Here's a jingle bell train activity we did last year, but I never managed to write about the photos -- which means I've been looking forward to posting this for twelve months now! My son has always been very interested in couplers and coupling chains. For a long time, when I'd want him to hold my ...
For months now, I've been looking forward to doing a Christmas version of the pipe cleaner trees we made for our train set. Well, here they are, and I enjoyed making them even more than I expected! These could work as a kids' Christmas craft -- either with the child making the trees themselves (the ...
This is a great way to combine old favorite toys with awesome new toys as kids grow. While LEGO DUPLO figures are a little big to go with wooden trains, LEGO minifigures are a very compatible size. They fit in the wooden train freight cars -- but, more often than not, they fall out as the trains ...
Over the past few years, I've had fun thinking up ideas for little activities and busy bags to put in my purse that are tailored to my son's interests. So, as you can imagine, we've played a lot of trains in a lot of different ways at restaurant tables. Here's a simple train track counting activity ...
Whether for Halloween or an afternoon of pretend play, kids love dressing up. When the Little Engineer extended the need for costumes to his stuffed animals, I thought, why should they have all the fun? So I figured out a way to make dress up costumes for his wooden trains as well. It's a fun, ...
Old Tracks, New Tricks, is a story about three little wooden train tracks who shake up an old wooden train set. But it's so much more than that. It's a way to inspire children to invent new fun with their old favorite toys, and to value and celebrate the creativity of others at the same time as confidently sharing their own ideas. This page contains ...
Searching for the best wooden train set for your child? I've turned my expert eye on the wooden train sets that currently on the market so that you can make an informed choice. A train set can sound good on paper, but there's nothing like hands-on play to tell you whether it's going to be the ...
If you traveled back in time to my son's toddler days, you would find us on his bedroom floor, surrounded by wooden train tracks. My son: the one clutching at train in his chubby toddler fist as he ran its wheels down the almost-finished track. Me: the one building my masterpiece railway at ...
I remember having a lot of fun with expanding foam capsules like these when I was a kid, but I didn’t expect to be surprised by them as an adult. Then again, lots of unexpected things happen with the Little Engineer around. I’m not sure if the designers intended it all of it or not,…
As I was watching the Little Engineer buzz up and down today’s special layout in his room, I realized we somehow managed to learn about art, biology, planning and executing a project, and gross and fine motor skills, all with a pile of wooden train tracks. If I hadn’t already been excited about the results,…
