~Different Ways of Learning~

• Home Schooling- as instruction and learning at least some of which is through planned activity, taking place primarily at home in a family setting with a parent acting as a teacher or supervisor of the activity, and with one or more pupils who are members of the same family and who are doing grade K-12 work.
• Reggio Emilia- communicate a forceful idea of childhood and of children's rights, potentials, and resources, which are often unrecognized or neglected; to promote studies, research, and experimentation in education, with particular emphasis on children's active, constructive, and creative learning processes; to advance the professionalism and culture of teachers, promoting a greater awareness of the value of collegial work and of meaningful relationships with the children and their families;to highlight the value of research, observation, interpretation, and documentation of children's knowledge-building and thinking processes; to organize guided visits to educational programs, cultural initiatives, exhibitions, seminars, conferences, professional development courses on the issues of education and the culture of childhood.
• Montessori- a comprehensive educational approach from birth to adulthood based on the observation of children's needs in a variety of cultures all around the world.

How can I find out more?

Read about reggio emilia
What about Montessori?
Should I Home-School my child?
Research article on Reggio Emilia complete with great pics!
Read about how Montessori all began in this research article!
What is homeschool? Wanna know more? CLICK HERE to see a research article on it!

When and where did these methods begin?...let me enlighten you... Reggio Emilia

After World War II, a group of mothers sold the horses and wagons left behind by the retreating German army and determined to use the funds to build a cooperative preschool for their children. Their concept began with the simple theory that the parents needed to be involved in their children's education and that it needed to be an education based on respect for the individuality of children. The parents met frequently, creating the ideas for, and actually building the school.

Fortunately, a young educator in another Italian city heard of this project, visited, became involved on a voluntary basis, and was eventually asked to become the head of the school. This man was Loris Malaguzzi, who just died this last year, and who was certainly a genius who ranks as one of the centuries leading innovative educators. Today there are 22 preschools and 14 infant-toddler schools in the town of Reggio Emilia, supported by the municipality, and it has become a mecca for the academic world of Early Childhood Educators from the most prestigious Universities in the United States. Newsweek magazine cited the schools of Reggio Emilia as the best early childhood education in the world, and it has been featured in two PBS series, Childhood and The Creative Spirit.

Reggio, as it is known, is not a new theory of learning, as was Piaget, or Vigotsky, but a system of learning that incorporates all of the best theories into a working whole. This system has been developing over 45 years, and therefore, the first thing that is always pointed out in any presentation by Reggio educators, is that they do not expect any school to be able to become a total system, as theirs is, and furthermore, since they believe that every system must be based on the culture of the people it serves, as theirs is, that that factor must be seen as paramount.(http://www.bjechicago.org/ps_our_philosophy.asp)

Home School

Home schooling has no exact date of when it became a common idea, but it became an option in the 1960?s and 1970?s when critics started to criticize public schooling. Critics like Ivan Illich, Charles E. Silberman, and John Holt all brought home schooling to the public and made it a topic to be considered by interested parents. (http://wyolinton.com/homeschool/pictures.html) Articles were produced that questioned public schooling and by the late seventies, early eighties home schooling was becoming a popular idea that people began to look into. Finally home schooling parents educated legislators and eventually it became legal to home school children. The roots kept growing and as of this year there are 2 million kids that are home schooled and it continues to grow.

Montessori

Early in the twentieth century, Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy's first woman physician, developed educational materials and methods based on her belief that children learn best by doing, not by passively accepting other people's ideas and pre-existing knowledge. It was an innovative learning idea and means the active personal pursuit of many different experiences: physical, social, emotional, cognitive. With the materials Montessori devised, an environment in which such learning takes place can be created.

Montessori believed learning should occur in multi-age classrooms where children at various stages of development learn from and with each other. Her developmentally appropriate approach was designed to fit each child instead of making each child fit the program. Its success with children from all social strata and those with special needs has attracted wide interest.

Montessori teachers know that children learn more by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, and exploring than by just listening. AMS teacher education centers prepare teachers to create dynamic, interactive learning environments that encourage each child to reason, cooperate, collaborate, negotiate, and to understand. The goal for teachers as well as students is the development of an autonomous individual, competent in all areas of life, not merely someone with the "right" answers. (http://www.amshq.org/home.html)