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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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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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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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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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Thomas Gets a Snowplow: Train Book Review and Play Ideas from Play Trains!

Thomas Gets a Snowplow: Wooden Train Book Activity for Kids

I'm glad that there are a few children's books about trains in the snow that focus on winter rather than the holidays.  Not that the Little Engineer minds reading books out of season, but it's nice that there are a few stories that are set in winter without Christmas coming into the picture. Thomas ...

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Christmas Wooden Train Layout from Play Trains!

White Christmas Wooden Train Layout

For the final day of Christmas Play Days, I wanted to share a Christmas wooden train layout I surprised the Little Engineer with on his train table last year. I really enjoyed finding little toys around the house that helped set the scene and encourage imaginative play. And I always love adding any ...

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DIY Angry Birds Costume: Engineer Blue Bird Mask and Wings

This DIY Angry Birds costume took a couple of nights' worth of work to finish, but it was worth it.  Not only did it turn out to be pretty cute, but we'll be using it for pretend play well beyond Halloween. The best part is it combines two of the things my son loves. The Little Engineer and I have ...

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Dress Up Costumes for Toy Trains from Play Trains! A fun way to decorate wooden trains (or other toy trains) without damaging them.

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, ...

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Squirrel Train Small World from Play Trains! http://play-trains.com/

Squirrel Train Small World — Fall Invitations to Play

Our third Fall Invitation to Play in the series is a squirrel train small world sure to delight any child who loves both woodland animals and trains! The Little Engineer was so excited to play Squirrel Train, and it turned into a creative, relaxing play experience for both of us. Make sure to ...

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Fall Invitations to Play: Play Dough Pumpkin Patch Train from Play Trains! http://play-trains.com/

Play Dough Pumpkin Patch Train — Fall Invitations to Play

I'm very excited to be part of a series of Fall Invitations to Play this week. Along with four of my blogger friends -- Ann from My Nearest and Dearest, Stephanie from Twodaloo, Shaunna from Fantastic Fun and Learning, and Chelsey from Buggy and Buddy -- we'll be sharing five ways to invite kids to ...

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Famous and Fictional Train Engineer Cards @ Play Trains! Creating these “trading cards” based on historical and fictional railroad engineers provides opportunities for figure drawing, writing practice, and the exploration of knowledge gained from books through open-ended pretend play.

Famous and Fictional Train Engineer Cards

The idea for this activity came out of nowhere one Saturday morning. I don't remember exactly what we were playing -- something about Casey Jones or another real-life train engineer, no doubt -- but I remember looking at the Little Engineer and saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if someone made trading ...

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DIY Zoo Set for Wooden Trains @ Play Trains! Our train twist on the Jungle Diorama from Jo-ann's Cape Discovery summer crafting challenge. #summerofjoann

DIY Zoo Train Set for Wooden Trains

The Little Engineer has always loved having animal passengers for his trains, so it's no surprise that we jumped at the chance to make a zoo for his wooden trains as soon as we had the idea! This is by far our most ambitious DIY wooden train set project yet, but it was well worth the investment of a ...

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Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set @ Play Trains! Come see how big the Little Engineer grinned the first time he put together this DIY train set you can take along to play anywhere!

Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set

Safari Ltd. generously provided us with a Train Toob to try out. No positive review was required and all my opinions and observations are, as always, my own. When Safari Ltd. offered to send us a Train Toob, the Little Engineer was so excited I knew I had to do something special with it.  I had ...

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Pool Noodle Train Tracks: Summer Train Fun for Kids @ Play Trains! Kids can build these train tracks, then add a sprinkler to cool off in an "engine wash."

Summer Fun for Kids: Pool Noodle Train Tracks

The sunshine that keeps breaking through our familiar Seattle clouds has been putting thoughts of summer fun in my head.  At the same time, the lure of playing wooden trains is hard for the Little Engineer to resist. We often take the trains outside and play with them on a picnic mat in the ...

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Blowing Color Steam: a Relaxation Technique for Children @ Play Trains! A train twist on Blowing Colors, an effective tool recommended by Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson on the Seattle Mama Doc Blog that kids can learn to help themselves relax.

Blowing Color Steam: Relaxation Technique for Children

This relaxation technique for children is based on Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson's recommendation of teaching anxious children to "blow colors" as a tool to calm themselves down.  Please visit her wonderful blog, Seattle Mama Doc, to read Help Your Anxious Child: Blow Colors and watch the accompanying ...

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Steam Streamers for Active Train Pretend Play @ Play Trains!

Steam Streamers for Active Train Pretend Play

The Little Engineer still thinks our Grass Tracks from last year are fun, so I wasn't really looking for a way to make them new again.  However, I also wasn't going to ignore the wind when it whispered a way to make our favorite active train play even more fun. ...

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Playing Along with Blue Mountain Mystery

If you've read my other posts, you may have noticed that the Little Engineer and I enjoy playing out stories from the books we read. The same goes for videos and games. The Little Engineer doesn't ask to watch a lot of TV, and while he loves certain games on our iPad, he generally prefers to play ...

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Gardening with My Little Engineer

I really like the idea of gardening.  But not so much the, you know, work. Actually, it's mostly the idea of the work that I don't like, because like most things in life -- making birthday cakes, writing, getting on with the bedtime routine -- it's not so bad once I get going. Last year, I ...

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Puzzle Train Ticket Mix-up — Read & Play Trains

When I talk to the Little Engineer about how this is "our train blog," those are not just empty words.  I try to involve him in every aspect of the blog that I can.  When he looks over my shoulder and sees Google Analytics up on my browser, he asks, "How many people came to our train blog today?" ...

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Coal & Water Steam Engine Sensory Bin

While we've done plenty of sensory activities at our house over the past three years, I haven't put together too many sensory bins.  I think the first couple I tried after reading about them fell flat with the Little Engineer, and we didn't do another for a long time. Last year, I bought this ...

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Monorail Ticket Booth Pretend Play

Even before we went on our play date with the Seattle Center Monorail, the Little Engineer had started playing a monorail version of Big Engine, his game where we pretend his bed is a locomotive.  As usual, one of his favorite parts to play was the ticket booth. So when I saw all the cool stuff ...

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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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