The Little Engineer and I started celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our trains by decorating a few engines and making some new freight. Here are several easy ideas for ways to incorporate the holiday into any kind of toy train play. ...
DIY Rainbow Train Set
The unfinished surface of wooden train tracks makes an excellent canvas for all kinds of creativity! And ever since I found a new source for unpainted wooden train cars, I've been working on a number of different DIY train sets to share with you. This first one is the one I'm most excited to share ...
Beautiful Kid-made Gifts: Painting with Trains on Ceramics
Painting with trains and other toy vehicles is an excellent process art activity for kids, one that we've enjoyed on many occasions. But what I think is even cooler about painting with toy trains is that the patterns left by the wheels can create beautiful kid-made gifts without putting pressure on ...
Marble Run Train Play: Quarry Cargo Drop
One of our favorite ways to keep train play interesting is to combine our wooden trains with building toys. I've been wanting to incorporate our marble run into a train layout for a long time, and -- finally! -- we set aside an afternoon to figure it out. After learning through trial and error, the ...
Dress Up Costumes for Wooden Trains
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, ...
The Play Trains! Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets 2021
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 right ...
Wooden Train Tracks — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
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 ...
Toy Surfboard Craft for Kids
This surfboard craft for kids is a great way to bring favorite toys into water play. The Little Engineer had so much fun pretending his toys were really surfing! Plus there’s a lot of hands-on science going on, as kids try to get the toys to stand up on their surfboards. It would also be…
Exploring the Possibilities of an Instant Foam Railroad
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,…