Educators, researchers, and psychologists world-wide acknowledge that the Reggio philosophy offers early childhood education of the highest quality ever available throughout history. Although the co-founders of Google first met when they were young children in Montessori school, for instance, their own childcare centre at Google headquarters now uses Reggio-inspired methods.

Developed over the last 60 years in the Reggio Emilia area of Italy, this philosophy sees young children as full of potential, bursting with strength, intelligence, and creativity, and those who follow this teaching philosophy strive to create an environment that supports the development of children as members of a positive community. The interrelationships between children, parents, community and teachers are central. The role of teachers/caregivers is to act as nurturers, partners, and guides to the children’s natural, self-directed learning.

Under the guidance of director Donna Stapleton, who has participated in a study tour in Reggio Emilia herself, our teachers closely observe the children as they play and work, and then help to expand on their learning by planning activities based on the children’s and the teachers’ own interests. Whether the children are going on a field trip to a local farm, building a fort in our own little forest, baking mud pies in a mud kitchen, or hanging their finger paintings out to dry on our clothesline, the activity was likely sparked by the children themselves.

As you wander around the centre, you’ll see lots of evidence of this kind of learning, as part of the Reggio philosophy is to help the children record their learning in any one of a “hundred languages,” which can include drawing, painting, dance, dramatic play and so on, in addition to speaking and writing. Teachers and children also work together to produce personal portfolios and documentation, which tell the story of the children’s activities and help to educate their parents about what they do all day.

It’s also important to us to be part of the greater community, not separate from it. For instance, we offer a Shared Reading Program at Bridgewater Elementary School (which helps children become comfortable and familiar with “big school”) and visits to Ridgewood Retirement Home. We participate every year in the Hop-a-Thon for Muscular Dystrophy, and go on outings to festivals and events like the Heartland Tour, the Big Ex, and the Annual Children’s Fun Fair, events at the Lunenburg Lifestyle Centre, every Halloween and Christmas we visit our neighbours at Lighthouse Publishing, GE All Trucking Limited, South Shore Glass, South Shore Regional School Board and Margaret Hennigar Public Library.

If you are interested in learning more about the Reggio approach, please visit the following sites:

• An Everyday Story: A Beginner’s Guide to Reggio Emilia
• Reggio Emilia, An Educational Project
• North American Reggio Emilia Alliance
• Research Into Practice

The Hundred Languages
The child is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.A hundred.
Always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi
Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach