I don't like Reggie or Montessori or Waldorf

LOL they just want your money

Teaching good manners, and teach kids to be independent kids is not hard

You don't need to pay $$$$$$

Montessori neither. They used to not have outdoor play before. And many Montessori kids have problems with math at school and gets behind

Play is so important for Young children

Anyone with an opinion on Bethesda Reggio?

Anonymous wrote:I hate Reggio too. The school couches “hot dog day” and “slurpee 7-11 day” as the kids exploring their interests.

this isn't a Reggio Emilia inspired program, then.

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to a Reggio-inspired preschool, is currently in K in DCPS, and is doing great academically. It's been a bit more of a struggle in terms of social-emotional expectations, but I don't think the preschool environment is to blame. K in DCPS is very intensely academic (at least at our school) and I don't think any preschool environment would be able to adequately prepare a kid for that, plus my kid is on the younger end for the year.

I mean, what's the answer, a highly academic preschool? No thank you, I don't want my 3/4 year old drilling letters and numbers all day. I want them playing, exploring, singing, dancing, and having fun.

+1. My DS went to a Reggio-inspired preschool, has a summer birthday and went to K on time, and now scoring 98th percentile on all his in-school testing, very advanced math skills, avid independent reader at age 6 etc. granted he is bright, but Reggio gave him a very solid foundation, from which he picked up phonics and reading fast at the start of K.

My kids went to the jcc in northern va and granted it was several years ago, we had a phenomenal experience. Particularly with one of the teachers who was specifically trained in reggio emilia. Issues may arise if the teachers and/or school don’t fully understand the philosophy. I don’t think you can say a single philosophy of learning is to blame for first grade preparedness.

More likely it is that kids have not been taught phonics - which I think is a kindergarten and first grade issue.

For math, when my kid was 2 and in reggio, they were already learning basic addition and subtraction by counting snacks, etc. In every “exploration” there was math and new vocabulary incorporated. To this day, my kid who went through preschool in reggio is far “better” at school than the one who didn’t!

As a teacher who has worked in several reggio-inspired early childhood preschools, It comes down to this. Do the teachers truly have an understanding of the philosophical approach as well as the understanding on how to create an environment that provocates learning, and understands how to use resources to deepen the exploration? Or is the center riding the trend and calling themselves that but not implementing the philosophy. When those things are present, the result is children confident in their ability to wonder and seek knowledge and check off all the assessment objectives. The school has to create it's own culture of learning and the only thing "Reggio" should be how they view the child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Reggio. At a Jewish center I saw kids running around naked. After playing with spash water outside.
They tell teachers to let the kids do whatever they want. Yeah, they do whatever they want. Theres kids with bad behavioral problems. There's no schedule, just play all day.
Ugh

That is not Reggio. Reggio is child-led, but starting at 3 my kids were coached through a process to define the things they would work on. If they said they wanted to do mud play, a teacher would help them make a list of materials they need, think about what they wanted to achieve or learn, make a plan to clean up, etc. The teacher would help them execute the plan, take pictures, and document the execution. Afterwards they talk about how it went. Something like that would take a whole week or more. They would watch videos about mud and animals that like to play in mud. They might take a walk down at he hall and talk to the janitor about their clean up plan and get input.
They might have to go talk to the groundskeeper to learn where the hose was and get permission to make mud.

Instead of adults just setting up and cleaning up activities for them, they were hands-on involved in all aspects of choosing the activity, planning and cleaning up the activity. When my kids got to elementary and joined Odyssey of the Mind, the concept of planning a long term project and executing it with a minimal adult help as possible made total sense to them.

Agreed - as a director of a Reggio Emilia inspired preschool, this is right on and very accurate.

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Reggio. At a Jewish center I saw kids running around naked. After playing with spash water outside.
They tell teachers to let the kids do whatever they want. Yeah, they do whatever they want. Theres kids with bad behavioral problems. There's no schedule, just play all day.
Ugh

That is not Reggio. Reggio is child-led, but starting at 3 my kids were coached through a process to define the things they would work on. If they said they wanted to do mud play, a teacher would help them make a list of materials they need, think about what they wanted to achieve or learn, make a plan to clean up, etc. The teacher would help them execute the plan, take pictures, and document the execution. Afterwards they talk about how it went. Something like that would take a whole week or more. They would watch videos about mud and animals that like to play in mud. They might take a walk down at he hall and talk to the janitor about their clean up plan and get input.
They might have to go talk to the groundskeeper to learn where the hose was and get permission to make mud.

Instead of adults just setting up and cleaning up activities for them, they were hands-on involved in all aspects of choosing the activity, planning and cleaning up the activity. When my kids got to elementary and joined Odyssey of the Mind, the concept of planning a long term project and executing it with a minimal adult help as possible made total sense to them.

Anonymous wrote:I hate Reggio too. The school couches “hot dog day” and “slurpee 7-11 day” as the kids exploring their interests.

That’s just lazy teaching. At our preschool the teachers would have spun that into “let’s build a pretend play hot dog stand” “let’s make clay hot dogs and toppings” “let’s take a field trip to the school cafeteria to learn how they make lunch”

My kids went to a Reggio preschool with gentle discipline and both transitioned to kindergarten just fine.

My oldest is the youngest in his grade. In a child-led environment he never once chose to work on writing his name or any other academic tasks. He is very sensitive to negative feedback and I was worried he would melt down the first time an adult corrected him or gave him an urgent command. He is in the gifted program and excelling in late elementary.

My youngest was used to choosing his activities from several stations and working incrementally on multi-day or multi-week long projects. When he got to K, he had a few instances where the teacher said “it’s time for math” and he said “no thank you” and went to the reading corner. It only took a few gentle reminders for him to participate with the class and follow the class schedule.