What do you do when you want to introduce your children to all the wonderful things that the world has to offer, but all they want to do is play trains? You bring the world to the train set! If anything has ever exemplified this philosophy of mine, it's this wooden train track and toy vegetable ...
Whittle Shortline Railroad Review: Realistic Wooden Trains
Does your child like real trains? The bright colors and friendly faces found on many wooden trains appeal to a lot of children, but there are also plenty of kids who really want their toys to look like the real thing. And if you're looking for wooden trains that truly look like real trains -- or ...
Dreamup Toys Wooden Train Set Review
Children love to combine their DUPLO blocks and LEGO bricks with their wooden train sets. But, if you've ever tried it in your home or classroom, you probably have had the same experience we did, with the tracks sliding off the blocks and bricks. That's why I thought Dreamup Toys block platforms ...
Old Tracks, New Tricks by Jessica Petersen
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 ...
Thomas MINIS Advent Calendar Video Playdates
Come play with the Little Engineer! While our jumping off point for this series of video playdates is a Thomas MINIS advent calendar, our hope is to inspire a fun, creative play session with your child's favorite trains, plus some simple items or toys you probably already have around the house. ...
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 ...
Jingle Bell Candy Cane Tree Craft
Once I finally figured out how to make a pipe cleaner palm tree -- the final "real" tree on my list of pipe cleaner tree ideas -- I thought I'd be rid of the urge to make trees out of pipe cleaners and pom poms. However, it seems my freedom from this accidental obsession is still out of reach. I ...
Jingle Bell Coupling Chains for Wooden Trains
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 ...
Wooden Train Jingle Bell Shakers
We love experimenting with adding other sensory elements to wooden train play. Adding sounds to our trains always is especially fun, and these wooden train jingle bell shakers are no exception. This is the perfect way to get child who loves trains involved in making music, whether that's Christmas ...
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 ...
Painting with Trains: Thomas the Tank Engine Candy Cane Ornament
I'm so happy to be participating in Mama Miss' 10 Days of a Kid-Made Christmas series for the second year in a row! This year, the theme is Ornaments Inspired by Children's Books, and 70+ bloggers are each coming up with an ornament for a different children's book. We decided to stay true to our ...
Building with Dreamup Toys Wooden Railway Block Platforms
If your child has ever wanted to be able to combine DUPLO or LEGO blocks with wooden train tracks, good news: there's a new product designed to connect tracks and bricks. Dreamup Toys sent us some of their Wooden Railway Block Platforms to test out, and I'm extremely happy to report that they do ...
Creative Building Play with DUPLO and Wooden Train Tracks
I'll bet most families who own both wooden train tracks and DUPLO blocks have thought, "If only there were a way we could combine these!" I know we did, and we've tried a few methods of doing it, but none of them worked particularly well. That's why I was excited when Dreamup Toys emailed me, asking ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
Travel-Friendly Mini Sand Castle Kit
When we got home playing at the beach with our kid-customized mini sand play set, I realized that the core part of the set could make an even smaller mini sand castle kit. Of course I had to try it immediately! Fortunately, we have a sandbox, so we didn't have to wait. This little sand castle kit is ...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 6
- Next Page »
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.