The "Play" exhibition started with a display of all 24 of
Froebel's Gifts, structured play/learning materials invented by a 19th century early-childhood educator -
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| Froebel's original set (1837) included six activities |
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| ... more complex activities were added later |
Beloved toys were in glass cases, including a Stieff bear that had had exploratory surgery to find out why his growler wasn't working, sewn up with red thread. His owner went on to become a vet -
A trio of toys, by Jo
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| Surgical bear |
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Pumpie, recently made famous by being restored at the V&A
(programme available till May on the BBC iplayer) |
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A Lego dog, before the firm made bricks
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Joyce focussed on the simple Froebel blocks -
In other parts of the building, Sue tackled the glass model of the
Giardia organism -
Judith spent time with the glass implements in the Henry Wellcome display -
Most of my time was spent looking at the exhibition, which included a charming child's drawing of figures with their shadows, presented as an animation in which the shadows gradually appeared, from the figure down, rather like this -
It drew my interest to the shadows of people watching a video
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| drawing in the dark |
I tend to shy away from human figures so this quick sketch - and the won't-hold-still children in a play area - were a bit of a breakthrough, small as it seems.
Extracurricular activities included life drawing along with "
that programme on the telly" (available till early March) -
... and Joyce made a Beavers shirt for her grandson's beaver toy -
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