Customer Reviews

Authentic Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom

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This book should be a required read for anyone studying to teach early childhood education, but anyone interested Reggio Emilia or young children will find this an excellent resource. Through the lens of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, the book looks at "the image of the child", "the role of the teacher", environment, documentation, relationships, curriculum, aesthetics, and finally "the Hundred Languages of Children". It is a highly enjoyable read, rich with real life examples of Reggio in practice, as well as the reality of the challenges faced by teachers. Wonderful!!

I just recently graduated with my masters degree in education and just got a job as a kindergarten teacher for this school year. During my graduate studies I became intrigued with the ideas from the Reggio Emilia schools: Documentation, Projects, the studio, collaboration, spaces, etc. I really wanted to be able to bring these ideas to my own classroom. I have read a lot of literature out there about Reggio Emilia and the various ideas associated with them- But a lot of those books are very academic and wordy and force you to ponder deep issues, which is great, but I'm not a grad student anymore. I need something a little bit more easy to read, with less theory and such and more how-to's. So I found Authentic Childhood and love it! It lays out the basic ideas of Reggio Emilia in a really accessible way. It has been a nice addition to my professional library. I mean, there is still theory in this book- but its Micheal Crichton-level reading, not James Joyce.
I also recommend: In the Spirit of the Studio (Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia) and Making Learning Visible. These are valuable tools for any educator!

This book was written at just the right level for teachers and has the right amount of information.
Amazon got it to me super quickly and has such great service!