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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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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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When Dreamup Toys sent us these building toys that connect wooden train tracks to interlocking building blocks to review, I knew they'd be cool, but I had no idea how much they'd supercharge my son's creativity!

Creative Building Play with DUPLO and Wooden Train Tracks

I'll bet most families who own both wooden train tracks and DUPLO blocks have thought, "If only there were a way we could combine these!" I know we did, and we've tried a few methods of doing it, but none of them worked particularly well. That's why I was excited when Dreamup Toys emailed me, asking ...

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An easy, temporary way to turn any wooden train into a LEGO train. A fun design project for kids from Play Trains!

Design Your Own LEGO Wooden Train

Early on, the Little Engineer developed an interest in designing his own wooden trains. I've often wished that LEGO made a train that was compatible with wooden train tracks, but could be customized with any LEGO bricks he wanted to use. The answer was to make our own LEGO wooden train hybrid! By ...

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KID SAFE Two-Color Oil and Water Discovery Bottles @ Play Trains! http://play-trains.com/two-color-oil-and-water-discovery-bottles/ These vibrant discovery bottles contain no lamp oil, using all edible ingredients to make them safe for young children to make themselves!

Two Color Oil and Water Discovery Bottles

These vibrant oil and water discovery bottles contain no lamp oil, using all edible ingredients. This makes them a safe science activity for preschoolers to make on their own! We found some fun train-related things to include in our bottle, but you could make them with any (or no) theme in ...

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Icy Engine: Cool Summer Train Ice Play @ Play Trains! Activities for ice frozen in the shape of an engine and freight cars.

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 ...

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Fizzy Engine: Baking Soda & Vinegar Trains @ Play Trains! Fun summertime science for kids who love trains.

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 ...

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Painting with Trains on Canvas

Painting with trains or other toys with wheels is nothing new -- and this certainly wasn't the first time we did it -- but here's the Little Engineer's latest twist on it.  His ideas led the project deeper into the realm of pretend play, and resulted in a pretty cool end product. Not that the ...

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Engine Paint Shop — Train Color Matching Activity for Preschoolers

One of my son's favorite things about trains are their "coats of paint."  Along with wearing solid-color shirts as coats of paint that let him become an engine of that color, he especially loves pretending to paint his wooden trains, or Big Engine (his bed).  Knowing this came in handy the last time ...

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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.

Disclosure

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.
Parents' Guide to Building with Dreamup Toys Wooden Railway Block Platforms -- how to combine your child's wooden train track and DUPLO, LEGO, or other interlocking building blocks!

Building with Dreamup Toys Wooden Railway Block Platforms

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

Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set @ Play Trains! Come see how big the Little Engineer grinned the first time he put together this DIY train set you can take along to play anywhere!

Portable Small World: Pretend Model Train Set

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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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