Friedrich Froebel and Blocks

I'm not sure what got me started, but I have been studying the origins of Kindergarten lately. The inventor of Kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, had a very different idea of what Kindergarten should be from what it is now (at least what it is now in America,) but his ideas are still very useful. His method involved giving children a series of twenty "gifts" and occupations that all would build on each other. The early gifts were mostly some combination of blocks that related to each other mathematically, and the occupations would be arranging the blocks, and later on other materials, to make harmonious and aesthetically pleasing arrangements and constructions. Maria Montessori was greatly influenced by Froebel, and so that is why Montessori programs include physical math. Froebel thought that children should do these types of activities from the time they were what we would call preschool age until seven or eight years old. It is a shame that contemporary Kindergarten, as well as the later lower elementary school years, are so focused on academic learning. There is definitely something to the idea that if a child plays with unit blocks, then they will intuitively understand math at a much deeper level later on, and so this argues against the worksheet and drill type instruction that is so common nowadays. Interestingly, it seems that many successful architects, as well as other creative types, went through Froebel Kindergarten programs.




So, all this theory led me to buy some standard unit blocks, and Joseph really likes them. I haven't had too much time to play with them with him yet, but I am really looking forward too it. I do think that our set is pretty basic though, so I am sure that I will be buying some more complicated shapes sometime in the future. You can't build a very interesting road without curves, for instance, and roads are what Joseph likes to build.

Kapla Blocks

Last week Joseph commented that the Elves had not visited for a while, and suggested that we invite them over for coffee. I explained that being shy of loud noise that they probably wouldn't like coffee time (though I assured him that it was very generous of him to want to invite them.) I told him that I would call them and ask them to come for a visit, and so this is what they built last Wednesday night ...




I suppose they had such a good time building this tower, that they came back and built this (Of which I hear they are especially proud because of its original design)...






After this fury of building, it came to my attention that perhaps the Elves need more blocks. Through my research I found that there is an identical product made by a french company called Kapla, however, they also produce colored blocks. This was something I could not resist, so I went ahead and ordered some. I can't wait to see what the Elves think of them!

Elves

I keep wanting to write on my blog and just never get to it. I have so many things that I intended to write about like elves, shoes, frogs... Well I will start with the elves. One night, after we opened the Keva blocks, the Wood Elves visited and built this little town.

This inspired Joseph to build his own town (the planes on the table were made by Jim), which was precisely the goal of the elves.



The block building was so vigorous for a while that I decided to make a dedicated block building space by the windows. This worked out nicely for a while, except that right now I have a whole bunch of seed starts on those tables, and also an aquarium with tadpoles, but more on that later. Here Joseph is building his own plane.


This building is what the elves left another time. Joseph was very excited to see that the elves had left him another surprise, and he immediately wanted to add a porch to it. Those elves are smart when it concerns influencing people for good.


Well, now it is very late, so I am off to bed. I am hoping that I will be writing on my blog every night now, because I made some changes in our schedule, but more on that later too. For now.... zzzzzzzzzzzz.