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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 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 on Ceramics: tips for beautiful kid-made gifts from Play Trains!

Beautiful Kid-made Gifts: Painting with Trains on Ceramics

Painting with trains and other toy vehicles is an excellent process art activity for kids, one that we've enjoyed on many occasions. But what I think is even cooler about painting with toy trains is that the patterns left by the wheels can create beautiful kid-made gifts without putting pressure on ...

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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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LEGO Trains at Seattle BrickCon 2014: building inspiration for little engineers, including a fun LEGO train video!

LEGO Trains at Seattle BrickCon 2014

It's always so fun to see LEGO trains zooming around the tracks! We got to watch quite a few of them at Seattle BrickCon 2014. Check out the photos and our fun LEGO train video for kids for some great building inspiration. ...

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Train Books for Kids: Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen -- a detailed review plus activity ideas!

Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen

A review of Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen, a fun picture book for kids who love trains, plus ideas for activities, materials, and toys to extend the book. ...

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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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Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag from Play Trains!

Train Track Counting Activity and Busy Bag

Over the past few years, I've had fun thinking up ideas for little activities and busy bags to put in my purse that are tailored to my son's interests. So, as you can imagine, we've played a lot of trains in a lot of different ways at restaurant tables. Here's a simple train track counting activity ...

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LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout from Play Trains!

LEGO Ewok Village Wooden Train Layout

Last week, I showed you a couple of fun tricks for combining LEGO with wooden trains: one for getting minifigures to ride wooden trains without falling off, and one for temporarily turning wooden trains into LEGO wooden trains that can be customized any way a child can imagine. Today, I wanted to ...

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A simple trick to give Lego minifigs a way to ride wooden trains -- from Play Trains!

Lego Minifigures and Wooden Trains: Tips and Tricks

This is a great way to combine old favorite toys with awesome new toys as kids grow. While LEGO DUPLO figures are a little big to go with wooden trains, LEGO minifigures are a very compatible size. They fit in the wooden train freight cars -- but, more often than not, they fall out as the trains ...

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Train Engineer and Thomas and Friends Easter Eggs from Play Trains!

Train Engineer and Thomas & Friends Easter Eggs

We got to our Easter eggs at the last minute as always, but I'm so glad we did them!  The Little Engineer loved it even more than last year and would have been happy to dye several more dozen eggs. As for me, my Thomas & Friends eggs turned out to be much easier to make than I was expecting. ...

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Easy Easter Freight and Bunny Ears for Wooden Trains from Play Trains!

Easter Train Freight and Easy Bunny Ears for Wooden Trains

Bringing holidays and season into train play is always a fun way to renew interest in the trains and learn about these special times of year at the same time. Here's a big list of fun ideas for an Easter train layout, plus a super easy way to make bunny ears for the trains to wear -- without ...

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Easter Train Books for Kids recommended by Play Trains!

Easter Train Books for Kids

I love reading holiday-themed books with the Little Engineer. He often requests the best ones all year round, and train-themed books have been especially popular. (No suprise there, of course!) Here is a list of all the Easter train books for kids we've been able to get our hands on. ...

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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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St. Patrick's Day Freight and Decorations for Wooden Trains from Play Trains!

St. Patrick’s Day Freight for Wooden Trains

The Little Engineer and I started celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our trains by decorating a few engines and making some new freight. Here are several easy ideas for ways to incorporate the holiday into any kind of toy train play. ...

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Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

Easy DIY Valentine Freight for Wooden Trains

Here's one of my favorite things the Little Engineer and I came up with for the Valentine's Day in Vicarstown layout:  DIY valentine freight to load into the Troublesome Trucks! I was just going for visual effect when I started on these easy-to-make felt hearts, but they have a nice, firm, and fuzzy ...

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Book-inspired Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas & Friends from Play Trains!

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

When the Little Engineer and I adapted Valentine's Day in Vicarstown into a storytelling wooden train layout, we read the book several times in the process.  So when I started to set up this valentine counting activity based on the same book, the Little Engineer knew exactly what we were doing -- ...

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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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Train Gifts: DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants from Play Trains!

DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants – Train Gifts

These paper clay heart pendants are really fun and -- surprisingly easy -- to make. I really enjoyed painting them with engineer stripes and other train-themed designs, including Thomas the Tank Engine himself. And the Little Engineer made his own version of the heart pendants, which he proudly gave ...

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Winter Train Play Ideas: Snow for Wooden Train Layouts from Play Trains!

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 ...

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Jessica Petersen, author of Old Tracks, New Tricks
Hi, I'm Jessica! We're so happy you've climbed aboard the Play Trains! express. Next stop: a trainload of fun and learning for your little engineer!

Our Book!

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

The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide -- Wooden Train Track: expert advice and product recommendations

Wooden Train Tracks — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

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

Best Train Tables — The Ultimate Wooden Train Guide

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 - 2023 Jessica Petersen, All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Some product links on this site are affiliate links for products we think are worth checking out. The owner of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Lego Brand Retail Affiliate Program. Read our the rest of our disclosure policy here.
Building with Mini Light Boxes: Roller Coaster Tracks for Wooden Trains @ Play Trains!

Building with Mini Light Boxes: Wooden Train Roller Coaster Tracks

Old Tracks, New Tricks by Jessica Petersen: a wooden train picture book that inspires creative play!

Old Tracks, New Tricks by Jessica Petersen

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

Our Train Videos on YouTube

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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Copyright © 2012 - 2018 by Jessica Petersen

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