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Best Wooden Train Set Recommendations from Play Trains! -- UK Edition

Our Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets UK Edition

Whether you're looking for a first train set or looking to add another major addition to an existing wooden train collection, I've turned my expert eye on the wooden train sets that are currently available in the UK so that you can make an informed choice. From small beginner's sets to fun themed ...

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LEGO Trains at Seattle BrickCon 2014: building inspiration for little engineers, including a fun LEGO train video!

LEGO Trains at Seattle BrickCon 2014

It's always so fun to see LEGO trains zooming around the tracks! We got to watch quite a few of them at Seattle BrickCon 2014. Check out the photos and our fun LEGO train video for kids for some great building inspiration. ...

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Fall Activities for Kids from Play Trains!

Fall Activities for Kids from Play Trains!

Autumn has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember. Thanks to that, I've come up with a lot of fun fall activities for kids to do with the Little Engineer. Here are several of our favorite autumn sensory, fine motor, and imaginative play activities that we've shared here on Play ...

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Autumn Zoo Train Play from Play Trains!

Autumn Zoo Train Play

Looking through photos from last year, I found this fun fall-themed zoo train activity. The Little Engineer and I came up with it by combining the loose parts from our October Moon Train Play activity with our DIY Zoo Train Set. I thought it was a great way to show how the activities we share and ...

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Apple Harvest Pom Pom Tree Fine Motor Activity from Play Trains!

Apple Harvest Pom Pom Tree Fine Motor Activity

Today, I'm finishing up a year of seasonal pipe cleaner and pom pom trees with this apple harvest pom pom tree. With the "apples" and "plums" to pick, this may be the most interactive one yet, making it a great fine motor activity. I was surprised and delighted when this turned out to be the Little ...

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Train Books for Kids: Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen -- a detailed review plus activity ideas!

Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen

A review of Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen, a fun picture book for kids who love trains, plus ideas for activities, materials, and toys to extend the book. ...

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Super easy way to make a DIY outdoor wooden train "table"...no tools required to make this mini garden railway!

DIY Outdoor Train Table: a Wooden Train Garden Railway

I'm always trying to think of ways to bring the Little Engineer's favorite indoor activities and toys outside. I've wanted to make a "train garden" on an outdoor train table for a long time now. But I was always put off by the thought of all the work it would be to design and build one. Until this ...

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Back to School: Train Backpacks, Lunch Boxes, and More!

Back to School: Train Backpacks and Lunch Boxes

On the first day of preschool, there's nothing quite like the pride of wearing one's very own backpack. It's even more exciting when it's decorated with one of your favorite things. Here is a collection of super cute train backpacks and train lunch boxes for kids who love trains! ...

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DIY pipe cleaner palm trees -- can be a fine motor activity for kids, an interactive summer small world element, or simply a cute craft!

Pipe Cleaner Palm Tree Craft

Every time I think I'm done creating new pipe cleaner trees for our train layouts, I think of another type of tree that seems impossible to make. And so I have to make it, of course! I thought it would be difficult to get these pipe cleaner palm trees to stand up, but they stand up on their own, no ...

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Fourth of July Wooden Train Play from Play Trains!

Fourth of July Wooden Train Play

Happy Fourth of July! As I type this, I'm listening to the fireworks that (still) boom and crackle around our neighborhood. But at least the Little Engineer is finally asleep, instead of running around our backyard in the dark with giant glow stick rings, throwing them in the air and shouting, ...

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These DIY mini beach balls are so much fun for tropical wooden train layouts and summertime small worlds!

DIY Mini Beach Balls

In the midst of trying to get Epic Fun for Kids -- our new blog and YouTube channel -- up and running, I've been making preparations for the coolest summer wooden train layout ever. (At least, I'm hoping that's how it will turn out!) This week, I'm going to show you a couple of the DIY train layout ...

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Top 10 Summer Train Activities for Kids from Play Trains!

Top 10 Summer Train Activities for Kids

This week, we're part of the second annual School's Out: a Top Ten Summer Blog Hop, a series in which kid bloggers share their top activities for summer learning. Last year, I wrote about my Top Ten Ways to Learn with Trains this Summer. This year, I decided to feature some of our ...

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Customize this travel-friendly mini sand play kit to match your child's interests!

Mini Sand Play Set

The Little Engineer loves playing the sand no matter what, but he loves it even more when we have some sort of grand plan involving his favorite things. The railroad we built in the sand after reading the Peter's Railway books last year was a plan like that, one that he remembers and has asked to do ...

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Toy Surfboard Summer Craft for Kids from Play Trains!

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 fun to make ...

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Pencil Box Wooden Train Set: a portable, travel-friendly way to bring wooden trains on adventures from Play Trains!

Pencil Box Portable Train Set

I was getting ready to photograph a different portable train set, one we've taken with us many times in the past, when I had an idea. No, a challenge. I managed to fit a train small world in a pencil box, I thought. I would be pretty awesome if I could fit a complete wooden train set in ...

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Four Seasons Tree Cups for Light Play from Play Trains!

Four Seasons Tree Cups for Light Play

While we were creating and playing with the story cups we made for our light boxes, the Little Engineer particularly seemed to enjoy stacking two or three cups to make little scenes -- the sun cup over a blue sky cup, for example. That gave me the idea to make these stacking tree cups for light ...

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DIY Story Cups for Light Play -- for light table storytelling or pretend play from Play Trains!

Story Cups for Light Play

After I came up with our tiny trains and tracks for light play, I wanted to have some kind of scenery to add to our mini light box train layouts. At about the same time, I saw this wonderful post about Alphabet Cups on the Light Box over at The Imagination Tree. We had plenty of the little plastic ...

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Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag from Play Trains!

Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag

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 ...

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LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout from Play Trains!

LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout

Last week, I showed you a couple of fun tricks for combining LEGO with wooden trains: one for getting minifigures to ride wooden trains without falling off, and one for temporarily turning wooden trains into LEGO wooden trains that can be customized any way a child can imagine. Today, I wanted to ...

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An easy, temporary way to turn any wooden train into a LEGO train. A fun design project for kids from Play Trains!

Design Your Own LEGO Wooden Train

Early on, the Little Engineer developed an interest in designing his own wooden trains. I've often wished that LEGO made a train that was compatible with wooden train tracks, but could be customized with any LEGO bricks he wanted to use. The answer was to make our own LEGO wooden train hybrid! By ...

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A simple trick to give Lego minifigs a way to ride wooden trains -- from Play Trains!

Lego Minifigures and Wooden Trains: Tips and Tricks

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 ...

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About Me

Hi, I'm Jessica! While playing trains for the last several years, my Little Engineer and I have had a lot of fun and learned so much together. I'm excited to share our discoveries with other people who have kids who love trains in their lives.

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