children of four or five years under their care.

We found that in Froebel's plays the mirror is held up to universal
life; that the child in playing them grows into unconscious sympathy
with the natural, the human, the divine; that by "playing at" the life
he longs to understand, he grows at last into a conscious realization
of its mysteries--its truth, its meaning, its dignity, its purpose.

We found that symbolic play leads the child from the symbol to the
truth symbolized.

We discovered that the carefully chosen words of the kindergarten
songs and games suggest thought to the child, the thought suggests
gesture, the melody begets spiritual feeling.

We discussed the relation of body and mind; the effect of bodily
attitudes on feeling and thought, as well as the moulding of the body
by the indwelling mind.

Froebel's playthings are as significant as his plays. If you examine
the materials he offers children in his "gifts and occupations," you
cannot help seeing that they meet the child's natural wants in a truly
wonderful manner, and that used in connection with conversations and
stories and games they address and develop his love of movement and
his love of rhythm; his desire to touch and handle, to play and work
(to be busy), and his curiosity to know; his instincts of construction
and comparison, his fondness for gardening and digging in the earth;
his social impulse, and finally his religious feeling.

Froebel himself says if his educational materials are found useful, it