Reggio Emilia Approach®
"Here we have children and adults who seek the pleasure of playing, working, talking, thinking, and inventing together, engaged in learning how the existence and the relationships of things and of people can be sought out and enjoyed in friendship."
Loris Malaguzzi, 1983
From Being Inspired to Inspiring Learning
The environment is architecturally and functionally designed to foster relationships
Our program is designed to be a place where childhoods are protected, and adults want to be a child again, as our environment invites all learners to explore and engage. When applying for the child care licenses and during the pre-licensing inspections in April 2019, the state licensing analysts asked Storybook's Owner and Director, Nicole Monachello, to identify the philosophy Storybook will implement as it is required to have an organization based on education and experience. As Nicole's heart is teaching through love while fostering a love for learning, she fell in love with the Reggio Emilia Approach years ago while attending college. She built Storybook Village Preschool, embracing a “pedagogy of relationships” within a community that believed in children's rights to grow and learn in a way that focused on learning processes. When children feel important while learning the skills and behaviors to be part of a community, they are prepared for school and life as they have mastered how to face life as passionate problem-solvers.
As a Reggio-inspired preschool, Nicole was grateful to be part of the North America Study Group that visited Reggio Emilia in November 2023 during the 60th birthday of the First Municipal Preschool in Reggio Emilia, Preschool Robinson. Nicole experienced firsthand how loving a Reggio Emilia community, school, and intentional environments are for the children, families, and teachers. There is no cookie-cutter mold or blueprint to being Reggio; it is a mindset inspired by the Reggio Emilia schools and the city about the children and the community of adults who are responsible for the
children.
There are many wonderful ways to approach early childhood education and quality preschools in Sonoma County, but what makes each preschool unique is its way of being. Storybook Village Preschool is all about loving and celebrating the children as a community. Certain agreements promise practices and procedures to ensure children, families, and teachers receive quality care.
Grown-ups are dedicated learners, too!
Our family-centered approach to learning builds on each child's strengths, abilities, and ideas! At the beginning of enrollment and our entire time together, we partner with families, using assessments to guide child-directed learning and creating web lesson plans to contribute to the children's investigations and projects.
Family Participation & Involvement
As relationships create a sense of belonging and drive learning, the schools in Reggio Emilia express parent participation as "an ongoing dialogue. " In the educational experience of Reggio Emilia, the infant-toddler centers and preschools are conceived as a context of continuous interaction between the three protagonists: children, teachers, and parents, each having their own expectations and rights, a context where listening, welcoming, and possibilities for growth are available to all, in an intense web of relationships and processes of development and participation. (Indications - Preschools and infant-toddler Centres of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia) Storybook Village Preschool's policies and expectations combined as Agreements create participation opportunities for all parents, family members, and friends.
The children's everyday experience of learning and being together at school is important for strengthening families' understanding of early childhood education, which is a common good as children's and parents' rights are the responsibility of our community. When you know all children's rights within our services and how participation connects you to your child's day-to-day experiences, your time or support will generate and nurture the feelings and culture of solidarity, responsibility, and inclusion. Participation teaches children they are unique, and we value their educational experiences, fostering a love for learning within a community while protecting childhoods. We love ideas and creativity in participating as we know the stressors of a healthy work-life balance. This means no delegating or alienation. Instead, it confirms the importance of parents' presence and role, who have always been highly valued in our Storybook Village Preschool traditions.
We Have Big News to Share!
Our magical building in the Montgomery Village Neighborhood is licensed! Thank you for checking us out!