Now that we're deep into winter, it's time for another seasonal variation on our pipe cleaner trees. These black trees started out as spooky trees for Halloween. Then we added color for Halloween carnival pom pom trees and fall pom pom trees. Now, soft pom pom snow and hard glass gem ice has landed ...
Wooden Train Ski Jump — Winter Olympics Activities for Kids
I kept my first two activities for the Winter Play Days series intentionally simple because I knew I was gearing up for something epic: wooden train ski jumping in honor of the Winter Olympics! This one activity has caused a huge surge in the Little Engineer's interest in the Olympics, winter ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Train Engineer Snowman
Nothing is more magical than a child's first snowman. However, sometimes there's a way to make it just a bit more magical for that particular child. In the Little Engineer's case, that magic came in the form of an invitation that required no words to explain: a spare engineer's hat and a baby ...
Fall Pom Pom Tree — Fine Motor Activity
This fall pom pom tree activity is as pretty as it is fun! I think it could even work as a combination kids' activity and centerpiece at Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite part is the acorns -- they look so cool in the tree, plus they add so much to activity by presenting an added challenge to fine ...
Quick and Easy Halloween Train Layout Ideas
The Little Engineer and I love playing out holidays with our trains. This is our second year making a Halloween train layout, and we had a lot of fun building on what we did last year. Here are several simple ideas to celebrate Halloween at the train table. ...
Spooky Pipe Cleaner Trees — Halloween Craft Tutorial
I love these spooky trees I came up with to go with the Little Engineer's wooden trains, so perfect for a Halloween train set or small world. While they're a little more complex than the evergreen pipe cleaner trees from last spring, they don't take too long to make, and they look so cool in our ...
Pumpkin Mountain Railroad Building — Halloween Train Activity
We're back with another great Halloween train activity: building a mountain railroad on a pumpkin. Well, two pumpkins, in our case. Once I started setting up the train tracks, we were having too much fun not to bring in the second pumpkin! ...
October Moon Halloween Train Play
I'm really excited to be teaming up with my blogging buddies again for another round of invitations to play! This time, we're focusing on Halloween Invitations to Play. Our creative partners in fun are Mary Catherine from Fun-a-Day!, Chelsey from Buggy and Buddy, Stephanie from Twodaloo, Rachael ...
Outdoor Fall Train Play — Fall Invitations to Play
For our final activity in the Fall Invitations to Play series, I saved the simplest invitation of all. It also happens to be the closest to my heart, inspired by something the Little Engineer has done every year since his love of trains began. Fifty years from now, I see myself watching the leaves ...
Fall Spice Railroad — Fall Invitations to Play
Today I invited the Little Engineer to build a railroad with fall spices -- a wonderful way to engage the senses and imagination in a seasonal way! This is our fourth activity in the Fall Invitations to Play series. Working with My Nearest and Dearest, Twodaloo, Fantastic Fun and Learning, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Ice Train Play — Winter Fun for Any Season
Ice and snow have been a recurring theme in our train play, no matter the season. First we froze toy trains in ice and found many different ways to play with snow (real or pretend) and trains. This summer, we made a train out of ice and sent it whooshing around our deck. The logical next step was to ...
Toy Train Freight from Nature: Late Summer
Warm breezes, blue skies, and -- most importantly -- dry ground: there's no better time to take toy trains outside to play in Seattle than the second half of summer. It's also the best time of year for incorporating objects from nature into train play. There's an abundance of things growing that can ...
Icy Engine: Cool Summer Train Ice Play
Ice is always nice to play with when it's hot outside. It can be as simple as what we did over the weekend, when I brought a pitcher of ice to the Little Engineer so he could have an ingredient besides water for play cooking in the kiddie pool. Thanks to my Pinterest addiction and all of the ...
Sand Tracks: Train Beach Activity Inspired by Peter’s Railway
Today, I have two things to share with you: a fun beach activity that combines creativity, science, and sensory play, and the inspiration for it, a great series of train books for kids of any age! From what I've seen, it can be difficult to find many books about trains that will appeal to ...
Fizzy Engine: Baking Soda and Vinegar Trains
Mixing baking soda and vinegar is a classic science activity for kids, and once you've tried it with your child, it's easy to understand why. It's hands-on, safe for young kids, and pretty amazing, especially for a child who has never experienced it before. Last year, I introduced one of the cool ...
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.