The amazing and complex work of children’s minds is made visible in this groundbreaking new book from Together for Families in Hamilton, Ontario. Inspired by the world-renowned Infant/Toddler and Preschool centers of Reggio Emilia, Italy, artist Jason Avery and his colleagues use photography, recording of children’s words and drawings, and reflective commentary to document the investigations and emergent concepts taking place in this urban drop-in center serving children and families from infancy onward.

In a welcome departure from the world of ‘make-and-take’ and rote learning, we see children’s authentic engagement with their curiosity about the world honored and made visible. We see sustained, long-term relationships that cultivate and reinforce a positive view of children and families. We see the powerful results of an educational setting in which children are supported in their investigations of the things that interest them.

• foreword by Lella Gandini, Liaison in the U.S. for Dissemination of the Reggio Emila Approach
• captivating images and text by the children of Together for Families as documented by resident artist Jason Avery
• commentary by early childhood education scholars Karyn Callaghan and Carol Anne Wien
• teacher accounts of their first experiences in a Reggio Emilia inspired setting
• index of concepts

“This remarkable book takes the reader inside a long-term, sustained partnership between artists, early childhood teachers, and university faculty. Certainly, interdisciplinary collaboration is an abstract ideal we all talk about, but Documenting Children’s Meaning reveals how it can work and some of the beautiful insights and connections these processes can create.”

Carolyn Pope Edwards
Co-editor, The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation

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