During our visit at the Children’s School, I noticed a couple of behaviors that triggered the children’s objectives for autonomy , initiative and industry. For the younger children, what held their attention was generally when the attention was placed on them and they were allowed to do something — autonomy. For the older children, you start seeing more independent initiative. They engage with their peers more and share their ideas with others, by either persuading others about something and changing their minds or following/building ideas off of others. For example, there was a group of children playing House, and there was a girl that told others what the baby doll wanted and directed other children to do it. The other children did what she said and built off her ideas by saying that the baby doll now needed to drink something and go to sleep. From this, I can see that the children whether that be older or younger really enjoy a story or narrative. This means involving characters or objects that they recognize — something that I will definitely consider in my project.

Something that also reflected the initiative aspect of children was how when I was observing many of them playing with toys; these toys were often objects that the children could manipulate and create into what they want. I also realized that they usually build things that resembled what they saw in reality. For example, a couple of children were using blocks to create houses and putting people figurines inside. There were also children creating roads with toys for trains. It goes back to the idea that the children will be more engaged with objects they recognize rather than abstract forms. Being able to build something, also means that they can take it apart, and I think this aspect, the versatility of a toy, is another aspect that prolongs their engagement.

The children playing toys also enjoyed it when the toys create unique sounds or textures. One girl rubbed legos against each other to create a satisfying sound. Then more children started to join in. They really appreciated it when objects create unexpected responses.

Overall, from this trip, I have a stronger sense of what I want to create. A interactive toy that has multiple parts so that multiple children can build and take apart. These parts should also resemble real-life objects and have unique responses so that the children can be surprised and make a story out of the toys.