Ebook A Practical Guide to the English Kinder Garten (Children's Garden) For the Use of Mothers, Nursery Governesses, and Infant Teachers

Froebel's System of Infant Training, to which the following Work is a Practical Guide, is admitted by the most competent judges to be a great improvement upon all former Systems of Infant Education, - superior as they were to the previous practice.

It is evident that much is required in this Work to clearly and ably expound the great and useful principles upon which this System is founded, and but a small portion of the labour is here shewn, that is requisite to reform the nursery and to bring school and home education into harmony. Some guarantee, however, may be afforded to Parents and Teachers in this country, from the fact that the Authors of this Work have long laboured, and with success, in the field of education; and that they do not write from mere theoretical knowledge, but from sound practical experience.

They founded Schools and Children's Gardens in Germany, in the years 1849 and 1850, and introduced the System into this country by forming an Infant Garden at Hampstead, in September, 1851. They have also given a scientific exposition of the System in other English works, in tracts, and in magazines; and having trained English children, in this country, in company with their own, from the year 1851, they have thus had every opportunity afforded for adapting Froebel's System to the character and habits of the English nation.

Knowing that such a Work as the present could only be useful as a demand for it was created in the public mind, the Authors have refrained from publishing it until they had what they deemed sufficient evidence of this result, and which they consider to be now manifest. On the formation of their first Children's Garden, only a few parents took an interest in it; but they still felt confidence in the result: and the Educational Exhibition, which took place in St. Martin's Hall, in 1854, afforded the desired opportunity of bringing the System prominently and advantageously before the public. Several of the requisite playthings had been sent to the Exhibition, and the Council of the Society of Arts had requested Mrs. Ronge to give further explanations of their use. This was complied with; an Address was delivered, and the games of the children were exhibited; after which the Children's Garden was frequently visited by the parents of children and the friends of education.