Child's play

Child’s play: Children play in groups of four, in what looks like a structured singing and action game, Home of Compassion Crèche, circa 1950. Educationalists such as Frederick Froebel, founder of the Kindergarten movement in Germany, endorsed play and games such as these. The first New Zealand kindergarten – ‘kindy’ – opened in Dunedin in 1889. Unlike crèches, kindergartens in New Zealand primarily provided education for three- to five-year-olds. Kindergartens were run by middle-class volunteers, but most of the children who attended them belonged to working-class families.