What Parents Say about the Reggio Emilia Approach
Play-Based Approach
Last updated on 18 Nov 2025
百合谷幼儿园百合谷幼儿园Play-Based Approach
Last updated on 18 Nov 2025
What Parents Say about the Reggio Emilia Approach
Play-Based Approach
Last updated on 18 Nov 2025
Choosing a preschool is often one of the biggest tasks facing a parent. Because of the sheer number of options for early childhood education today, it can also be a challenge.
Every parent wants a preschool that offers more than the basics. We want a place that nurtures our child’s unique potential and prepares them for a future that values innovation.
The Reggio Emilia approach offers a philosophy that can help with that. Originating from Italy and described by some as among the world’s best school systems, it offers a child-led and inquiry-driven learning philosophy.
If you’ve already started looking into this philosophy, you’ve likely started looking for other parents’ feedback on Reggio Emilia to learn what it can offer. Most parents who’ve experienced it describe it as an active and highly immersive learning approach.
To give you genuine insight into this approach, we’ll share the common feedback from parents whose children benefit from this approach at places such as Lily Valley Preschool.
Parents today want their children to be actively engaged in the learning process. Children are no longer seen as passive recipients of knowledge but as participants in its acquisition.
Hence, parents drawn to this approach are typically looking for an environment that empowers children and helps them become capable, participative learners from the outset.
The learning environment even reflects that in a Reggio Emilia facility.
At Lily Valley Preschool, parents often observe how thoughtfully designed the classrooms and communal spaces are. Every corner and carefully placed material encourage exploration.
This speaks directly to a core principle of the philosophy, which is that the environment itself is a third teacher. Many parents experiencing Reggio Emilia for the first time find themselves appreciative of such environments for their inspirational and empowering qualities.
Parents also tend to note the way teachers respect children’s voices and ideas, acting as collaborators instead of instructors. The overall verdict is often of the approach providing a good balance between guided structure and the freedom to explore.
Parents whose children are enrolled in Reggio Emilia-inspired schools share different feedback, but their comments do tend to fall into a few key categories. We’ve sorted them into those below for our summaries.
A consistent piece of feedback we receive from parents is that the Reggio Emilia approach helps children take greater ownership of their learning and routines.
They see examples of this daily, such as children setting up their own workspaces or managing materials for a project. At Lily Valley, routines like tidying up or group sharing sessions are actively designed to cultivate this independence in little ones.
Many parents note that their children also seem more confident at home afterwards. They make decisions, ask questions, or problem-solve more readily.
At Lily Valley, we are proud to have dedicated art specialists who nurture children’s appreciation for fine arts while guiding them through creative exploration. Beyond learning about artistic techniques and expression, our children also engage in meaningful art experiences that transform everyday items into imaginative creations.
Through these projects, children learn to see beauty and potential in simple, ordinary things. Working with recycled materials encourages them to think resourcefully, express their ideas freely, and develop important problem-solving and analytical skills.
This hands-on approach not only fosters creativity, but also builds critical thinking, innovation, and environmental awareness, helping children understand that art can be created from anything when imagination leads the way.
Another thing that parents often note is the partnership aspect of the Reggio Emilia model. They feel included as competent and active parts of their children’s educational journeys.
Many Reggio Emilia preschool reviews acknowledge regular and transparent communication between parents and teachers as a typical feature of these establishments. At Lily Valley, we even invite parents to view or participate in children’s learning projects.
This collaboration is also embedded through daily parent journals and updates at our preschool. We document children’s projects and put on exhibitions where parents can see the tangible results of collaborative learning.
The result is that parents feel valued and respected instead of being left out of the educational process.
Parents often highlight how their children become more empathetic, patient, and team-oriented after joining a Reggio Emilia-inspired preschool. Reviews often mention group play and long-term collaborative projects as key strengths that make this possible.
At Lily Valley, we carefully scaffold group activities where children can learn key social skills. These include turn-taking and negotiation, along with conflict resolution.
This leads to children who are academically engaged yet also emotionally grounded and socially competent.
Parents’ feedback on Reggio Emilia preschools indicates that they believe this model emphasises creativity, independence, holistic growth, and strong parent-school partnerships.
At Lily Valley Preschool, you can see these things for yourself through one of our school tours. You can see our specially designed ateliers for child-led learning and speak with the teachers who guide children’s learning gently.
Reach out to us today to schedule a tour of our facilities and speak with our educators. You can see the Reggio Emilia approach in action as well.