Froebel USA Conference Oct 11-13, 2013 Ann Arbor, MI
The 2013 Froebel USA conference training event will be held on the central campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Experienced Froeble teachers will guide a hands-on exploration of all 10 Gifts (and several of the Occupations). The theme for the event is applying Froebel’s method to K-12 design education and STEaM initiatives.
This year’s presenters include Allen Samuels, Andrea Goetz, Bradford Hansen-Smith, Cathy Topal, Finella Scholtz, John Reynolds, Linda Keane, Norman Brosterman, Scott Bultman and Tiffeni Goesel, Select items from Brosterman’s Kindergarten collection will be on display at the UM School of Art & Design and other activities are planned for Friday Oct. 11th. For more information please visit FroebelUSA.org.
Save $75 when you register before March 1st.
Froebel Today with Tiffeni Goesel
For those looking for the guidance and inspiration to apply Froebel’s methods today, look no further than Tiffeni Goesel of Williamsburg, VA. Her FroebelToday.com website and Facebook blog facebook.com/FroebelToday provide concrete examples of just how relevant the Froebel materials/methods are for modern education; . Whether in a public school classroom, homeschool, or tutoring environment, Ms. Goesel demonstrates how natural and fluid the original method was meant to be.
Tiffeni Goesel helps Elliot explore Froebel’s Gift 2
Froebel Gifts CD-ROM Content at YouTube
The slideshow portion of Froebel USA’s Froebel Gifts CD-ROM has been reworked, updated, and posted to YouTube (see below). The audio portion was recorded in 2000 for the multimedia CD and has since been used by history of education lecturers. Advances in technology and ubiquitous internet make the CD-ROM obsolete, so the improved images were added and the material posted as a YouTube video.
The PDF books from the CD-ROM are now available through Google (see links to those and other Froebel method books here). More content on Froebel Blocks and other Gifts can be found at FroebelGifts.com, leaving only the “virtual Gifts software” content still unavailable. Scott Bultman, owner of Froebel USA, hopes to have these programs available online by the end of 2012.
Froebel Toys at MoMA NYC Century of the Child Exhibit
MoMA, Gift of Lawrence Benenson, 2011
The Century of the Child is the Museum of Modern Art’s major exhibit of 2012 opening July 27, 2012 in New York City. Sponsored by MoMA trustee Lawrence Benenson, this exhibit features items once part of Inventing Kindergarten author Norman Brosterman’s collection. The theme of this showing is the design for children in its many forms of the 20th century.
Covering the period 1900 to 2000, the exhibit begins at the peak of the Froebel Kindergarten and the growing influence of the Froebel-inspired Bauhaus. Although the exhibit takes its name from Swedish design reformer/social theorist Ellen Key’s book Century of the Child which anticipated the 20th century as a time for progressive thinking regarding the rights and development of children, the exact opposite occurred as much of the progress from the Froebel Kindergarten was lost over that period.
