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 ...
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 ...
Light-up Pipe Cleaner Christmas Trees for Small Worlds
Here's a cute light-up variation on our pipe cleaner Christmas trees. It makes a fun fine motor activity, especially if you have a train pulling the holiday lights to decorate the trees. It's a festive way to bring light play to your train sets and other small worlds! ...
Building with Mini Light Boxes: Wooden Train Roller Coaster Tracks
The first time we used our DIY mini light boxes with wooden train tracks, the Little Engineer immediately saw the stacking potential (which I hadn't noticed yet). He put one light box on top of another and ran off to get our tallest ascending track to send a train rolling down from the top. We ...
Trains and Tracks for Light Boxes and Light Tables
A tiny light box needs a tiny train set to go with it, right? Once I came up with a way to make our own mini light box, I was on a mission to find trains that would work with light boxes or light tables. Especially small ones, given that was what we had. I came up with this tiny, translucent train ...
DIY Mini Light Box: Portable, Floatable, Stackable, Waterproof
I would love to have a light table in our house, but we have absolutely nowhere to put another large kid item. So last spring, I came up with our own super easy version of a DIY mini light box with what I had on hand. When I say mini, I mean mini. The playing surface is only four-by-seven ...
Glowing Discovery Bottles — Fall Invitations to Play
We're back with our second activity in the Fall Invitations to Play series: glowing discovery bottles for fall! I'm thrilled to be partnering this week with four of my favorite bloggers, each of us sharing a play invitation idea every day this week. I'll be linking to their invitations for today at ...
DIY Mini Lightsabers — Star Wars Kids’ Craft
We've given our trains the day off to share another one of our favorite things to play with: DIY mini lightsabers that light up! It's so fun to swish these around in a darkened room, making VWOOOM, VWOOOM sounds. And they're the perfect size for stuffed animal movie reenactments. This kids' craft is ...
Light Play: Glow Tracks and Angry Bird “Costumes”
While life with a three-year-old can be unpredictable, there are a few reactions I can count on when it comes to the Little Engineer. One of those constants is that if he finds a collection of long, straight objects, he will build railroad tracks. I spotted these glow necklaces on clearance at ...
Angry Birds Space Letter and Word Crash with Thomas and Cranky
One of our favorite elements to add to train play is light. We have a tub full of various LED lights to play "Night Train" with, and I'll have to tell you all about them another time. Today, we have something a little more...epic to play. It started when I came across Caution! Twins at Play's ...
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.