Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) developed a series of educational principles and practices centred around the idea that young children learn by playing. In his native Germany, he developed an activity based approach to teaching young children involving playing with objects, singing, dancing and gardening which in 1840 he named the Kindergarten or ‘child’s garden’.Frobel was truly pioneer in early childhood education. He established a new type of school for three and four years old children in 1837, which he called a child’s garden or kindergarten. There had been no educational training for under the age of seven.There was no recognition that young children were capable of learning social and intellectual skills.
Kindergarten was the first organized early-childhood educational method. As a keen observer of nature and humanity, Froebel approached human education from both a biological and a spiritual perspective. Froebel discovered that brain development is most dramatic between birth and age three, and recognized the importance of beginning education earlier than was then practiced. The number of innovations that Froebel pioneered through his research is startling, and includes multiple intelligences (different learning styles), play-based, child-centered, holistic education, parent involvement/training, educational paperfolding, use of music, games, and movement activities for education.
