Think of a place where you feel really good. Maybe it’s a cosy corner at home, a café with warm light or a garden full of greenery. Space affects our well-being, creativity and willingness to act — and it affects children even more strongly than adults. In the Reggio Emilia approach this influence is taken…
In a world where children’s calendars fill up with extra-curricular activities from the age of three, play — ordinary, free, unstructured play — is becoming a scarce commodity. And yet it is a young child’s most important “work”. This is not a metaphor — it is the conclusion of decades of research. Play is not…
In many models of education, parents act as “clients” — they drop their child off in the morning, pick them up in the afternoon and occasionally receive a progress report. In the Reggio Emilia philosophy it is completely different. Parents are treated as full partners in the educational process — and this principle changes everything….
When you walk into the atelier of a preschool inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, you immediately feel that it is a special place. On the shelves stand jars of pigment in every colour of the rainbow, clay figures dry on the windowsill, and there are brushes of every thickness, pieces of wood, fabrics, beads…
“My child is so creative,” we say proudly when a little one paints something unusual or makes up a surprising story. But creativity is not a talent you are either born with or not. It is a skill that can — and should — be developed. And home is the best place to do it,…
In the traditional model of education, a child’s progress is measured with tests, grades and comparison charts. Can they count to ten? Do they know all their letters? Can they draw a circle? In the Reggio Emilia approach we take a completely different path. Instead of testing, we observe. Instead of grading, we document. And…
The first day at preschool is a big event — not only for the child, but for the parents too. Tears at goodbye, uncertainty, missing each other — these are natural emotions that accompany this transition. The good news is that settling in is a process that can be wisely supported. And at Accademia dei…
In Italian culture, sharing a meal has for generations been a way of showing care and closeness. What and how our children eat affects not only their physical health, but also their relationship with food, which will stay with them for life. That is why at Accademia dei Piccoli the kitchen matters to us as…
“Won’t my child get confused with three languages?” — we hear this question from parents very often. And we understand it completely, because until recently it was widely believed that exposure to several languages at once could harm a child. Modern science, however, says something quite different — and these findings are worth knowing, because…
When, in 1945, the people of the small Italian town of Reggio Emilia decided to build a preschool from the bricks left after the destruction of the war, no one imagined that they were laying the foundations of one of the most important educational approaches of the 20th century. Today, more than seventy years later,…