Play Gifts

$150.00 includes free shipping worldwide

91 beechwood blocks in four boxes with sliding lids

  • 8 one inch cubes,
  • 8 blocks 2 x 1 x .5 inches
  • 21 one inch cubes, 6 half blocks, 12 quarter blocks.
  • 18 blocks 2 x 1 x .5 inches, 12 blocks 1 x 1 x .5 inches, 6 blocks 2 x .5 x 5 inches

The first building gift designed by Friedrich Fröbel is eight cubes.

By presenting the eight cubes as a whole unit in the form of a cube, a child is made aware of the wholeness and discovers that each part is the same shape as the whole.

A child aged about one to three strives to separate things, to take them apart, to change their form, but also to reassemble them. The child is intent on discovering inner properties of things and having discovered them, on recreating the whole.

A child will move the cubes, put them on top of each other and thus begin to build.

First Building Box
First Building Box

Then introduce the second building box of eight blocks, twice as long and half the width (known fourth gift)

Second Building Box
Second Building Box

Progressively introduce each box for a child to discover new shapes for building, creative play, active learning and design.

Class at Colet Gardens with Miss Lawrence, ca 1900 Archives & Special Collections, Roehampton University (Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies)
Class at Colet Gardens with Miss Lawrence, ca 1900

The psychology of Froebel’s play gifts

This book by Denton Snider can be read online.

by Friedrich Froebel