Reggio Emilia Inspired Calendar
Who loves being creative?! Apart from being a photographer, I love anything and everything creative. Painting, writing, restoring furniture, restoring old homes, calligraphy, making the next neat DIY project etc. It's endless for me! The bigger the challenge, the better.
Today I want to show you my family's Reggio Emilia inspired calendar. For those who don't know, I have a background in Reggio Emilia early childhood development. You've heard of Montessori? Reggio Emilia is different in many ways. I prefer it for many reasons which I am not going to discuss in this blog post.
Reggio Emilia was started in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1945. The town was completely devastated by WWII and so the community rallied together and built a school based on the principals of 1. Children must have some control in the direction of their learning 2. They must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing 3. Children must have a relationship with other children and with the material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore 4. Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves. I love how something good came from something bad. Its a story of restoration and healing. Who doesn't love a story like that?!
The environment is also very important and is regarded as the third teacher. Simple white walls with light natural wood tones and grains. Using outside elements such as sticks and leaves and rocks are also used in the design creatively by the teachers and students. No obnoxious loud colors in the design (in artwork, yes), lots of windows and natural light and less is more. The parents are required to be involved as well making the school more of a family than a school.
If I had my way and lots of money, I would start my own Christian Reggio Emilia school. I could keep describing it but instead, I'll leave you a link for more information. North American Reggio Emilia Alliance
Back to the calendar...
Part of the Reggio Emilia philosophy is letting the kids make anything and everything, including the teaching materials. Many times it's not going to be perfect and that is ok! That's part of the design. I had my 5-year-old help with the writing and painting and then my 3-year-old helped me paint as well. We used watercolor paint and paper. We LOVE watercolors! There's so many textures and it's easy to clean up.
Today I want to show you my family's Reggio Emilia inspired calendar. For those who don't know, I have a background in Reggio Emilia early childhood development. You've heard of Montessori? Reggio Emilia is different in many ways. I prefer it for many reasons which I am not going to discuss in this blog post.
Reggio Emilia was started in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1945. The town was completely devastated by WWII and so the community rallied together and built a school based on the principals of 1. Children must have some control in the direction of their learning 2. They must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing 3. Children must have a relationship with other children and with the material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore 4. Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves. I love how something good came from something bad. Its a story of restoration and healing. Who doesn't love a story like that?!
The environment is also very important and is regarded as the third teacher. Simple white walls with light natural wood tones and grains. Using outside elements such as sticks and leaves and rocks are also used in the design creatively by the teachers and students. No obnoxious loud colors in the design (in artwork, yes), lots of windows and natural light and less is more. The parents are required to be involved as well making the school more of a family than a school.
If I had my way and lots of money, I would start my own Christian Reggio Emilia school. I could keep describing it but instead, I'll leave you a link for more information. North American Reggio Emilia Alliance
Back to the calendar...
Part of the Reggio Emilia philosophy is letting the kids make anything and everything, including the teaching materials. Many times it's not going to be perfect and that is ok! That's part of the design. I had my 5-year-old help with the writing and painting and then my 3-year-old helped me paint as well. We used watercolor paint and paper. We LOVE watercolors! There's so many textures and it's easy to clean up.
After my daughters helped me write and paint all of the pieces, I had to laminate using clear contact paper. I highly recommend just buying a laminating machine because this was a pain in the butt to finish.
I went to Lowes and picked out some plywood and had them cut it to the size I wanted. I think I did 3 feet X 3 feet.
I decided that with the many colors and textures of the paint, the wood grain was too much movement and so I painted it with Annie Sloan chalk paint Paris Gray and then waxed it. The colors pop very nicely and everything is easy to read.
To get everything to stick I used heavy duty velcro. Make sure you either stick the fuzzy part on all the numbers and months or vice versa so that you can change them each month. If one number has the fuzzy part on it and then the next one has the sticky part then you won't be able to move the numbers down or up. I hope you've gained some inspiration here today! Please pin this to Pinterest!
The next post is about upgrading your frames without the huge cost associated with it. Stay tuned!
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