide for you.

Story Lab + feedback

R1,790One payment · yours to keep

Everything above. Plus: when your child finishes their story, send it to us and written feedback comes back to you, from Ferdinand.

One payment, not a subscription — nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel. Changed your mind after buying? Our refund promise.

Story Engine is next

Story Lab is open now — the prices are just above. Story Engine, for ages 15 to 19, is still being made. Leave your address and you get one email the day it opens. No newsletter, no drip, nothing else ever.

Your address, and nothing else. Not your name, not your child’s. One email when it opens, then it is deleted or you are a customer.

Questions parents actually ask

Does my child need an account?

No. The account is yours. Your child never signs in and never has a profile. We ask for their first name or a nickname so the worksheets can be addressed to somebody, and we ask for nothing else about them.

How long does it take?

The videos add up to about forty minutes. Doing the work between them takes longer — most children spread it over a few weeks. There is no timetable and nothing expires.

Can two children in one family use it?

Yes. One purchase, one household. If you want a classroom or a drama studio, email us and we will quote you by group size.

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