About Us
The Owners of Reggio Kids - Visit us at www.reggiokids.blogspot.com
Tiziana Ciccone is the founder, President and Program Co-coordinator of the Reggio Kids Schools. In 1981 she graduated from Humber College with an honours diploma in Early Childhood Education, with a specialty in Developmental Delays. She also holds a Montessori Preschool Diploma (1997). Tiziana has over 30 years of experience working with children and their families and has been the Executive Director of several preschools. Since 1997, her efforts have been directed to studying the Reggio Emilia Approach, fascinated by its unique pedagogy and deep respect for the child as a participant in the learning process. In 2003 she joined an American study tour to the Preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy. Tiziana has acted as a program consultant to other schools for developing curriculum with a strong emphasis on the learning environment. Tiziana is married and with three children, two sons, aged 25 and 21, and a daughter who is 19.
"The child must know that he or she is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world, there will not be, another child like him" Pablo Casal
Franca Linardi is Co founder, Vice President and Administrator of Reggio Kids South. She began her career as an assistant teacher and has been working with children and their families for over 20 years. Many wonderful people and philosophies have inspired her work, but none have captured her heart like the Reggio Approach. In 2003 she joined Tiziana on the American study tour of the Preschools in Italy. Leaving Italy, she felt a renewed sense of commitment to her role as a preschool educator. Franca has a strong background in visual arts and in using art to symbolically represent children's thinking and theories. Franca is married and has two children, a daughter age 24 and a son who is 20.
"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in".
Livia Mainella is the Co founder, Vice President and Supervisor of Reggio Kids. She graduated from the Early Childhood Education Program at Humber College with honours specializing in children with special needs. Livia also holds a Montessori Preschool Diploma. She began her career as an educator 14 years ago after her return from Italy. Livia was introduced to the Reggio Approach in 1997. The hundred languages of children is the focal point of Livia's interest in this unique philosophy. In 2002 she joined Tiziana in the opening of the first location for Reggio Kids, followed by the opening of their second site in 2004. Livia is married and has two daughters ages 11 and 9.
"You are the master of your own destiny, so give and take the best that you can."
Tiziana, Liva and Franca have also been presenters at conferences, highlighting the work of the children in their schools.
The Reggio Kids organization avidly supports The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, The Children's Wish Foundation, MADD Canada and the The Christian Children's Foundation of Canada.
Dr. George E. Forman PH.D. ( Program Consultant to Reggio Kids)
Dr. Forman is a well known author of books that extend the theory of Jean Piaget to early childhood education. For four years he was a research psychologist at Project Zero at Harvard University, co-directed by Howard Gardner and David Perkins. Internationally, Dr. Forman has worked with the Indian government to develop participatory exhibits for young children throughout India. He is co-inventor of The Gravity Wall which can be found in over 200 children's museums world wide.
Since 1986 Dr. Forman has been working with the city of Reggio Emilia in Italy to bring their education model to prominence in the United States. Reggio Emilia has developed a coherent curriculum that integrates art and symbolism as a means to educate children from 3 to 6 years of age. This work is presented in The Hundred Languages of Children; edited by C. Edwards, L. Gandini, and G. Forman. He is a frequent speaker at conferences to feature his cognitive analysis of the Reggio Emilia Approach, in cities such as Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Melbourne, Stockholm, Helsinki, Milan, Calgary, Geneva, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv and Shanghai.
The talks have also featured Dr.Forman's research on the use of drawing as a means for children to gain better purchase of their own ideas, theories and speculations about how something works, "drawing to learn" as Dr. Forman has coined the term. He continues to refine his pedagogical approach that has been inspired by the schools in Reggio Emilia focusing on the extraordinary possibilities that can emerge when teachers engage in a micro analysis of ordinary moments. He was invited to be Advisory Faculty in Resident at the Hong Kong Institute for Education in January, 2003 to continue his research on the concepts of analysis of ordinary moments.
Since retirement he has founded Videatives, Inc.(www.videatives.com) to implement preprimary professional development via digital video on the world wide web. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, School of Education, at Amherst Massachusetts, his home since 1972. He is married and the father of one son, age twenty one.