Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative Approach to Early Childhood Education (Early Childhood Education Series)

Description

Bringing Reggio Emilia Home is the first book to integrate the experiences of one American teacher on a year-long internship in the preschools of Reggio, with a four-year adaptation effort in one American school. The lively text includes many "mini-stories" of preschool and kindergarten-age children , teachers, and parents who embark on journeys of learning together. These journeys take shape in language, in drawings, in tempera paint and clay, in outdoor excursions, and in the imaginations of both the children and adults. This informative and accessible work features photographs of the children (both in Italy and the United States) and samples of the children’s work, including some in full color. During the past 10 years there has been a tremendous interest among early childhood educators and parents in the innovative approaches to teaching pioneered in the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Reggio Approach! Teachers, especially those in early childhood, teacher educators, policy makers, administrators, and parents will find it invaluable. Selected topics: The Fundamentals of the Reggio Approach • The Pleasure and Power of Playing with Materials • Plants in Relationships • Children and Spoken Language • Transforming Space, Time, and Relations • Turning the Preschool Classroom into a Greenhouse • Taking the Plant Project to Kindergarten Review: Fascinating! - When I started reading this book and saw it was a journal-like account of the author's time spent in Reggio Emilia I groaned. I thought it would be irrelevant to me and boring. I was wrong. I was immediately pulled into the narrative and I was so fascinated by her observations of the children and how their actual day went that I couldn't put down the book. I have to say there seems to be some romanticizing of Italian culture and even the Reggio academic approach. It's hard for me to believe that every single student would be excited and thriving because all children are so different with different needs and interests. One Reggio author admitted that she tried to implement Reggio in an American setting and it was difficult because we are not as homogenous as small-town Italian culture and I think this is a positive thing. However, I still give this book five stars because it is so important and written from such a unique perspective. Review: Bringing Reggio Home - This should be required reading for every parent, teacher & administrator in a Reggio based school. The book is well written and very enlightening about this paticular style of learning. I would recomend this to anyone considering a Reggio aproach school.