PRODUCT INFORMATION:

When Friedrich Froebel established the first system for educating young children, he created a series of playthings to provide children with focused educational experiences. Up until that time, toys were intended for amusement and education was provided through books and instruction. Froebel’s Kindergarten used play as its engine and his Spielgabe (or “play gifts”) as the fuel. During his lifetime, he codified the series of Froebel Gifts up through Gift 7 (parquetry tablets). After his death in 1852, his followers extended the series of educational toys by numbering other materials used in his school.

Froebel deduced that brain development is most pronounced between birth and age 3.
Froebel taught that children develop at different rates, so Kindergarten was an ungraded range from ages 3-7. It was a multi-age setting that combined boys and girls, as well as children of both rich and poor, into a community of education that involved both parents and teachers.
Froebel recognised that humans are creative beings and must be taught about creating through observation of nature and through a process of creative activities. As such, the Froebel Gifts & Occupations were the world’s first toys designed specifically for child development.
Froebel invented play-based education and the concept of a prepared environment.
Froebel pioneered holistic education.
Froebel invented both child-centred and whole-child approaches to education, urging educators to “follow the child.”.
Froebel developed the morning circle and engaged children in decision-making and news of the day.
Froebel pioneered the use of music, movement, games and craft activities (including geometric paper-folding) in an educational setting, including the use of finger plays with children.

The Froebel Gifts are educational materials developed for Friedrich Froebel’s original Kindergarten. Perhaps the world’s most intricately conceived playthings, these materials appear deceptively simple but represent a sophisticated approach to child development. The Gifts are arguably the first educational toys.

Froebel developed Spielgabe (“play gifts”) for his Kindergarten schools. They were so named because they were both given to the child (to be properly respected as gifts) and also function as tools for adults to observe the innate human “gifts” each child possesses from birth. One observes the remarkable qualities and innovative ideas that make each child unique when they have the opportunity to explore and create according to Froebel’s method. The materials are known in a variety of terms, including Eunmul (South Korea), Gabe (Asia) and Spielgabe (Germany).
The materials were not some accidental creation, as some modern historians assume. Froebel spent a great deal of time observing children and refining the design of the Gifts. He numbered Gifts 1-6 (the only materials to be identified as Spielgabe in Froebel’s writing) partly because it simplifies referring to them. Later materials can be described succinctly as tablets (Gift 7), sticks (Gift 8), rings (Gift 8 or 9), and points (Gift 9 or 10). For example, Gift 2 is a set of wood solids (sphere, cylinder, cube) with a hanging apparatus. Eight one-inch wood cubes are known more simply as Gift 3, etc.
Gifts have one primary difference from other materials used in Kindergarten — they can be returned to their original form when play is finished. An important part of Gift play is that the presentation of the Gift is always as a whole form (e.g. Gift 3, removed from the box as a cube form of 8 cubes), and when play is done, parts are combined before being placed into the box as a whole. There are only two other rules for Gift play: (1) all parts must be incorporated, and (2) creation is always changed through modification, not destroyed and rebuilt. In this way, unity is maintained, and subtle lessons about the nature of change are learned.

WARNING INFORMATION:

PROPER USE: This educational product is designed according to scientific teaching principles. It is a teaching aid, not a toy, and it must be used under the supervision of a professionally trained Adult.

CHOCKING HAZARD – Owing to properties essential to its purpose, this product is not suitable in Australia for children under 3 years.

PACKAGING – This product contains plastic packaging, which must be removed and kept away from children.