Reggio Emilia Approach for Early Years (Nursery-KG2)

The value of quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood education cannot be overstated. Children who receive high-quality education in their early years reap benefits in their cognitive and social development, and in the development of their language skills and thinking skills in both the short-term and long term.

Play is at the heart of programs that produce such exceptional results for children in their earliest years.

In learning, there is no divide between work and play. In the early years, play is the work of the child. It is through play that the child learns. For the child, play is so much more than entertainment. Play is complex; it is experimentation; it is scientific. It is how the child learns about the world around him or her and develops cognitively and socially. Through play, the child constructs hypotheses about the physical world, about the social world, tests these hypotheses, and develops theories, always testing, always revising based on what happens during play.
At Eastwood, we value play as the child's work and believe it is the most developmentally appropriate, joyful, and natural way to learn.

You need only watch a child in the process of learning and discovery to see that learning is an inherently joyous endeavor. Imagine the laughter and smiles of an infant learning that your face, when it disappears behind your hands in a game of peek-a-boo, will reappear, that it hasn’t really gone! Imagine the child who crouches transfixed over an insect in the garden, or who peers through the window of an oven as cookies rise, or who creates a structure with blocks, standing proudly with their hands on their hips to admire their work.

Learning experiences in the early years begin with the interests of the child; we trust that children are interested in things that truly matter as they work to discover and learn about the world around them.

We offer children learning contexts that are many, varied, and above all, inspire joy and a love of learning and challenge. Welcome to the Early Years at Eastwood International School.