From Montessori to Froebel: Our modern homeschool approach Part II

The kids and I first learned of Frederich Froebel while studying Frank Lloyd Wright. It was our first big project outside of the Montessori curriculum and we were excited!

I picked up a stack of books from the library about two subjects: How to build houses and Frank Lloyd Wright, America's most famous architect. We were going to northern Minnesota for a visit to the cabin that my husband's grandfather, who was also an architect, had built for his growing family in 1958. The trip provided a great opportunity to connect family history with art history and architecture and to learn about construction.

One of the books about Wright mentioned wooden blocks called Froebel Gifts that he played with a lot when he was a child. Wright said that as soon as he started playing with the gifts, he became an architect.

Froebel's Gifts are a series of wooden boxes that he strategically designed for educational play. They progress in complexity, each containing geometric shapes that encourage the exploration of solid forms, surfaces, lines, and points. Froebel wanted children to learn in their natural element: in play. He called them gifts because they were designed to reveal the gifts of the children working with them.

The gifts are introduced in a certain order to allow for education to build on prior learning. It also ensures that children have particular materials at specific time in their development when it is most advantageous to their learning. It may not seem extraordinary today, but this was an entirely new concept in the early 1800s. It even predated Piaget's theory of the Stages of Cognitive Development. This concept was familiar to me through the work of Maria Montessori. Many years after Froebel's death, Maria Montessori wrote about "sensitive periods" in a child's development. Montessori taught that during these periods, the educator shall take notice of specific behavior and respond by providing the child with materials that enhance that particular stage of their learning. I then learned that Maria Montessori attended a Froebelian Kindergarten herself!

With the gifts, children are encouraged to explore in free play and guided lessons. Each guided lesson is based on one of three forms that were central to Froebel's education philosophy: Forms of Life, Forms of Beauty, and Forms of Knowledge. Froebel paired the Gifts with what he called the Occupations. The occupations are a series of handicrafts and hands-on activities that allow students to test out concepts they learned previously with the gifts in a tactile and practical way: drawing, perforating, lacing, sewing, paper weaving, paper folding, and working with clay.

Initially, I bought a few of the Froebel gifts, and we just played with them. We enjoyed how smooth and beautiful they are. It was fun to open each gift and explore the possibilities each presented. I also liked the limited number of pieces for each gifts, which meant that you had to be more imaginative with building than when you have a big pile of blocks at your disposal. I later learned that this was precisely why Froebel designed his gifts in this way: to have a design challenge from the start.

Then I started collecting all the gifts and gathering all of the resources I could find about the history of the Kindergarten, and interpretations of his philosophy by some of the prominent Kindergarten teachers and supporters. After reading all I could find abouthim, I started reading his books and letters and I tried to learn how to be a Froebelian Kindergartener.

What I love about Froebel's teaching philosophy is that the educator is the guide rather than the expert. I also love that children learn through experience rather than instruction. According to Froebel, the educator's job is to observe the children and to provide them with whatever they needed to have the most fulfilling experiences from which to learn.

I also love that gardening is a big part of the kindergartens. The school day began outside with movement and song, and everyone taking care of their space. Each child was responsible for their own plot in the school garden, from planting seeds, tending the sprouts, weeding, watering, watching the plants grow, and finally, taking pride in the harvest. I love that the educator is taught to be curious and to learn with the child. It is mindful teaching. Froebel wrote that his central intention was for parents and educators to be engaged with the children in their learning, to be curious and intrigued by the children's ideas, and to learn themselves.

Follow along with us as I learn, and share, how to be a Kindergartener! Please comment to share your thoughts – and please subscribe to be notified when I make a new post!