Category: Kindergarten

Harlem Children’s Zone

a safe place to learn, play, and grow

The first years of a child’s life are of critical importance to their success.

Parents participate in workshops, where they discuss discipline, developmental milestones, and age-appropriate activities to foster early literacy.

Meanwhile, their three-year-olds play together in small and large groups under the guidance of trained staff, learning socialization skills and having fun singing, doing arts and crafts, and listening to stories.

educating parents on child development and fostering a strong sense of community among participants

Source: The Three-Year-Old Journey – Harlem Children’s Zone

Schultheiss brewery

The last portion of the brewery was an agreeable surprise to us, and one I think I should refer to.

We found a number of children at play in a playground attached to a handsome building containing various rooms, where the children received instruction in the well known system of Kindergarten by a staff of teachers.

We were informed that the employees had the privilege of sending their children here free of charge, to be looked after during the day.

We were very much impressed by our visit to this brewery, and came away with feelings of admiration for the careful planning and working details of the brewery, as well as for the generosity and consideration which the firm were showing to their workpeople.

source: “Journal of the Institute of Brewing vol XIV”, 1908, pages 47-4.

Families

At the end of 1835, Fröbel wrote a publication entitled The Year 1836 Demands the Renewal of Life, which begins with these words:

It is the announcement and proclamation of a new spring of life and mankind which rings so loudly in my ears in and through all the manifestations of my own life, and the lives of others. It is you, the renewal and rejuvenation of all life, who speak out, through everything and in everything within and around me, so actively and clearly to my spirit. This time has been so long awaited by mankind and for so long promised to it as its golden age (Lange, 1863, p. 499)

This ‘golden age’ sees the family become ‘sacred’. The family heals the relations between parents and children and between siblings through an improved atmosphere, through shared play.

Fröbel now set his sights on the family and developed play materials to improve the atmosphere in families.

He wished to help found associations of parents, who might exercise a stimulus on others through their experiences of play.

Fröbel’s play, which was originally to take place within the family, became the basis for Kindergarten, which was launched on 28 June 1840, in the town hall at Blankenburg within the framework of the Gutenberg memorial celebrations.

In Fröbel’s day the kindergarten, including his own establishment at Bad Blankenburg, involved three activities.

  • It centered on play with the ‘gifts’ and ‘occupations’.
  • Alongside these, ‘movement games’ were played involving running, dancing, games played in the round and acting. The children’s play group developed forms of movement without game material.
  • The third area was ‘garden care’. Here the kindergarten pupil was to learn about the development of plants, their growth and blossoming, and to see how careful tending can influence their development. Here the young child could see a mirror image in nature of his/her own growth.

source: PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIII, no. 3 / 4, 1993, p. 473–91. ©UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, 1999. This document may be reproduced free of charge as long as acknowledgement is made of the source.

Ball and cube

The first exposition of the ball and cube was printed by Froebel in the Sonntagsblatt of 1838, Nos. 8 — 12.

The meaning and use of play gifts were explained by Froebel in the Sonntagsblatt (1838-1840).

His fundamental law of the connection of contrasts was formulated in the Education of Man in 1826.

“It is well to call the attention of each child to one great law, which dominates in nature and thought. Between two things or two ideas relatively different there always exists a third which unites the two others in itself, and is found between them with a certain equilibrium.”

Already in 1838, Froebel already gives himself to the search for an intermediary form between the ball and the cube, the cylinder.

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source: Papers on Froebel’s kindergarten

The emotional framework of the family already serves as a way of penetrating and understanding the structure of reality. The family supplies this transparency indirectly and in a situational manner.

School education as ‘conscious’ education goes beyond education provided within the family because the functionality of family life is taken further and deepened, rationally and continuously, by teaching and analysis of the structure of things. Thus Fröbel is able to define his educational practice as a ‘conscious’ family life.

When each person understands their living potential through thought, they practise self reflection and make this potential conceptually accessible within themselves, through the process of thought.

Acting according to this insight gives expression to this relationship that is understood within, and so brings together the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ factors of the life of each person.

Each person not merely reflects and acts according to the insight acquired, but also grasps external reality, by understanding the fundamental laws and structure of the ‘external’.

‘Internalizing the external and externalizing the internal means seeking the unity of both in the general external form through which the purpose of of each person is manifested’

Happy birthday

In 1893, Mildred and Patty Hill created the song “Good Morning to All.” This original melody was later modified to create “Happy Birthday to You.”

In 1935, the Clayton F. Summy Company registered the copyrights, working with the Hill Sisters. Yet, as the court concluded, it appears that these copyrights involved only the melody, not the lyrics. And the melody has been in the public domain for decades!

So for now, go on and sing “Happy Birthday” as you please!

Source: Why the ‘Happy Birthday’ Song’s Copyright Has Finally Been Ruled Invalid

While teaching at the Louisville Experimental Kindergarten School, the Hill sisters wrote the song “Good Morning to All”; Mildred wrote the melody, and Patty the lyrics. The song was first published in 1893 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten as a greeting song for teachers to sing to their students. This kindergarten was an early experiment in modern educational methods, and was honored, along with the Hill sisters, at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

“Happy Birthday to You” first appeared in print in 1912 using the melody of “Good Morning to All” with different lyrics. Its popularity continued to grow, with no author identified for the new lyrics, nor credit given for the melody from “Good Morning to You”. Based on 1935 copyright registrations by the Summy Company, and a series of court cases (which all settled out of court), the sisters became known as the authors of “Happy Birthday to You”

Source: Copyright and the World’s Most Popular Song

Their parents were passionate people who instilled in Patty and her siblings the importance of education, the value of play, and the necessity of advocating for others. Her father, William Wallace Hill, was born in Bath, Kentucky, graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1833, and earned a doctorate of Theology from Princeton University in 1838. He dedicated his entire life to ministry and education.

Empathy

My dear friend took her adorable young children to the local aquarium recently.

I heard later that an adult in the crowd was so frustrated by their lot in life that they felt justified in bullying her six year old daughter. When my friend came to her daughter’s defense this woman tried to pick a fight with her!

“We are here to lift and enlighten the world. We can and should be a positive force for good. Our children are watching and learning from our behavior.”

Source: You Can’t Fix Yourself by Breaking Someone Else

Empowerment

The empowerment of girls and women starts on the benches of school, with quality education and access to culture and information.

Gender equality means literacy. It means access to science. It means genuine possibilities for girls to become everything they wish for. And to make their own informed choices. This is essential for human rights, for health, for sustainable development, for the fabric of societies as a whole.

The empowerment of girls and women is the new frontier for human rights in the twenty first century.

Development is not sustainable if it is unequal. This is why we must do far more together to uphold the human rights and potential of every girl and women.

Gender equality is a global priority of UNESCO.

via UNESCO

UNESCO launched the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education, known as ‘Better Life, Better Future’, in 2011 guided by the conviction that educating girls and women can break the cycle of poverty and foster greater social justice. The Partnership seeks to increase learning opportunities for adolescent girls and women and to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges and obstacles to their education. Particular emphasis is given to expanding and improving the quality of education for girls and women at the secondary level and in the area of literacy, to take successful initiatives to scale, to replicate good practice and to engage new actors.

“There is no justification – be it cultural, economic or social – for denying girls and women an education. It is a basic right and an absolute condition for reaching all the internationally agreed development goals. It is through education that girls and women can gain the freedom to make choices, to shape their future and to build more inclusive and just societies. “

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Character

Qualities such as humility, forbearance, respect and self discipline helped to sustain people through terrible times.

The Road to Character considers moral values and social ideas once assumed to be central but rarely discussed today.

“We live in a culture that teaches us to promote and advertise ourselves and to master skills required for success but that gives little encouragement to humility, sympathy, and honest self confrontation, which are necessary for building character”

People with character are quiet achievers.

“They radiate a sort of moral joy. They answer softly when challenged harshly. They are silent when criticised or unfairly abused. They are dignified when others try to humiliate them, restrained when others try to provoke them. But they get things done.”

We seem to focus on what people are in terms of looks and money rather than who they are as people, serving others and trying to do some good in the world.

The Road to Character makes a case for the worth of people’s ideas to be linked to the way they conduct themselves.

Self effacement rather than self promotion, humility rather than arrogance, modesty rather than pride are some of the exacting life choices that Brooks thinks more of us should be making.

Froebel House

The foundation stone for the Fröbelhaus in Bad Blankenburg was laid on June 28, 1900, sixty years after Kindergarten was named by Friedrich Froebel.

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This building was used as a kindergarten and a recreational facility for kindergarten teachers. The first Fröbel Museum was located here from 1910 to 1946.

Today the Fröbelhaus is home to the Kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg. The Kindergarten features a wide variety of activities and games, and contains a large room for social, musical, manual, conceptual and creative learning and doing. The focus is on teaching young children through play.

Fröbelhaus Bad Blankenburg

The Thüringia Fröbel Seminary training facility is also located in the kindergarten complex and features annual courses for kindergarten teachers. The courses include the use of Fröbel’s play gifts, early childhood education through play, the stimulation of a child’s creative powers, and the opportunity to implement these concepts under today’s conditions.

Contact Kindergarten:

AWO Kindergarten Fröbelhaus
Bähringstr. 6-8
07422 Bad Blankenburg

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The city council provided land on the condition that construction would begin within 2 years. Donations were so successful that on 28 June 1900 the foundation could be laid. Most funds came from the Kindergarten Union of North America.

Despite best efforts, it was not possible until 1902 to raise enough money to start construction of the Art Nouveau building, that was opened on 6 August 1908.

The kindergarten was on the ground floor and several guest rooms were on the second floor. The museum was opened in 1910, on the first floor. source

Music

Music and the arts are being recognized as crucial intellectual building blocks in the early years, closely linked to such cognitive functions as verbal linguistic development, spatial reasoning, complex problem solving in math and science, and the development of emotional intelligence.

Mounting evidence from the fields of education, cognitive neuroscience, and brain imaging has challenged our previous assumptions about intelligence and brain development in children.

This holds especially true in the early years of a child’s development.

The Marilyn Thomson Early Childhood Education Centre is developing and delivering innovative early childhood education programs, and digital early childhood education products for use in the home and classroom by parents, children and teachers.

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The Marilyn Thomson Centre is focused on providing parents, caregivers and teachers with the tools to give children an enhanced, educational experience and promote cognitive and social development through music and the arts.

The Marilyn Thomson Early Childhood Education Centre has been launched thanks to a generous gift from David, Peter, and Taylor Thomson, reflecting her lifelong involvement in music and her commitment to music education.

The Marilyn Thomson Centre is poised to significantly advance the reach and impact of early childhood development in Canada, and to be at the heart of one of today’s greatest opportunities: helping every child succeed through the power of music.