ORONO – Becoming a parent can be one of life’s most difficult but rewarding challenges. To help people who are planning to start a family, University of Maine Cooperative Extension will offer a new course, Parents-to-Be, in June.

The course is designed to help adults get ready to parent by focusing on their development as they learn about parenting skills.

“Throughout our lives, we follow a natural rhythm of growth to upgrade earlier developmental tasks,” said Dr. Judith Graham, Cooperative Extension educator and human development specialist. “Parents-to-Be goes deeper than many information and skills parent education programs in that it reflects a more complex perspective of human development, addressing the parent’s development as much as the parent-child relationship.”

The course will run 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 1, 3, 8, 17, 22, and 24, in the Bangor Room of the UMaine Memorial Union. Registration fee is $30 per person, $45 per couple if they share one book, and includes the book, “Growing Up Again: Parenting Ourselves, Parenting Our Children,” by Jean Illsley Clarke, a program notebook and all program materials. Limited financial aid is available.

To register, call Ruth Brown, 581-3448, or e-mail rbrown@umext.maine.edu.