History of L'Atelier

Since an early age, Simonetta , the owner of L'Atelier grew up surrounded by ateliers, which supported her idea of developing an attitude towards art as a way of expression and not only as the creation of a product. This way of expression was the first vision she had about the art workshop as a place where children would encounter not only materials but also experience aspects of life at their own respected rhythm. Research and self expression were concepts always present. ...a place where children would encounter not only materials but also experience aspects of life at their own respected rhythm... L’Atelier opened its doors in May of 1995 to children 18 months to 6 years old. During the first years, we observed that when children entered in contact with materials and different media, they expressed natural curiosity and the desire to explore the environment around them. This exploration engaged them in creations of theories about how things work.

During the summer of 1996 we had the first encounter with the schools of Reggio Emilia, a town in Northern Italy. The Reggio Emilia municipal schools have been recognized among the best in the world.

During this first meeting with Carla Rinaldi (Pedagogista) and Sergio Spaggiari ( director of Reggio Emilia schools) we shared our experiences and the vision of the art workshop. We realized that we had similar approaches to early education all based on respect for children. After several meetings with parents, teachers and children from the Art Workshop, we decided to evolve L'Atelier to a formal preschool where we could complement our original educational principles with some of the concepts developed at the Reggio Emilia pre-schools.

We made the choice to invest in professional development and organized visits to US and Italian centers and conferences inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach. The different interpretations and contexts supported our learning.

In 1997 we built our first Campus in South Miami with two classrooms ( the Nido, and the 3's,4's &5's), a Plaza, an Atelier, a Water lab, a Kitchen and an office. Th enthusiasm and support of the families enrolled at the school and the growing demand of children waiting to be part of it made us decide to expand our facilities. In 1999 we added another classroom, a dark room, a teachers' office and we enlarged the kitchen. In 2004 we opened a classroom for infants. In that way we reached our full capacity of 75 families. We offer full and part time programs fro children 3 months to 5 years old.

Since year 2000 L'Atelier developed a strong collaboration with the educators from Reggio Emilia, Italy. Amelia Gambetti is our consultant and visits the school once or twice a year. The ongoing dialogue with educators from North America has supported our learning and evolution. L'Atelier is also a center for professional development which goal is to offer different initiatives to the community to promote dialogue and exchange among educators.