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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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Add excitement and realism to your child's wooden train layouts with this Recycled Cardboard Box Platform for Wooden Trains @ Play Trains!

Recycled Track Platform: DIY Project for Wooden Train Layouts

Elevation.  It's one element of wooden train layouts that never fails to please, but often ends up frustrating everyone involved.  While we have a few sturdy pieces that add height to our tracks in a reliable manner, most bridges and track supports are liable to be knocked over with the slightest ...

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Train Engineer and Thomas and Friends Easter Eggs from Play Trains!

Train Engineer and Thomas & Friends Easter Eggs

We got to our Easter eggs at the last minute as always, but I'm so glad we did them!  The Little Engineer loved it even more than last year and would have been happy to dye several more dozen eggs. As for me, my Thomas & Friends eggs turned out to be much easier to make than I was expecting. ...

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Easy Easter Freight and Bunny Ears for Wooden Trains from Play Trains!

Easter Train Freight and Easy Bunny Ears for Wooden Trains

Bringing holidays and season into train play is always a fun way to renew interest in the trains and learn about these special times of year at the same time. Here's a big list of fun ideas for an Easter train layout, plus a super easy way to make bunny ears for the trains to wear -- without ...

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Easter Train Books for Kids recommended by Play Trains!

Easter Train Books for Kids

I love reading holiday-themed books with the Little Engineer. He often requests the best ones all year round, and train-themed books have been especially popular. (No suprise there, of course!) Here is a list of all the Easter train books for kids we've been able to get our hands on. ...

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Cherry Blossom Tunnel: Outdoor Spring Activity for Kids from Play Trains! A fun combination of gross motor and sensory play.

Cherry Blossom Tunnel: Spring Outdoor Activity for Kids

We planted a flowering cherry tree in our backyard when we bought our house several years ago.  Somehow, when we weren't looking, it grew into a towering, graceful friend who gives us much needed shade and privacy all summer long. It's easy to forget about the tree in the winter, with it's long ...

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St. Patrick's Day Freight and Decorations for Wooden Trains from Play Trains!

St. Patrick’s Day Freight for Wooden Trains

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. ...

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Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

Easy DIY Valentine Freight for Wooden Trains

Here's one of my favorite things the Little Engineer and I came up with for the Valentine's Day in Vicarstown layout:  DIY valentine freight to load into the Troublesome Trucks! I was just going for visual effect when I started on these easy-to-make felt hearts, but they have a nice, firm, and fuzzy ...

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Book-inspired Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas & Friends from Play Trains!

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

When the Little Engineer and I adapted Valentine's Day in Vicarstown into a storytelling wooden train layout, we read the book several times in the process.  So when I started to set up this valentine counting activity based on the same book, the Little Engineer knew exactly what we were doing -- ...

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Valentine's Day in Vicarstown: a book-inspired wooden train activity from Play Trains!

Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown: Book Review and Wooden Train Layout

The Little Engineer and I enjoy taking what we read and acting it out in play. Often, this means playing it out with our wooden trains. (Big shock, I know.) I think there's a lot to be learned from adapting a book to another form of storytelling. Also, we're hoping the photos of our layout might be ...

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Train Gifts: DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants from Play Trains!

DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants – Train Gifts

These paper clay heart pendants are really fun and -- surprisingly easy -- to make. I really enjoyed painting them with engineer stripes and other train-themed designs, including Thomas the Tank Engine himself. And the Little Engineer made his own version of the heart pendants, which he proudly gave ...

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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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