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The Play Trains! Guide to Wooden Train Sets: expert advice on the best wooden train set to buy for your little engineer.

The Play Trains! Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets 2021

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 ...

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Wooden Train Track Stacking with Vegetables -- a fun way to get little engineers interested in veggies!

Wooden Track Veggie Stack: a Wooden Train Activity

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 ...

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DIY wooden train track Christmas ornaments inspired by OLD TRACKS, NEW TRICKS by Jessica Petersen. The decorations are temporary so the tracks can go back to the train set after the holidays!

Book-Inspired Wooden Train Track Christmas Ornament

Today I'm going to show you how kids can make their own wooden train track Christmas ornaments, inspired by my upcoming picture book, Old Tracks, New Tricks. The best part is that the decorations are temporary, which means the tracks can go back to the train set when the holidays are over! ...

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The Play Trains Ultimate Wooden Train Guide: The Best Wooden Train Tables for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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 ...

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Free Printable Train Valentines -- in full color or color-your-own black and white -- from Play Trains!

Free Printable Train Valentines

When the Little Engineer was littler, and I was looking for train valentines to buy for him to pass out to his preschool class, I very quickly discovered that there weren't many options. It was even difficult (though never impossible) to find Thomas & Friends valentines, which I never would have ...

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Thomas MINIS Advent Calendar Video Playdates from Play Trains!

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. ...

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DIY Rainbow Wooden Train: beautiful, vibrant, non-toxic dye brightens up a wooden train set, inspired by the book 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids! Perfect for playing out the classic board book, Freight Train by Donald Crews.

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 ...

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Jingle Bell and Candy Cane Pipe Cleaner Tree Craft from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Jingle Bell Coupling Chains for Wooden Trains: a fun, hands-on science exploration for Christmas or any time of year from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Jingle Trains: how to temporarily turn wooden trains into wooden train jingle bell shakers! Fun for ringing along with Christmas carols or for music activities all year long. http://play-trains.com/

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 ...

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Painting with Trains: a Kid-made Thomas the Tank Engine Candy Cane Christmas Ornament

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 ...

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Christmas Train Books for Kids: a big list of holiday books for children who love trains, including suggestions for festive train activities to accompany the books!

Christmas Train Books for Kids

If there's one type of train books for kids I've delighted in collecting more than the others, it's been Christmas train books. I've been looking forward to sharing this list of holiday books for young railroad enthusiasts for a long time, and here it is. I've also included suggested activities for ...

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Train Advent Calendar Gifts: tiny toy trains and small train gifts to fill your little engineer's advent calendar.

Train Advent Calendar Gifts

When the Little Engineer was three years old, I had so much fun filling his advent calendar with train-themed advent calendar gifts. If you're looking for train gifts for your child's advent calendar, here is a big list of options for tiny train treasures: small Thomas & Friends trains, little ...

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Train Advent Calendar Gift Tags: free printable train-themed, number gift tags in two different color schemes: Festive Train Colors and Thomas & Friends Engine Colors

Printable Train Advent Calendar Gift Tags

Here are some fun train gift tags for DIY advent calendars! I made them in two different color schemes -- Festive Train colors and Thomas & Friends Engine colors -- so that these trains can count down to Christmas for Thomas fans and regular train fans alike. Just download the free printable ...

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Fall Activities for Kids from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Autumn Zoo Train Play from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Apple Harvest Pom Pom Tree Fine Motor Activity from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Super easy way to make a DIY outdoor wooden train "table"...no tools required to make this mini garden railway!

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 ...

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Back to School: Train Backpacks, Lunch Boxes, and More!

Back to School: Train Backpacks and Lunch Boxes

On the first day of preschool, there's nothing quite like the pride of wearing one's very own backpack. It's even more exciting when it's decorated with one of your favorite things. Here is a collection of super cute train backpacks and train lunch boxes for kids who love trains! ...

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DIY pipe cleaner palm trees -- can be a fine motor activity for kids, an interactive summer small world element, or simply a cute craft!

Pipe Cleaner Palm Tree Craft

Every time I think I'm done creating new pipe cleaner trees for our train layouts, I think of another type of tree that seems impossible to make. And so I have to make it, of course! I thought it would be difficult to get these pipe cleaner palm trees to stand up, but they stand up on their own, no ...

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Fourth of July Wooden Train Play from Play Trains!

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, ...

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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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Recent Posts

  • Best Train Sets for Toddlers
  • The Play Trains! Guide to the Best Wooden Train Sets 2021
  • The Best Battery-Powered Wooden Trains
  • Wooden Track Veggie Stack: a Wooden Train Activity
  • 55+ Creative Train Gift Ideas for Kids that Will Make You a Hero

Copyright © 2012 - 2018 by Jessica Petersen