he choice for the color of the book, yellow(one that identifies the telephone directory) was alsointentional.

When we document an experience,even very short experiences, we have to find a title thatrepresents the identity of this experience

While the children were having this discussion, itseemed that words alone were not enough. Childrenstrongly need to leave traces on paper. It is as if themark of the pencil that travels over the space of thepaper helps them to feel the movement and gives visi-bility to their interior paths. These traces are sometimesextremely essential; other times, they are dense andintricate. We believe that the children’s maps arealways extraordinarily exact, with a kind of exactnessthat forces us to turn our adult standards upside down,that forces our thoughts to search for different pointsof reference. This is because the children’s maps aremulti-sensory and contain places of relationships,encounters, smells and noises, stories of life. Thesekinds of maps are composed of fragments of personalstories. The children consciously and humorouslydeclared the difficulty of interpretation

In fact, the children seemed to believe that a warmwelcome was one of the elements that qualify the cityand can motivate the visitors.

When you visit the preschools,you can see the signs of this desire, this need and pridethat the children have in participating, in leaving tracesof themselves for others.

Everyday, it is important to offer the children theopportunity to discuss new knowledge, to look at newconcepts, to exchange points of view about thatknowledge. It’s also important to offer children theopportunity to think on their own.

Young children have a natural impulse to share whatthey know with someone else

It’s a way of going back to the children and giving back to the children images ofwhat we’ve done together. It’s a process of re-readingand re-interpreting processes that have been elaborat-ed by adults and children together

This is a risk weoften take when working with children. Even if we arenot conscious of it, we face this dilemma every daybecause of our own pre-conceived notions and theo-ries. I believe that we can choose to offer topics for thechildren’s consideration as long as we are aware of this risk.

We must understand their differ-ences and be able to relate those differences. Theexpression of each child must find a place

We did not ask questions onlyto discover what the children know and don’t know.Weasked open questions in order to create a groupcontext in which we could share our opinions and ourpoints of view, a context in which we could constructnew knowledge

participates in contributing to their historical an

There are only possible strategies. Make sure, above all, that children become familiar in their minds with images, that they know ho

o preserve in children (and in ourselves) the feeling of wonder and surprise, because creativity, like knowledge, is a daughter of surprise. We have to convince ourselves that expressivity is an art, a combined construction (n

tinually needs more tools, appropriate architectures, and wider spaces; it

uaranteed thepractice of working with the same children the for the continuum of three years, and had been enriched by the opening of the infant/toddler center

placefor sensitizing one's taste andaesthetic sense,a place for the individual exploration of projects connected with the

ychologists•Participation by parents to infant/toddler centers and preschools forchildren

Figure 2.1. "Once a week we would transport the school, (the children and our tools,) to town .... The children were happy. The people saw; they were surprised and they asked questions." (Gandini

adults.Observation, documentation and interpretation are woven together into what I would define as a "spiral movement," in which none of these actions can be separated out from the others. It is impossible, in fact, to document without ob erving and interpret-ing. By means of documenting, the thinking or the interpretation of the documenter becomes tangible

g support and mediation to the children, the teacher who knows how to observe, document and interpret these processes will realize his or her own full potential as a learner

a more conscious vision. This is what internal listening" means. By moving from one language to another, and one field of experience to another, and by reflecting on these shi� , children modify and enrich their theories. But this is true if, and only if, children have the opportunity to make these shifts in a group context -with others -and if they have the chance to listen and be listened to by others, to express their differences and be receptive to the differences of the others. The task of those who ducate is not only to allow the differen es to be expressed, but to make it possible for them to be negotiated and nurtured through exchanging and comparing ideas. In this way, not only does the indi-vidual child learn how to learn, but the group becomes conscious of itself as a •teaching place," where the languages are enriched, multiplied, refined and generated but al o where they collide and hybridize with each other, and are renewed

Listening and documentation As children communicate their mental images or theories to others, they also represent them to them-selves, developing a more conscious vision. This is what internal listening" means. By moving from

hat requires energy, hard work and, sometimes, suffering. But it also offers wonder, joy, enthusiasm and passion. It is a path that takes time -time that children have and adults often do not, or do not wanl to have. This is where the school comes in; it should first and foremost be a "context of multiple listening," involving the teachers and children, individually and as a group, who should listen to each other and themselves. This concept of a context of multiple listening overturns the traditional teaching-learning relationship. The focus shifts to learning -children's self-learning

istening should welcome and be open todifferences, recognizing the value of the other's point of view and interpretation

istening is the basis for any learning relation-ship. T

sion of our judgementsand prejudices. It requires openness to change.

pedagogy of relationships and listening," which distinguishes the work in Reggio Emilia. The nwaning · of Ii. tening •Listening should be sensitive to the patternsthat conne t us to others. Our understanding andour own being are a small part of a broader, inte-grated knowledge that holds the universe together.•Listening should be open and sensitive to theneed to listen and be listened to, and the need to listen with oil our senses, not just with our ears. •Listening should recognize the many languages, symbols and codes that people use in order toexpress themselves and communicate.•Listening to ourselves, "internal listening,•encourages us to listen lo others but, in turn, is generated when others listen to us. •Listening a time. When you realty listen, you getinto the time of dialogue and interior reflection, an interior time that is made up of the present butalso past and future time and is, therefore, out

eories are provi ional and can be continu-ously re-worked

Children know this; they have the desire and the ability to search for the meaning of life and their own sense of self as soon as they are born. This is why we, in Reggio, view children as active, compe-tent and strong, exploring and finding meaning -not as predetermined, fragile, needy and incapa

But we cannot live without meanin

this for ourselves?" In the search for meaning, we must a k: "why?" "how?" and "what?" These are the key questions that children constantly ask, both in and out of chool.

ewecanhelpthembut alsobecausetheycanhelpus. Weshouldlistentothechildren,sothattheycanexpresstheirfearsbut alsofor themlo giveusthecourageto faceour fears,for themandwith them. Weshouldlistentothechildrensothat theirwisdomgivesuscomfort,sothat their"whys"orientour searchfor there

Boulder Journey School, 2010. through the viewfinder difficult. This teacher found that as the children manipu-lated the camera, their fingers often got in the way of the lens. On one occasion a child's finger obscured the lens almost entirely. As the teacher and child re-viewed this photograph, the teacher began to advise the child on how to hold the camera more effectively, while the child erupted in elation over the results. ·1rs my finger!" he exclaimed. His classmates shared his excitement. 'Take a picture of my finger next: Given children's attentiveness to the here and now, educators at

olds, enjoy using these hobbyhorses to pretend and play. The teacher noticed that the children persisted in trying to obtain these objects by hovering nearby, pointing, tugging at the parts of the toy they could reach, and vocalizing. She hypothesized that the children believed they had a right to use the horses, and contrasted their persistence in trying to obtain the horses with their lack of persistence in obtaining desired objects to which the children did not feel entitled, such as classmates' bottles. In listening to children's behavior, adults must attend closely to their play. Developmental psychologists and early childhood educators increasingly under-stand that play is crucial to the well-being and development of children, and is the main activity through which children seek and find meanin

up .. Third Child: ... I would like a sink on the floor. These children were speaking about the dependence on adults that arises, not from lack of competence, but from their small stature in an adult-sized world. The third child seemed to be requesting, in a poetic way, not an actual sink on the floor but autonomy in performing the daily task of hand washing. This dialogue illustrates that '"listening' to very young children does not necessarily mean taking all their utterances at face value, but it does mean observin

our research on children's rights has led us to specify four suggestions for tuning adult ears to the voices of young children. Listening Creatively: Can Adults Appreciate Children's Many Languages? Adult society relies on the spoken and written word. Parents note and cel-ebrate a child's first words, but rarely mark other hallmarks in communication, such as the first time a child points to request an object or represents something by imitating it, for example, flapping her or his arms to signify a bird (Doherty-Sneddon, 2003). Listening to young children means appreciating that they com-municate using a wide array of languages. If children do indeed speak using 100 languages, then in order to understand what children are saying, adults must lis-ten with all of their creativity. Rinaldi (2001) proposed "listening not just with o

10 Seen and Heard So it does not depend on the age of the teller, but on the sensitivity of the listener. A newborn baby is l oking in your eyes, making silent questions, asking for coo

Finnish educator Monika Riihela held that infants as young as 8

Boulder Journey School, 2010. •Children have a right to plant flowers and plants with other people •Children have a right to grow taller•Children have a right to run or walk, to choose which one, if it's safe •Children have a right to have friends •Children have a right to touch everything, but gently, but not birds because that can scare them very much •Children have a right to pretend thatthere's a beach anywhere •Children have a right to pretend everything•Children have a right to pretend withglass, but not a right to drop it 'cause that's not safe •Children have a right to climb mountains, ski on the mountains(when there is snow), and play on the mountains (because the mountains are there for all of us to use) •Children have a right to take off theirclothes when they are hot, but not their socks •Children have a right to have fun •Children have a right to read books when they are crying (so they don'thave to talk about it right away) •Children have a right to sing, and to sing to other people •Children have a right to help otherpeople and even birds with broken wings (so it's okay for people to touch them) •Children have a right to play all day •Children have a right to twist theirown ears, but not a right to twistother people's ears (a child must ask the other person first) •Children have a right to be asked ifsomeone wants to twist their ears •Children have a right to guess how things work•Children have a right to be in love and love each other•Children have a right to eat grapes whichever way they choose, like peeling them first, if they want •Children have a right to make ideas with other people •Children have a right to be safe from fires and have firefighters ready tohelp them if there is a fire •Children have a right to fall down when they feel like being crazy •Children have a right to sleep when they are tired, or not to sleep when they are not tired, like just resting •Children have a right to have their hair look like they want, but not a rightto cut it unless they ask first •Children have a right to choose theirown clothes (and parents have aright to buy clothes for children if they want, but parents do not have a right to steal clothes) •Children have a right to never, never go to jail•Children have a right to pretend being dead and think about what it means to be dead •Children have a right to eat some cheese or an apple when they are hungry •Children have a right to good stuff thatmakes them happy •Children have a right to clean air •Children have a right to clean, fresh food to eat and if the food is dirty,they can say, 'NO!' •Children have a right to clean, cold water or clean, hot water or clean, warm water •Children have a right to chew soft gum, especially if it's the kind that cleans your teeth, but not a right to hard gum, like one might find at Copper Mountain's gumball machine •Children have a right to talk, as long as they do not inte

I have a right to think that way,' what does it mean?" (I. Hillman, 2003). The children discussed their ideas until they agreed on statements made by two children. One child stated, "A right is like you know in your heart it's okay to do it ... you can do it if you want and that's it." Another child added, "But only if it's okay, like you won't hurt somebody and it's not safe . . . because the other person has a right to not be hurt too, right?· Over the ensuing weeks, the children compiled a list of their rights (Puf

response to achild. Children need to know that we are theirfriends, that they can depend on us for the things theydesire, that we can support them in the things thatthey have, but also in the things that they dreamabout, that they desire.Children have the right to imagine. We need to givethem full rights of citizenship in life and in society.It’s necessary that we believe that the child is veryintelligent, that the child is strong and beautiful a

newway.What the child doesn’t want is an observation fromthe adult who isn’t really there, who is distracted.The child wants to know that she is observed, care-fully, with full attention. The child wants to beobserved in action. She wants the teacher to see theprocess of her work, rather than the product. Theteacher asks the child to take a bucket of water fromone place to the other. It’s not important to the childthat the teacher only sees him arrive with the bucketof water at the end. What is important to the child isthat the teacher sees the child while the child isworking, while the child is putting out the effort toaccomplish the task — the processes are import

rehand. But manythings that happen cannot be known ahead of time.Something will start to grow inside the child andsuddenly what is happening in the school will movein that direction. Sometimes what happens startsinside the adults. School can never be alwayspredictable. We need to be open to what takes placeand able to change our plans and go with whatmight grow at that very moment

RealityWe can never think of the child in the abstract. Whenwe think about a child, when we pull out a child tolook at, that child is already tightly connected andlinked to a certain reality of the world — she hasrelationships and experiences. We cannot separatethis child from a particular reality. She brings theseexperiences, feelings, and relationships into schoo