Searching for the best wooden train set for your child? I've turned my expert eye on the wooden train sets that currently on the market so that you can make an informed choice. A train set can sound good on paper, but there's nothing like hands-on play to tell you whether it's going to be the right ...
Best Train Tables — The Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
Along with wooden train sets, wooden train tables are a classic feature in the children's playroom at home and the preschool classroom. It can be hard, however, to get an idea of all the options that are out there -- after all, I consider myself a pretty expert train stuff finder at this point, and ...
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 ...
Wooden Train Tracks — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
If you traveled back in time to my son's toddler days, you would find us on his bedroom floor, surrounded by wooden train tracks. My son: the one clutching at train in his chubby toddler fist as he ran its wheels down the almost-finished track. Me: the one building my masterpiece railway at ...
Do You Need a Train Table? — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
Do you need a train table? The best decision regarding whether a train table is worth the cost and the space will be different for every family and school. So let's go through the pros and cons of train tables, things I've learned through lots of experience and through talking with other parents and ...
Alternatives to Gluing Wooden Train Tracks to a Train Table
Many parents decide that gluing wooden train tracks to their child's train table is the way to go. If you've ever watched a toddler playing with a wooden train set -- tracks being pulled apart, bridges getting knocked over, the child getting frustrated, and parents rebuilding the layout over and ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Wooden Train Freight Cars — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
One of the most common questions I get is, "Where do you find all of the freight cars for your wooden trains?" And it's no wonder, because many of our wooden train activities make use of freight cars to hold seasonal objects, sensory and learning materials, and other fun stuff. Here, I'll answer the ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Snow for Wooden Train Layouts
Of all the kinds of scenery we've come up with to decorate our wooden train layouts, my favorite is most definitely snow. Not only is it pretty, but it's also interactive: trains can plow through the snow on the tracks, or haul it around in freight cars. It also is perfect for inspiring new story ...
Pretend Snow Sensory Play with Trains
For our first post for the Winter Play Days series, we took our trains out to play in real snow. Today's play idea is a way to echo that experience any time of the year with pretend snow for a fun sensory activity with a little science thrown in. I'll share a few tips for using pretend snow with toy ...
Winter Train Play in the Snow
Here we are at the beginning of another fun series of seasonal play ideas: Winter Play Days! This week, we're teaming up with Fun-a-Day!, Fantastic Fun and Learning, Nothing if Not Intentional, My Nearest and Dearest, and Buggy and Buddy to share some great winter activities for kids. For our first ...
Top DIY Train Projects for Kids 2013
I'm back with one last list of our most popular posts from 2013: our top DIY train projects for kids! Other than the stuffed animal engineer hats, these are all projects to make for or with kids for their wooden train sets. We've even used the mini light boxes with our wooden trains. Most of the ...
Top Train Crafts for Kids 2013
I had so much fun putting the Top Train Activities for Kids 2013 post together I decided not to stop there. Here are our top 10 train craft posts from the past year, with ideas that will suit every child: toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and up! Many of these crafts can be made by kids ...
Top Train Activities for Kids 2013
As 2013 comes to a close, it's been fun to look back on all the articles I've written for Play Trains! and see which ones were the most popular with you, our readers. I've loved hearing from many of you throughout the year as the fun we've had in our train adventures has inspired play time in homes ...
Wooden Train Roundhouses and Engine Sheds — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
One of the first things I wanted to add to our initial wooden train set was a wooden train roundhouse. Initially, the Little Engineer just really enjoyed putting the engines in and out of the roundhouse and opening and closing the doors. But as time went on, our roundhouse added so much more for him ...
Wooden Train Bridges and Elevated Tracks — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
Once you have a basic wooden train set, the next direction you'll want to take your layout is probably going to be up. Wooden train bridges, mountains, and other elevated track features turn a train layout into an exciting, hands-on experiment in physics. Bridges and slopes also create many more ...
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.