So...What is with those Hanging Froebel Yarn Balls??

That was my question after noticing that Nienhuis Montessori is
now selling a version of Froebelian hanging yarn balls
for toddlers. The stated purpose is:
"Use of this material provides the toddler practice in hand-eye coordination, recognition of color and the differences between 2 and 3 dimensional shapes."

Check the Niehuis version out here:
http://www.nienhuis.com/index.php?target=categories&category_id=1759&page=2

The rational straight from the Froebel USA website
for the original idea (known as a Gift 1) is:
"This Gift consists of 12 soft yarn balls of approximately 2" in diameter -- two balls each in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. One of each color pair has a string, the other does not. The string (approx. 6 inches long) has a loop on one end so that they can be dangled. It is introduced while the child is still an infant and is used for children ages 3 mos. (with adult participation) to 4 years. The balls come packed in a wood slide-top storage box. Froebel recognized that a ball is often a first or favorite toy of infants. It is lightweight and easy to grasp or hold. For Froebel, the ball symbolized unity because it is a complete whole, a pure form. The whole is the beginning of understanding and everything else is derived from the whole."
These can be purchased here:
http://www.froebelusa.com/froebel-gifts/gift-1-12-yarn-balls-in-box/

Here are some creative yarn balls from Etsy:

Froebel Fun!

The Froebelian gifts offer exceptional opportunity for concrete illustration of the conceptions of whole and part, through the creation of wholes from parts, and the breaking up of wholes into parts. This aspect of number is at least as important as the series aspect, which children get in counting and for which the Montessori "Long Stair" provides such good material. The Froebelian material may be used very readily for counting, however, and the Montessori material gives some slight opportunity for uniting and dividing. So far as preparation for arithmetic is concerned, a combination of the two bodies of material is both feasible and desirable.

 "Introduction." by Henry W. Holmes

From: The Montessori Method (1912) by Maria Montessori, translated by Anne Everett George. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912. pp. xvii-xlii.

http://www.froebelfoundation.org/giftsmain.html

http://www.froebelfoundation.org/occupationsmain.html

http://www.froebelfoundation.org/musicff.html