Kindergarten

(German, literally means "children's garden") is a form of education for young children which serves as a transition from home to the commencement of more formal schooling. Children are taught to develop basic skills through creative play and social interaction. In most countries kindergarten is part of the preschool system. In parts of the United States, Canada and Australia (NSW, TAS and the ACT) kindergarten is the word used to describe the first year of compulsory education. In British English, nursery or playgroup is the usual term for preschool education, and "kindergarten" is rarely used. Children usually attend kindergarten any time between the ages of three and seven depending on the local custom. Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel opened the first kindergarten on 28 June 1840 to mark the four hundredth anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of movable type. Froebel created the name and the term Kindergarten for the Play and Activity Institute, which he had founded in 1837 in... full article at wikipedia