Home » Education » High Quality Educational Toys: Spielgaben

High Quality Educational Toys: Spielgaben

2013_07_29_9999_5

Do you like educational toys and learning manipulatives for kids? If so, be prepared to fall in love with Spielgaben! I consider myself pretty well versed on educational toys, but I hadn’t heard of this one until I started seeing it on a few favorite blogs – and their instagram accounts! I was intrigued by this all wood and wool set of early childhood learning manipulatives developed by Friedrich Froebel, inventor of kindergarten – and I jumped at the chance to review a set with my kids!

Comparison_V01_V02

The Spielgaben set comes with thirteen different components. Version 02 is the style that will be sold in the US; we were sent Version 01. The actual components are identical in both versions. The set also comes with learning resources to create a complete curriculum – complete with a lifetime update on future upcoming learning resources!

2013_07_29_9999_11

I looked over the learning resources, and they are an excellent teaching resource, as well as providing creative inspiration. The toys themselves are equally inspirational. Here, four-year-old Lily and five-year-old Johnny played very differently with the colored sticks and rings. Lily used them on a 3D plane and spent a lot of time exploring their movement and the sounds they made; Johnny created pictures:

2013_07_29_9999_12

The colors combined with the solid wood make for incredibly rewarding exploratory play – they are weighted just right, and the colors are beautifully vibrant:

2013_07_29_9999_14

Spielgaben 7 is made up of seven differently-shaped tablets. They are quite small, and can be used to create complex patterns and mosaics as well as to build towers and rocket ships:

2013_08_02_9999_9

Spielgaben 10 (the small discs below) is designed to introduce kids to the idea of a geometric point. They are wonderful for detailed mosaics, as counters, and even as play food (coconut shell not included):

2013_07_30_9999_1

Anna quickly adopted the wool balls. There are 12 – one of each color with a string and one without. They are soft, and excellent for exploring movement:

2013_08_03_9999_88

Anna also thinks they make quite a fashion statement! My other kids also really like these, and there are some great ideas of ways to incorporate them into structured explorations in the user guides that I want to explore.

2013_08_03_9999_97

I have always felt strongly that early childhood was the time to introduce geometry, and Spielgaben does this better than any other educational tool I have seen. I love the way the Spielgaben 2 set allows kids to explore planes and points of intersection in a 3D geometric solid.

2013_08_03_9999_111

The geometric solids can also be suspended – from a crossbeam (included) or your own hand:

2013_08_03_9999_123

These blocks are also excellent for exploring 3D geometric solids:

2013_08_03_9999_131

I have emphasized this set’s use in early childhood education, but honestly I could see this being useful clear through high school – both as a learning tool and as an artistic toy. 

What part of this set do you think your kids would gravitate towards first? What part would you want to explore first?

We were sent a Spielgaben set to review. All opinions are my own.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

38 thoughts on “High Quality Educational Toys: Spielgaben”

  1. Your photos are so beautiful and this entire review is very helpful. I’m wondering, though (as I consider purchasing one for my family)–it’s been some time since your kids received this toy. Has it kept its appeal for your little ones over time?

    1. It really has, Declare. My four-year old especially loves it, and plays with it pretty much every day. The older kids are busy with school, but they still get it out a couple times a week.

  2. There are many high quality educational toys in the market. Lasykids blocks is one of them. I bought one set for my little boy and he loves it.
    Their web site is http://www.bp-toys.com

    You can search “Lasykids Blocks” and find many amazing samepls online.

  3. Marie C. @ Quality Kids Toys :-)

    Thanks for the review MaryAnne. Spielgaben is one of the highest quality in both learning and durability. My 6 and 10 year olds love toys like this. Heck I play with them too!

    Thanks!

  4. I think that Its really interesting set . I have a son of 2 years old , really active , and my husband and me are always wondering to buy an appropiate toy for him . I was reading everything about this new option and I think that its really interesting and I will like to obtain it for him . How can i do ??? If We are living in Denmark ??? Thansk!

  5. I ordered this set during the pre-sale. I am so excited about starting a preschool type curriculum with my son. He is 2 now and we will give this to him for Christmas. Can you tell me how you get opportunities to preview things and review them? Thanks!

    1. I hope your son loves this set as much as my kids! We will be using ours for years!

      As for previewing and reviewing items, companies usually contact me. I have been blogging for almost five years now, and have built a large enough community that it makes sense for them to use me as a tool for raising awareness about their product. I get several offers every day, but only pick the ones I think my family will really enjoy.

  6. It is so wonderful to see these toys in use with your lovely kids. I’m thrilled that you all get to experience them and I’m sure you will get tons of use from them over the years. Thanks for sharing a lovely review. THIS is Play Based Learning! :)

  7. Wow – this set looks incredible! Thanks for sharing as I’ve never heard of Spielgaben before!

  8. Well, what a beautiful toy set. What a perfect open ended set of items for kids to play with. I know my kids would love building little worlds with the blocks. Those will be toys you can keep and enjoy for generations to come. Lovely.

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top