So yesterday's yesterday (Thursday), we were getting ramped up for Pittsburgh and our Fallingwater quest. I broke out the Froebel's Gift 1 (see the description here and here). I bought Gift 1 at Frank Lloyd Wright's house and studio in Oak Park, IL (I visited it while we were living in Chicago).
According to stuff that I have read, Wright was given a "gift" when he was nine. He often sites the Gifts and credits much of his inspiration for his revolutionary architecture to his intense playing with the Gifts and his ability to appreciate shapes as a result. Because recently, I have been interested in Wright and visiting his buildings, I learned that as much as I want to love him because I do find many of his buildings completely fascinating and beautiful - he wasn't a great guy. He had a big family, then had a mistress, and he had a number of other issues...
That being said, I am sucker for creative inspiration so I have now learned about these Froebel Gifts. I also like the "simple" and"old fashioned" toys - thus, I knew my kids had to have these Gifts. I bought Gift 1(for the youngest kids) in 2010. Jonah played with it a bunch when we were in Chicago, but then I put it away. It is twelve knit balls in colors of the rainbow (not including indigo) - 2 balls in each color, six plain balls and six have these strings attached. Simple but somewhat inspirational.
I thought we should play with them again on Thursday. It was totally different when the two of them played with the balls together. Jonah knew how to "twirl" them and taught Vera. Vera loved taking them out and putting them in the box. They just had a good ole time playing all over the empty living room with them. It was a fun and silly time. (Now, the Gifts are super expensive, so I am pretty sure they would have had super fun playing with empty water bottles and balls of yarn too - but these are the minds of future famous architects we are training - people!!!)
Another confession, we made it to Fallingwater yesterday. More on that to come. And yes, I spent way too much money and bought Gift 2...
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