Nearly every comparison online asks you to pick a side. After years of teaching and a lot of time on my own living room floor, I’ve come to believe the question itself is the wrong one. Here’s why you may not have to choose — and what happens when you stop trying to.
If you’ve gone looking for guidance or clarification about similarities and differences between Montessori and Reggio Emilia, you’ve seen the framing everywhere. Montessori versus Reggio. Which is better? Which is right? Pick a lane.
I spent a long time inside that question — first as a classroom teacher, then as a mother on my own living room floor, watching my daughter and trying to understand what she actually needed from me. And what I slowly realized is that the question rests on a choice that doesn’t have to be made. My daughter didn’t need me to pick a philosophy. She needed what each one helped me see in her.
The 2-Minute Version
- The “Montessori vs. Reggio” framing sets up a choice you may not need to make
- The two emphasize different things, and each helps you notice different parts of your child
- Held together thoughtfully, they cover more of the whole child than either alone
- You don’t need a label — you need what actually helps your specific child
- This is the heart of how we think at NNLC
What Each One Helps Me See
Years of paying attention taught me that each approach brings something into focus.
Montessori
Montessori brings my attention to structure, independence, and the dignity of real work. It gave me the prepared environment, the child-sized world, the deep respect for a toddler’s drive to do things themselves — along with order, sequence, and the quiet power of letting a child concentrate.
Reggio Emilia
Reggio brings my attention to wonder, creativity, and relationship. It gave me the environment as a third teacher, the hundred languages, the practice of following curiosity and noticing a child’s thinking — along with beauty, openness, and the art of the invitation.
Here’s the honest part: these aren’t really opposites, and neither is a caricature of itself. Authentic Montessori includes exploration, imagination, nature, and beauty. Authentic Reggio is deeply intentional and ordered. They place their emphasis differently — on structure, materials, expression, and the way learning unfolds — and for a family, those differences don’t have to force an either-or. They can simply help you notice different parts of your child.
Why This Isn’t a Cop-Out
I want to be honest, because blending can be lazy if it’s thoughtless — a little of this, a little of that, with no center. That’s not what I mean.
I mean choosing intentionally. Letting Montessori’s respect for independence and Reggio’s respect for wonder sit together as one coherent way of being with your child — not diluting either, but letting each fill in what the other holds less tightly. That takes more thought than picking a camp, and it gives your child more.
Your child isn’t a Montessori child or a Reggio child. They’re your child. The approaches are tools in service of them, not identities to take on.
What I believe: You don’t parent a philosophy. You parent a child. Use what helps them flourish, and let the labels go.
What This Looks Like at NNLC
This is the whole reason NNLC exists — not to convert you to a method, but to help you take the best of these approaches, along with what developmental science and warm, connected parenting have taught us, and weave them into a home that works for your family.
We hold Montessori’s structure and Reggio’s wonder together on purpose, and we build around rhythm, environment, and independence, because those are where the approaches meet and where real family life happens. Everything we make is in service of one feeling: I understand my child a little better now.
One Small Step Today
Let go of “which one should I choose,” and replace it with a better question: what does my child need right now? Watch them today with that question in mind, and offer whatever helps — a little Montessori order, a little Reggio wonder, whatever fits the moment.
That’s the whole philosophy, really. Not choosing a camp. Choosing your child, every day, with the best of what we know.
Welcome to the nest. 🤍
