My favorite childhood objects were yarn, fabric, and anything fiber-craft related. I loved watching my grandmother stitch away at a baby afghan, or learning from her how to sew skirts and hair accessories. And when we would break the sewing machine, my grandfather would swoop in and fix it for us! With fiber crafts, I felt like anything was possible, and that my grandparents would always be there to support me in any fiber-related endeavors. Of course, they supported me in all of my endeavors, but crafting with them was so concrete, so real and tactile. I just loved it.
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My first cellphone is the object that sparked my imagination and shaped me into who I am today. It was a Samsung flip phone with a very interesting interface for creating ringtones: a pentagram.
As a kid, I used to marvel at how musicians were able to interpret and play music out of thin air just by reading a piece of paper. What intrigued me the most was how music composers were actually able to write coherent, beautiful music in a sheet of paper. It was something, I thought, I would never be able to understand fully. But I loved it.
Throughout primary school I was taught, like all my peers, to play the recorder and read music notation. I discovered quickly that I was talented at playing “by ear” most, if not all, the melodies that my friends requested me to play. I quickly became a “pro”, at least for them.
But I was not conscious or knowledgeable enough to write down these songs, let alone original music.
When I played for the first time in my cellphone’s built-in pentagram, it just felt natural to listen to each note, pick the correct one and move on to the next. Music, contrary to what I first believed, was easy, thanks to this 8-bit, two-color, interface. And it sounded great.
This shaped the way I would understand music. In order to create music, you didn’t have to be a “pro” playing an instrument. What’s more, you didn’t actually need to know how to play any instrument. Just playing “by ear”, as I did on the recorder, was enough. No need to learn advanced musical theory.
And these experiences have led me here. Cheers!
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I unfortunately don’t have any photos, but I can think of two objects that affected the way I think and learn. The first was not creations I had made, but that of my father. He found employment as a contractor for visual effects studios in LA in the 80s. He was an artist through and through, and would help create these elaborate miniature sets, models and creations used in TV shows, movies and such. Mind you, this was before the fancy graphics processors we have today. I loved seeing his work, and was always fascinated with what he was able to create.
I took from that inspiration a burning desire to create. As a child I had an affinity for Legos, Lincoln Logs, and any other objects I could find to create worlds of my own. I would combine these toys with nature, creating elaborate scenes and fantastical environments with sticks, rocks, leaves, water from the hose, anything I could get my hands on. This lasted well into adolescence where my worlds became stories, full of characters, back stories, adventures and dangers. There may have been some lighter fluid at some point.
I think these experiences have affected the way I think and learn immensely. I am not afraid to try something new and often find myself always in a process of creating. What was once sticks and rocks has now become digital tools like Unreal Engine, Unity, or Blender. I love creating and I love helping my students learn how to do the same.
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I always come back to puzzles, whatever their type. The idea of completing and discovering an image or a path to put together a figure still seems fascinating to me and continues to relax me today.
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My object was the violin. I fell in love with it in second grade. My family played multiple instruments. When my father gave me my first violin, he explained that music was a universal language and that the key to unlocking an instrument was finding its scale.
These ideas primed me to look for universal languages to connect with people and to unlock the scale for whatever challenge or project I was facing.
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Uno de los juguetes que mas disfrutaba era esta computadora de la Barbie, donde podía crear diferentes cosas con ella y tambien yo podia cambiar de rol cada que lo deseaba, pues se presentaban muchas situaciones con el juego libre.
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This image of Saturn taken by one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft sat on the piano in my dining room when I was a teenager. The shadow of the rings cast on the planet, and the shadow of the planet cast on the rings was intriguing. It inspired me, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that inspiration. I loved space, but the only space related jobs I knew about were astronaut and astronomer. Who could have guessed then that I would end up working on the Cassini mission to Saturn from 2006-2017, inspiring the next generation of young explorers?
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Come non ricordare le mie amate Lego!! Ci sono cresciuto ed ancor oggi ci gioco insieme ai miei figli!! Ricordo che ogni giorno montavo e rimontavo alla ricerca di qualcosa di sempre più entusiasmante. Ed ogni costruzione era diversa dall’altra.
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This is my favorite. I can make anything with this, any size, any color, any shape. It gives me chances to improve my creative thinking. I learned that we always can try to ‘shape’ something to get a perfect one.
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Ahhhh music 
One of my childhood objects, coming also from a family of music lovers, was definitely a very rudimentary Casio keyboard I played with all the time… 
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@minoritykidrevolt Wow, Calvin. Like you say, if the radio had worked you would never have had that opportunity to open it and discover a whole new world which fascinated you from then on. I can just imagine the Wonder at the point that radio began to play again. This is a wonder-filled story! 
This activity is great, and always rather difficult for me. I try to think of something different on each round, and now with a young son in the family, I’m kind of rethinking many things and remembering stuff from my childhood with new eyes.
So this time —not exactly an object, certainly— I’m going for… songs!
My father, an amateur musician, was always inventing simple songs for everyday life, like when he woke you up in the morning, when he was cooking lunch, whatever. I think that experience helped create not only a very young relationship with music, but also one rooted in my everyday life (it wasn’t like music lessons) and with a strong emotional connection (“I fell in love with the gears”, if I remember the quote!)
Not only do I remember some of those songs still today, but actually… I’ve found I do it all the time now with our child!! I keep improvising and inventing tiny tunes all day long, which feels fun and playful 
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It was the tabletop games (and puzzles) that influence me to think, to be patience, and more.
Take Chess game as an example of Tabletop games. A few games of Chess teaches me to be patience since lack of patience will most likely result in checkmate very quickly. Chess also teaches me to think two or three moves ahead instead of thinking what is the next move will be.
It is always been fun and I felt relaxed everytime I play these tabletop games (or puzzles).
(Image Source: BBC.com)
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Mi libro de cuentos de Andersen, lo rompí de tanto leerlo. Impreso en Portugal en 1977 con ilustraciones de Janusz Grabianski, ilustrador polaco muy prolífico y multipremiado.
Yo soy de un pueblo muy pequeño, y ese libro ilustrado me hizo conocer el mundo que no conocía: mares, ciudades de hielo, campos floridos, animales distintos, historias fantásticas. Los colores de las ilustraciones era diferente a todo lo que había visto. Despertó mi curiosidad por aprender cosas nuevas, leer, viajar. Lo conservo con mucho cariño y es una de mis posesiones más preciadas.
Saludos 
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Your posts/objects have brought back many happy memories! I’ll add one in from a little later in childhood, around 1974-75. My parents received a personal photocopier for Christmas from my aunt. They couldn’t figure it out, a month later I found it stashed in the back of the closet. Many hours and two days later I had it working and had hardly made a mess (not my normal m.o.), despite or maybe because I couldn’t read the manual. The joys of photocopying drawings, pictures from books, my hands …! But, the secondary joy was teaching my sisters and parents how to do it (too many tedious steps for my parents to bother really using it).
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@mariobringas Love this story so much. How this object helped break down a barrier for you, and opened up a whole world of potential music creating possibilities from there on
My objects have been Lego or Duplo, “regoli” or “numeri in colore” and cards. With the cards I learned by myself some facts about sums and products (e.g.: 6+7+8 = 7x 3)
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I remember playing with the Saint Seiya toys:
I used to change their armors, create sequels, prequels, alternative stories and many things that my childhood allowed me, and that was the most special thing about them. This, of course, helped me develop creativity and stories that right now I write; I have just published a book, named Concierto de duelos y redenciones (Concert of Pains and Redemptions).
I wish I still had those toys.
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Este muñeco tiene (o más bien tenía) como 30 años conmigo.
…pero mis pequeñas hijas de 2 añitos decidieron desmembrarlo, no alcanzan a entender aún, o no les importa un carajo, el poder de He-man, el amo del universo.
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¡los legos nunca pierden vigencia!
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