Friedrich Froebel- Biography, Characteristics of play-way method, his educational philosophy, Importance of play-way method, Indoor and outdoor play-way activities, and Froebel's Gifts.

Friedrich Froebel [1782-1852]

Friedrich Froebel Theory and philosophy of education.   


Friedrich Froebel was a German philosopher, an educationalist, and is regarded as the founder of the play-way method and kindergarten system in education. He invented the play way method which is used in the modern age. He was best known for creating the Kindergarten method. He believes that Humans are productive nad creative beings and as a result, he encouraged the creation of educational environments that involved practical work and direct use of educational materials. 
   Froebel believed that engaging the world humans' understanding unfolds, hence the significance of play. Play is a creative activity and with the help of play, children become aware of the place of their world. Play provides the environment of the physical, social, emotional, and physical environment. He contributes towards education by giving the famous kindergarten method/play way method in modern teaching. 
   He was also the first educational philosopher to talk about activity and its importance in young children's learning. He loved nature and looked at children as tender plants, teacher as a gardener, and school as a garden. Therefore, he coined the term kindergarten- the garden of children. Just as the gardener takes care of his tender plants; teachers carefully develop little children under their care and make them grow to beauty and perfection.

Friedrich Froebel Biography-

      Friedrich Froebel was born in South Germany on 21 April 1782. His full name was Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel. In his early years, he was neglected. His mother lost while very young and his father did another marriage and stepmother don't give much attention to Froebel and his education also affected. His life was miserable with a stepmother. He acquired some religious instructions from his father who was a religious man. He went to his mother's brother's house and completed early education from Village local school. In the early years, he starts doing the job as a Forester and developed a love for nature. At 14, he becomes an apprentice to a forester. For him, everything from nature objects to acquire knowledge. So he comes into contact with an educationalist who was running a school. Here he met with Dr.grunert, who was director of the preprimary school. Here Froebel develops love and sympathy towards children and Dr. Grunert believed that Frobele has a quality which a good teacher should have. He becomes a teacher and liked his profession, but some years later joined the army from where he learned the significance of disciplined action. 

This was a turning point of his life and from that, he develops the Kindergarten method and he started his 1 K.G school for 4-6 years old in 1837, but the Government did not like his method of education. Therefore, he was not allowed to run any school and died as a disappointed man. The great aim and purpose of his life may be summed up in his famous saying, "COME, LET US LIVE FOR OUR CHILDREN". 

Literature by Friedrich Froebel    

He wrote some books like:-

• The Education of Man
• Mother play and Nursery songs
• Education and Development

The basic principles of Froebel philosophy of the play-way method.

-- Characteristics of the play-way method.

1. Principles of self-activity and socialization- A child should be given full freedom for free-play with less interference, but yet be disciplined with moral/ social values. The free play would enable the child to grow, learn, and develop naturally from within. This is because play makes a child happy and satisfied. The activity of the mind and freedom in education is the first law of the kindergarten system. He strongly believed that children have the ability to grow within and achieve their true potential. Being a naturalist, Froebel admired nature, beauty, art and emphasized manual activities that provide learning and life skills such as gardening, care of animals, domestic chores, etc. He believes that nature study would result in moral development, religious, upliftment, and spiritual insight. He firmly believed that a child becomes a human being because of socialization and therefore the child has to learn in the company of the other children. For him, the school was a social institution. 
2. Learning through play with gifts/occupation- Froebel proposed that although the knowledge can be gained through freedom in play, the play activity should bot be aimless, but of great educational value. He, therefore, designed 20 key concrete wooden gifts for children to play and learn with- cubes, cylinders, blocks, and colored balls to name a  few.                               These gifts were made of concrete wood that provides experiences in geometry, patterns, constructions, and math, etc. He also proposed some occupations which are material s to master certain skills like clay/wood for exploring solids, paper paint, Beads for surfaces/ points and weaving, and drawing for exploring lines. He encouraged children to appreciate and collect things from nature like twigs, leaves, sticks, etc. These play materials are simple and they give scope for stimulation. The children start understanding the things around him. A child's social attitude and behavior can be traced through his play activity. His inner desire comes out through his play activities. 
3. Learning through songs, gestures, and constructions- Froebel believed that songs, gestures, and construction were the three basic forms in which children express themselves. Therefore, even while playing with gifts there was encouragement and cheer appropriate songs. 

Role of teacher in a play-way method

Froebel suggested that the teacher should be an active participant and guide for the children. She should give ideas on how to play with the gifts and demonstrate the same through the songs. She should give freedom, at the same e time to ensure children are self-disciplined and they learn socio-emotional skills and moral values. 

Importance of the Kindergarten method in Modern education. 

How can we, as educators utilize aspects of this philosophy even in current times?

Below are the major ways in which this philosophy still continues to inspire all of us. 

• Including nature in the curriculum and making play an important part of learning.
• Children are internally driven, they grow naturally from within like plants, therefore the right seeds should be sown to nurture them and help them reach their potential. While giving them freedom is very important; imparting discipline and social/moral values like sympathy, cooperation, care is of equal importance in Froebel's educational philosophy. 
• The principle of self-activity, learning by doing is the mantra even today. ACtivities and activity-based learning are of utmost importance in ECCED even today. 
• Sensory training through concrete materials and enhancing creativity by encouraging construction forms should be a part of a good ECCED curriculum. 
• Emphasis on the school as an institution of social development is well documented even today. 
• Stress on the study of the child's behavior for effective learning. 
• The teacher should be actively involved in the teaching, learning process. She should be encouraging, a good guide, and skilled enough to bring out the best in children.

Free Play activities revolving around Kindergarten methods.

1. Pretend play- It can be term as a role-play or imaginative play, where children pretend to be someone else and imitate their role in their play. Like most boys pretend of super-hero, or dad, King, any shopkeeper they noticed in the market, Santa Claus, Police officer, Chef,  famous hero of their favorite film. Children love to do pretend to play with their equipment. Like they use their doctor set, they dress like a doctor and check their mates and pretend to be like a doctor. Many girls pretend to be like a teacher and teach their classmates and they act like their mom, cooking food, taking care of dad, cook fake food, taking care of dolls, making them dress-up, etc.                                                                                                               

Importance of pretend play- 

• It helps to develop imagination and creativity.
• Pretend play helps to develop their thinking, reasoning capabilities, and develop problem-solving abilities.
• It helps to develop social development, emotional development, Physical development, motor development, moral development, language development, etc.
• It also helps to improve communication skills, as they pretend to be someone else and try to communicate like them.

    2] Threading Beads- Threading beads are an amazing activity given to 18 months old children, it involved a shoelace, or thick thread and beads, and children have to pass beads from those threads. 

  Importance of threading beads-

• To enhance their eye-hand coordination skills.
• To improve their imagination.
• Threading beads also help to develop their memory, reasoning power, and problem-solving ability.
• Threading beads also helps to learn concepts easily as it provides concrete experience to the child. They can learn math, by counting, learns numbers, addition, and subtraction, length, measurements, and patterns.
• It helps to develop fine motor skills as it encourages children to exercise and refine these skills.
• They can easily learn the color concept and also develop their sensory experiences.

  3] Puzzles and Manipulative toys-  Researchers believe that you can expect your little one to concentrate for about 2-5 minutes of their age. That means a 3-year-old might be able to concentrate on a task for 6 to 15 minutes while a 4-year-old might last 8 to 20 minutes.

Importance of Puzzles and manipulative toys-

• Puzzles help to develop eye-hand coordination skills
• It helps to develop fine motor skills.
• It helps to boost the concentration power of the children if age-appropriate puzzles should be given.
• It helps to boost memory, reasoning skills, and,problem-solving skills.
• Puzzles help to develop concepts, puzzles based on animals, color, numbers, etc. helps to develop the concepts. 

 4] Constructive materials- { providing bars, screwdrivers, wheel, nuts/bolts, etc. which are child friendly so that the child could make a car, boat, or any other toy which he/she likes} Building with blocks. 

5] Play with natural things like pebbles, leaves, rocks, sand, water, sticks, etc.

6] Art activities like drawing, painting, and clay.

7] Handwork like making toys from papers.

8] Story-telling.

Importance of storytelling-

• It helps to develop social skills.
• It helps to develop moral development, language skills, cognitive skills, etc.
• It helps to develop concentration power.
• It helps to understand the concepts very well.
• It helps to develop reasoning capacity, problem-solving skills, and thinking.

9] Phythemic exercise, songs, instrumental music, dance.
10] Domestic activities like sweeping, washing plates, and manual activities like gardening. 

Outdoor activities.

 The outdoor equipment like swings, sea-saw, jungle-gym, climbing apparatus, etc. helps the children different to live together in a big community and share their rights.
  Group activities are provided to children, like making them sing a song together, dance or play. The children are taken to small excursions to a nearby garden, zoo, park, post office, etc.

Froebel's Gifts

For complete education and training of a child. Froebel devised a series of gifts. The gifts are a series of os material that possesses all the novelty of plaything, yet they form the basis of his educational method. They are to train the senses of sight and touch, to give the child an idea of size and surface, and to present him with the correct idea of numbers. The gifts are to be given in a certain order. The graduation and order of gifts are determined by the principles of development.

• First Gift: {form, color, and movements}:- Consisted of six colored yarn wooden balls. They develop in the children, the idea of color and material form, motion, direction, and muscular sensibility. 
• Second Gift: {Wooden balls, cylinder-shapes}:- Consists of a sphere, cube, and cylinder made of hardwood. Use the pieces to represents things from the child's life. Roll them. Count the number of surfaces, edges, corners, etc. Introduce concepts of on/under, Front/back, up/down, in front, of/behind, etc. Encourage the children's description through imaginative play.
• Third Gift: {Number- cubes}:- This is a large cube divided into eight smaller equal cubes. From these, the child can build up a number of useful artistic forms such as branches, doors, bridges, etc. the third gift is often called as 'The first building blocks', the child gains elementary ideas of addition and subtraction through these cubes. 
• Fourth Gift: {Extent- rectangular prisms and bricks shaped blocks}:- Children learn new words like bricks, tile, steps, rectangle, direction, verticle, horizontal, height, width, length, etc. They learn symmetrical patterning/ designing. 
• Fifth Gift: {Symmetry- cubes and triangular prisms}:- The child can construct many beautiful patterns by combining the third, fourth, and fifth gifts. New terms like angle, triangle, rectangular prism can be introduced.
• Sixth Gift: {proportion-blocks}:- Designs in forms and constructions may be made by the child and it will also be useful in teaching numbers. A discussion on fractions, volume, the area can happen.  
• Seventh Gift: {Surfaces-tablets}:- This is a set of square and triangular tablets made of very fine wood in two colors. It provides material for exercise in geometrical forms and mosaic work. The duty of a teacher, while the gifts are being presented to the children, is to give ideas of the occupation presented through demonstration. Though the gifts are altogether 20 in numbers, only the key seven gifts are described here.

Overview- Here we had discussed the founder of a play-way method called Friedrich Froebel, his philosophy on education and his 7 Gifts.