What makes the Reggio approach unique?

Brief History 
The Reggio Emilia approach to early learning emerged after the devastation of World War 2. The citizens in this region of Italy were faced with the decision of whether or not to rebuild their city. When the decision was made as a community to rebuild, the citizens of Reggio Emilia decided that they wanted to invest their time and energy in building schools in which the focus was based on children's rights as citizens themselves and the children's rights as participatory agents in their own education. Loris Malaguzzi was the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach. 

Children's Rights
As Reggio inspired educators our focus extends beyond the provision of a child's basic educational needs. It is a given that we will be tracking the major developmental domains of each child in our care, that we will provide a safe and healthy environment, that we will be fostering nurturing relationships, and that we will apply universally held
early childhood education theories. 

Our practices extend beyond the provision of needs and into the incorporation of Children's Rights. Loris Malaguzzi's definition of children's rights guides our teaching practices...

“Children have the right to be recognized as subjects of individual, legal, civil, and social rights; as both source and constructors of their own experience, and thus active participants in the organization of their identities, abilities, and autonomy through relationships and interaction with peers, with adults, and with the real and imaginary events of intercommunicating worlds” (Malaguzzi, 1994).

How do Children's Rights Inform Our Teaching Practices? 

Our Curriculum is..

• Unique to Timberline- we follow the guiding principles and major components of the Reggio Emilia approach: the classroom as the third teacher, teacher as researcher, observation and documentation drives curriculum, the child is viewed as competent and capable, long-term investigations emerge from children's interests, representational art as a means of communication, the hundred languages of children, relationships as the foundation for learning and progettazione. These principles are applied within our unique context. We cannot claim to be a Reggio Emilia school because we are not located in Reggio Emilia where their practices are influenced by their own unique context. Rather, we apply the guiding principles of this philosophy in our own context making us a Reggio inspired school. 
• Emergent- the curriculum (everything that a child experiences, including the environment) is based on the emerging interests and curiosity of the students. We engage, interpret, observe, and document to guide our practices
• Project-based- long-term investigations or projects are a means for children to fully explore various aspects of a given area of interest 
• Contextual- the classroom community has a context that is unique to the individual participants and their group dynamics, the context is specific to a group and specific to the individual 
• Adaptable/ Flexible- an emergent curriculum is ever-changing, one day the children may be motivated to learn about the characteristics of a particular bug and the next they may be interested in why bugs are sometimes scary to people. Their interest guides and informs the next steps that educators take as guides and co-constructors of knowledge. 
• Collaborative- relationships and interactions demand that collaboration exists, recognizing the rights that each participant has in  their own experience and as members in a social construction of knowledge

See the link below for an overview comparing 3 early childhood teaching models. 
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=367