The Infancy of the Sandbox

Froebel conceived play inside his childhood gardens not only as a preparatory exercise for future adult activities but as a tool capable of sustaining and "watering" the "natural fertility of the soil" of the child's receptive mind, so that new ideas could find a foothold, to let children grow rooted in the life of the universe, "just as a plant is rooted in the ground with its head facing upwards towards the light". This essay also illustrates the development and establishment of the sandbox as a spatial and material tool, and how it has evolved thanks to the work of pioneers in nursery schooling.