At Wonderful Children Daycare/Preschool, we embrace a Reggio Emilia-inspired approach integrated with the Mother Goose Time Curriculum. Our play-based curriculum emphasizes active, hands-on learning where play and education merge seamlessly, creating an environment that fosters natural curiosity and discovery.
Philosophy
"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire."
The Reggio Emilia Approach and the Mother Goose Time Curriculum share the belief that children are active participants in their own learning. With supportive and attentive teachers, we nurture children’s voices, interests, and curiosity, designing learning environments and projects that follow their lead.
Both approaches emphasize:
Environment as the Third Teacher
Project-Based Learning
The Hundred Languages of Children
Collaboration as a Critical Component
Thorough Documentation of Children’s Learning
Our experienced and caring staff carefully plan and implement activities that:
Are developmentally appropriate.
Foster curiosity, investigation, and discovery.
Promote positive relationships with peers and teachers.
Develop essential skills needed for kindergarten readiness.
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
We align with the NAEYC’s (National Association for the Education of Young Children) definition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP):
"NAEYC defines DAP as methods that promote each child’s optimal development through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful and engaged learning. Educators implement DAP by recognizing the unique assets every child brings as individuals and members of families and communities. By building on each child’s strengths and fostering an environment that supports all aspects of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional well-being, educators help children reach their full potential across all developmental domains."
Core Developmental Areas
At Wonderful Children, your child will develop skills across the following domains:
Social-Emotional Development
Physical Development (fine and gross motor skills)
Language Development
Cognitive Development
Additional learning areas include:
Literacy
Mathematics
Science and Technology
Social Studies
The Arts
English Language Acquisition
The Reggio Emilia and Mother Goose Time Approach
The Reggio Emilia Approach:One of its most well-known principles is The Hundred Languages of Children, which reflects the belief that children use multiple forms of expression to understand and communicate. These "languages" include art, music, storytelling, movement, and more—providing endless opportunities for creativity and learning.
"What children learn does not follow automatically from what is taught. Rather, it is largely influenced by the children’s own activities and their environment." — Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children
The Mother Goose Time Curriculum:This curriculum is rooted in the philosophy that young children learn best through active exploration. By creating thoughtfully organized environments and activities, we aim to help children become independent, confident, curious, and enthusiastic learners.
Mother Goose Time Curriculum’s goals encompass all developmental areas, including:
Social-Emotional
Cognitive
Physical
Language
Every aspect of the day—planned activities, environment setup, materials selection, schedules, and positive interactions—is intentionally designed to support your child’s growth and success.
Articles & Resources
For further reading and inspiration:
5 Reggio Emilia Approach Values Reflected in a Mother Goose Time Classroom
Defining Developmentally Appropriate Practice (NAEYC)
Inspired by Reggio Emilia: Emergent Curriculum in Relationship-Driven Learning Environments (NAEYC)
At Wonderful Children Preschool, we are committed to fostering a love of learning in a nurturing, joyful environment. Our curriculum allows children to explore, create, and grow into confident individuals prepared for the future.
The Reggio Emilia Approach
The Reggio Emilia approach, celebrated globally, emphasizes the limitless potential of every child. At its heart lies the concept of active listening, which fosters collaboration and mutual understanding among children, parents, and educators.
Recognized as one of the finest educational methodologies worldwide, the Reggio Emilia approach has been studied in prestigious universities both in Italy and internationally. This innovative philosophy originated over 70 years ago in the nurseries and preschools of the Reggio Emilia region of Italy. Inspired by the visionary ideas of Loris Malaguzzi, author of The Hundred Languages of Children, the approach uses the "hundred languages" as a metaphor for the diverse creative and cognitive capabilities we all possess.
To ensure the highest standards of education, Wonderful Children has partnered with Reggio Children, an organization dedicated to testing, promoting, and sharing quality educational practices worldwide.
Child-Centered Approach
At the core of the Reggio philosophy is the belief in each child’s innate potential to grow and thrive in diverse environments. Through exploration and expression using a variety of methods, children develop meaningful connections and construct knowledge.
Childhood is seen as a phase of immense potential—a time when children begin to form relationships, process experiences, build knowledge, and express their unique personalities.
The Hundred Languages of Children
We believe that every child is born with "a hundred languages"—a multitude of ways to communicate, create, and learn. The role of adults is to actively listen, recognize, and value these diverse forms of expression, fostering environments where children can explore and flourish.
The Value of Education
We view education not merely as a transfer of knowledge but as the creation of environments that encourage growth and collective learning. Central to this philosophy is reciprocal communication and active listening, which form the foundation for meaningful relationships between children and educators.
The Role of Adults
In the Reggio Emilia approach, educators join children as co-researchers. Their role is to design and propose learning contexts where the process holds greater importance than the outcome. Observing children’s thought processes—whether individually or in groups—is highly valued, as it informs and enriches the learning journey.
Professional Development
Ongoing professional development for educators is a cornerstone of the Reggio Emilia approach. Reggio Children coordinates tailored educational plans to ensure continuous growth for our teaching team. Additionally, a dedicated educational coordinator plays a pivotal role in recognizing and nurturing the unique personalities and talents of each educator.
Family Involvement
Families are an integral part of our educational model. We acknowledge the importance of parents participating in their child’s life beyond the home environment. This engagement provides opportunities to observe and explore new ways of learning and growing together.
Parents interact daily with teachers and participate in group and individual meetings, where they can exchange insights, ask questions, and contribute to the educational journey.
At Wonderful Children, we are proud to embrace and integrate the Reggio Emilia philosophy, creating a learning environment where every child can thrive, every family feels involved, and every educator finds inspiration.
The Hundred Languages of Children
The Reggio Emilia educational philosophy envisions the child as a subject endowed with "a hundred languages"—a being of immense developmental potential and inherent rights, who learns and grows through relationships with others.
A child is not merely a passive observer of the world but an active participant, equipped with the tools and curiosity to explore and understand it. Children come to know themselves and their surroundings through their interactions with the world and the people in it.
This relationship is enriched by their ability to communicate internally and externally through "a hundred languages." These languages symbolize the diverse ways children express themselves—through art, play, movement, words, and imagination. Believing in these "hundred languages" challenges adults to actively listen, recognize, and value them. It compels educators and caregivers to create environments where every child’s potential can flourish.
No domain of human or childhood experience is excluded; every field must offer opportunities for exploration, listening, and growth.
The Hundred Languages of Children
"No way.The hundred is there.The child is made of one hundred.The child has a hundred languagesa hundred handsa hundred thoughtsa hundred ways of thinkingof playing, of speaking.A hundred, always a hundredways of listeningof marveling, of lovinga hundred joysfor singing and understandinga hundred worlds to discovera hundred worlds to inventa hundred worlds to dream…" By Loris Malaguzzi
At the heart of this philosophy is the belief in the richness and complexity of childhood, where every child is seen as a capable, creative, and curious individual with infinite ways to express themselves and connect with the world.
DAP: Defining Developmentally Appropriate Practice
NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) defines “developmentally appropriate practice” as methods that promote each child’s optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the multiple assets all young children bring to the early learning program as unique individuals and as members of families and communities. Building on each child’s strengths—and taking care to not harm any aspect of each child’s physical, cognitive, social, or emotional well-being—educators design and implement learning environments to help all children achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas. Developmentally appropriate practice recognizes and supports each individual as a valued member of the learning community. As a result, to be developmentally appropriate, practices must also be culturally, linguistically, and ability appropriate for each child.
The Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement is a framework of principles and guidelines to support a teacher’s intentional decision making for practice. The principles serve as the evidence base for the guidelines for practice, and both are situated within three core considerations commonality, individuality, and context.
Extra-curricular courses
ART ATELIER
Color is a powerful tool and a fundamental experience for children; it stimulates and enhances the development of fantasy, creativity, imagination, new possibilities and paths, free modes of expression. In this journey we will delve into the origin of colours, from primary to secondary and complementary, the infinite shades and chromatic combinations, building natural color palettes from plant extractions and the transformations of nature's chemical processes. We will learn about the variety of graphic tools in the art world (tempera, watercolours, water-based inks, oil pastels) and the different papers and tools as fundamental supports for our creations. Finally, the live graphics of natural elements and an in-depth analysis of one's self-portrait with the chromatic modalities that we feel closest to.
MUSIC IS INSIDE
Music lives within us and branches out through our body.
The Music is within us project aims to intertwine the language of the body with the musical one, developing motor-spatial, rhythmic (through games of expression of pulsations and rhythmic particles), expressive (thanks to the use of the body and dances), vocal, and, finally, affective (since it affects the relationship between classmates and workmates).
The experiences will be proposed through playful activities to encourage the learning of boys and girls. The goal is not only to transmit musical skills, but also to develop an awareness of oneself and others and the ability to listen to one's body and its needs by playing with music.
YOGA KAY
Kidding Around Yoga (KAY) offers an extraordinary curriculum designed to motivate children to be active, build confidence and manage the spectrum of emotions they experience in their daily activities.
The teacher will implement this incredible system, which incorporates cardiovascular conditioning, fun and original music, with all the traditional benefits of Yoga such as meditation, breathing techniques, peace and deep relaxation.
The program is designed to be entirely in English and, at the end of each lesson, there is a short conversation always in the language; for those approaching this discipline for the first time, the Italian language will be of support as long as the course participants are autonomous and confident in practice.
PLAY & DANCE IN ROMENIAN, RUSSIAN
The meetings in English will take place in an engaging and fun environment, through music, games, dance, art and storytelling, giving children the opportunity to explore new words and develop language skills.
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