Kids are incredibly insightful and attentive to even the smallest of details. They observe and question things like “why do some doors have knobs and others have handles?” The information that kids learn on their quest for understanding is what they use to form assumptions about life, which in turn dictates their understanding of the world.

This is why every detail in Pok Pok Playroom matters and why we think that we have some of the most important jobs in the world — to help kids learn. It’s also why we were eager to expand our Town toy. We want to show kids a world that will hopefully reflect an inclusive, environmentally-friendly future they will grow up to live in.

But, to do this right we needed help!

City Planning

We enlisted New York City Professor of Urban Planning Sarah Kaufman to help us expand our Town into an eco-friendly, downtown environment that could highlight some of the urban design and planning that future generations can not only benefit from, but also impact and help design.

With Sarah’s help and inspiration from our team’s favorite cities, our newly expanded Pok Pok Town is an amalgamation of what we call “our dream city”. Simply, it’s a place where we’d all love to live and raise our kids!

Sarah’s speciality in cutting-edge technologies in transportation helped us design a public transit system that’s practical, functional and kinder to the environment. We introduced a fast train, a better bus system, bike-sharing stations near major public transport hubs and charging stations for electric cars. We don’t expect kids to necessarily use the system as it’s designed (and would actually encourage them to do whatever they want with it), but it’s important to us that they’re exposed to a city that has functional and eco-friendly options.

It has green space, unique shops and restaurants, an urban farm, a beach, a movie set, and even a small mountain range! We’ve also vastly expanded the population of people with more individuals of diverse backgrounds, ages, abilities and occupations. As per your childrens’ requests, we’ve also added more animals!

Now, when you hop off the bus or train you can grab a bike-share and cruise along a bike lane to complete your journey, or stroll along a pedestrian-only pathway. Families now live in both apartment buildings and houses. They can go out for a bowl of noodles, a latté or shawarma on their way to see a concert (featuring a brand new track from our sound designer) in the city’s event space. They can pop over to the urban farm to grab some local fruits and veggies before doing a day hike on the nearby mountain. They can fly somewhere from the airport, direct a film on the movie set or cruise down the river in a boat. There are endless things to do, discover and play with!

Fun Fact! If you’ve ever wondered why our cars don’t make the traditional “vroom” sound when played with, it’s because we’d like to leave it open for them to all be electric vehicles. Also, this gives kids the space to add their own “vroom” sound effect, if they so choose!

How kids learn in Town

Town’s open-ended design is specifically made for self-guided play. Exploring, experimenting and solving little problems around the community helps build fundamental life skills centred around culture and the environment.

Like all of the toys in Pok Pok Playroom, Town sparks creative thinking by encouraging kids to follow their noses and use their imaginations to play however they choose. It also gives kids the opportunity to practice storytelling, spatial awareness, planning, sharing, number sense, role play and patience. It can also spark great conversations about your own hometowns and what might be the same or different from Town. At its core, Town is designed to foster limitless creativity and imagination, and we hope you and your kids will have fun exploring all of the new features!

We’ve been so inspired by the unique approach of each child who plays with our toys and can’t wait to hear what families like yours think of this new expansion. We’d love to receive your feedback, see your play videos and hear your ideas — share your thoughts and say hello at hello@playpokpok.com or on social media @playpokpok.

Town is available now in the latest update of Pok Pok Playroom!

Join our community to get insights from our educators and take a peek behind the scenes into our toy design process over on our Instagram!

Sarah Kaufman is a New York City-based Urban Planner and Professor where she researches, advocates for and educates about cutting-edge technologies in transportation. She was honored with a Responsible 100 Award by City & State New York in December 2018 and a Tech Power 50 Award in February 2019. Follow her on Twitter @sarstar.