I studied under the Reggio Emilia approach at the Ohio State University and several years ago had the fortunate opportunity to participate in a study tour of the preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy itself. The experience was life changing. The Reggio philosophy focuses on following the child's lead, and interest, and presenting new learning opportunities within these interests. I have been trying to use this philosophy with my own children in our daily lives. Several months ago, my brother Mike and his wife Leah purchased a guitar for one of their Wii games and my kids were hooked. It was all they could talk about! Mike graciously let them play and mom orchestrated a "percussion section" of wooden spoons and spatulas. The children speak fondly of this experience and are continuously inquiring about playing the guitars. So, this weekend, I introduced cardboard guitars to the kids. Abby and Gabriel were big into coloring their guitars in their own way, but Nicholas was more interested in the design--he concentrated at the photograph of the guitar that we had and tried to copy the image to his own guitar. Once the guitars had become pieces of "art" we moved the furniture in our family room, turned up the volume of the music and let the kids have a "jam session"! They had a blast! Daddy showed each of them the proper way to hold their guitars and even jammed a few beats with them! A terrific night! Next stop...on our little lesson...the book store. Nicholas wants to see what other types of guitars are made!
Stay tuned later in the week for my documentations of this experience! But for now, here are a few of the pictures!
The planning, and designing of their guitars.
The jam session.
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