Froebel

Instead he turned to the simple Froebel blocks that had inspired Frank Lloyd Wright.

When the German educator Friedrich Froebel invented kindergarten in the 1830s, he stressed the educational value of games and free play.

A psychologist finally diagnosed her dyslexia, and after more tutoring she was enrolled at the Froebel League, a three-year training school for prospective kindergarten teachers.

The plain wooden blocks introduced in 1838 by Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of the kindergarten, facilitated open-ended engagement, whereas Legos come with instructions suggesting the “one best way to build a set.”

“The kindergarten is the free republic of childhood,” Froebel once wrote.