The Reggio Emilia Approach, Explained
The Reggio Emilia approach is an early-childhood philosophy in which learning follows the child’s own curiosity instead of a fixed curriculum. Teachers are co-learners, the classroom environment is treated as a teacher itself, and children explore real ideas through art, projects, and play. Developed in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy after World War II, it is widely considered one of the finest approaches to early education in the world.
The four ideas at its heart
The image of the child
Reggio starts from a belief: children are capable, curious, and full of potential from birth — not empty vessels to be filled. The child is the protagonist of their own learning, and our job is to listen and follow.
The environment as third teacher
The space itself teaches. Natural light, real materials, plants, and beauty invite exploration. Our home and garden are arranged so children can reach, choose, and investigate on their own.
Emergent curriculum
We don’t hand children a fixed syllabus. Learning emerges from their real questions — about a snail, a shadow, the rain — which teachers extend into long, rich projects.
The hundred languages
Children express and understand the world in a hundred ‘languages’ — drawing, clay, movement, music, building, story. We give them the materials and time to use all of them.
What does a Reggio day actually look like?
There are no worksheets and no bells marking a switch from one subject to the next. Instead, a small group of children moves through unhurried stretches of time — investigating a question that caught their attention, returning to a project they started yesterday, painting, building, digging in the garden, gathering for a story. A teacher sits alongside them, asking “what do you think will happen?” more often than giving answers, and quietly documenting what unfolds.
The atelier: making thinking visible
A signature of Reggio schools is the atelier, or studio — a space rich with real materials where children work through their ideas in clay, paint, wire, light, and found objects. The point isn’t to produce a craft to hang on the fridge; it’s to give a child a hundred ways to explore and express a single idea. At our scale, the whole home becomes a kind of atelier.
How Reggio is different from Montessori and Waldorf
All three are child-respecting alternatives to academic preschool. Montessori centers on structured independence with specific materials; Waldorf protects imagination and delays formal academics; Reggio follows the child’s own questions through open-ended projects. If you’re weighing them, our full comparison guide breaks down which tends to fit which child.
What Reggio looks like at Growing Garden
We’re a Reggio Emilia–inspired family childcare in Eagle Rock serving children ages 2 to 5 across Northeast LA. What makes it real here is scale: a low 1:6 ratio in a single mixed-age group means our teachers can genuinely follow each child’s questions the way Reggio intends. Our garden and kitchen are part of the classroom, and we share their real projects and documentation with you — not a stack of identical worksheets.
Common questions about Reggio Emilia
What is the Reggio Emilia approach in simple terms?
Reggio Emilia is an early-childhood philosophy in which learning follows the child's own curiosity rather than a fixed curriculum. Teachers act as co-learners and guides, the environment is treated as a teacher in its own right, and children explore ideas through art, projects, and play across many forms of expression.
Is Reggio Emilia better than Montessori?
Neither is universally better — they suit different children. Montessori offers structured independence with specific materials; Reggio is more open-ended and project-based, driven by the child's questions. A curious, expressive child often thrives in a Reggio setting, but execution and warmth matter more than the label.
Does a Reggio preschool teach reading and math?
Yes — but through meaningful, hands-on experience rather than worksheets. Children build early literacy through stories, conversation, and drawing, and early math through building, cooking, sorting, and measuring in real projects. The skills are real; the delivery is play-based.
What does 'documentation' mean in a Reggio classroom?
Documentation is the practice of capturing children's learning — photos, quotes, and samples of their work — to make their thinking visible. It helps teachers plan the next step, and it lets you see the real story of your child's day rather than a generic checklist.
See the philosophy in action
The best way to understand Reggio Emilia is to watch it happen. Tours run 30 minutes during a real program day.
Schedule a free tour