My first child!?!

[gtgiygus]

So I just had a 4 year old wander in and join my community, first ever in biotech. The wiki gave me a basic idea about how to help them learn, but I have a few questions.

Are toy boxes and baby decorations only for babies (under 3 years)?

Should I increase the child's leisure time to facilitate learning?

Are there any surprises I should be expecting?

Thanks for the advice!

[HunterSilver]

I'd recommend building at least one of every type of toy for kids and 3 blackboards, as they have random learning tasks every day. They can accomplish quite a bit of work hauling and the like, but I'd recommend at least 6 free hours a day for them to just run around and play. Once they've finished refilling their learning bar for the day, they'll help with work like any other colonist.

A child who has kept their learning bar full will get more options for passions and more selections for passions. They'll also have more options for traits for you to pick.

At ages 7, 10, and 13 you'll be alerted that they have had a milestone and you get to pick their passions and traits. It's very easy to make a perfect colonist if the child has been allowed to play, explore, and learn.

The difference can be really stark if they haven't had a chance to learn too. Low development levels means they may only have 1 skill to choose from and 1 passion to distribute, so they get whatever they get. Meanwhile at lv8 they'll have 5 selections and you get to pick 3.

[Astasia]

Ya the toys and play related stuff are for 1-3 year olds.

Setting a child to normal sleeping hours and everything else in recreation is a good idea, it helps them keep their learning high which gives you much better options when they age up.

They only have 2 specific things they want to learn about at any given time, but it's still worth trying to get all learning options available, so a desk with chairs and a comms console as soon as you can.

A "surprise" I guess would be they have very little health and will die or lose body parts to the tiniest injuries, including say frostbite. A child parka is really useful for keeping them safe in your freezer for when they decide it's a good idea to sit on the floor and draw in there.