Lernen und Spielen

Friedrich Fröbel - Inventor of the kindergarten

The center of toy production in the 1800s was Germany, known for its fine craftsmanship. Between 1836 and 1850, the German pedagogue Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel introduced a series of specially shaped geometric bodies, which he called "gifts", and lighter materials such as foldable paper, which he called "professions". They were intended to support the learning of concepts such as number, size, shape, weight, and cause and effect. Fröbel also set up the first "kindergarten". It provided care and education for pre-school children whose parents were absent from work during the day.

Thanks to Friedrich Fröbel's work, Germany has been an important pioneer of the idea of learning through play, but only the playful Japanese have been scientifically researching EDU -TOY for generations.

Learning toys claim to promote intellectual, social, emotional and/or physical development. Learning toys are therefore designed to target developmental milestones within appropriate age groups. For pre-school children, simple wooden blocks can be a good starting point for understanding causal relationships and basic scientific principles while also developing patience and rudimentary hand-eye coordination.

The connection between learning and playing has had little importance in my so-called apprenticeship years, but as an artist one knows very well how playful a process has to be in order to enable useful solutions.

Music wouldn't be conceivable without word play. Aging researchers have recognized that making music up until old age is an effective form of brain training and it is time to make the various cross-connections better known. Whether with sporty games, or the popular Sodoku, whether with house music, or in model construction workshops, there's an element of productive play everywhere.

We would not have an Eastern European focus if we did not also pay tribute to the Russian reformist educationalist couple Nikitin on this topic. The work of Lena and Boris Nikitin shows how European developments in Eastern Europe and Russia have been met with open ears and brilliant activists. The "Method Nikitin", developed in Russia at the beginning of the 1960s, has today inspired many educators in Europe to adopt the method as a method of teaching and learning. "Encourage curiosity, give as many suggestions as possible, listen to the children's opinions and exert as little pressure as possible," describes the method in brief.