The daycare

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From the beginning, the tenant's association in Markeliushuset operated daycare activities under its own auspices for the association's members in premises on the ground floor. The daycare was originally designed according to the theory of the four elements:

• Soil: Submerged indoor sand box

• Fire: Fireplace

• Air: The playground in the yard behind the building (then not enclosed)

• Water: Submerged indoor wading pool

 

As early as 1942, however, the premises were leased to the preschool teacher Gunhild Frendelius, who ran "Frendelius Play School" until 1965. She was among the first to use singing and music exercises to educate and inspire harmonious children - "unmusical children do not exist". Gunhild wrote the book "Music in the daycare" (In Swedish: "Musik i barnträdgården") and gave many lectures throughout the Nordic countries as well as on radio and TV. 

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In 1958, the "Child Psychology Research Laboratory" was inaugurated on the premises. The activity was run in collaboration between Gunhild Frendelius and the Pedagogical Institute at Stockholm University. Those responsible were professor Arne Trankell and docent and later professor Stina Sandels, at the Dept. for Child Psychology. They used Gunhild's teaching skills in their research on children's behavior and many students had their internship with her.

The laboratory was the first of its kind in the Nordic countries to be affiliated with a university. The intention of the research was to make observations of the children's activities (the children unknowingly) through a one-way mirror and sound recordings, to gain knowledge about "behavioral dynamics", i.e. how children react in different situations and when faced with different forms of care. 

The idea was that these studies would give instructions on what is required of daycare centers and kindergartens in terms of premises and equipment, how the staff should be trained, etc. The work led, among other things, up to a licentiate thesis in 1963; "Children's musical creation” by Bertil Sundin. 

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After Gunhild Frendelius' Play School was closed in 1965, the premises were leased for a few years to Stockholm's Child Care Board and later rented by the member of the tenant's association, Rigmor Ekstrand, who ran a child psychiatric clinic there. 

 

The bank SEB rented the premises from the tenant's association in 1989 and leased them to a parent cooperative daycare center "Sebran" for their employees. This was then the second day care center in Stockholm that was run privately; the first was TryggHansa's daycare center "Minibojarna". 

Later, the daycare was leased to a private parents' cooperative, that runs the preschool "Sebran" 

for small children, 1-3 years.