If you're looking for a gift for a train-loving preschooler, you're in luck. I've searched far and wide for interesting train books, toys, videos, and other gifts to feed my preschool-aged son's passion for trains, and I've found a ton of cool stuff. Buying a first train set? Looking for building ...
Marble Run Train Play: Quarry Cargo Drop
One of our favorite ways to keep train play interesting is to combine our wooden trains with building toys. I've been wanting to incorporate our marble run into a train layout for a long time, and -- finally! -- we set aside an afternoon to figure it out. After learning through trial and error, the ...
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 ...
White Christmas Wooden Train Layout
For the final day of Christmas Play Days, I wanted to share a Christmas wooden train layout I surprised the Little Engineer with on his train table last year. I really enjoyed finding little toys around the house that helped set the scene and encourage imaginative play. And I always love adding any ...
Dress Up Costumes for Wooden Trains
Whether for Halloween or an afternoon of pretend play, kids love dressing up. When the Little Engineer extended the need for costumes to his stuffed animals, I thought, why should they have all the fun? So I figured out a way to make dress up costumes for his wooden trains as well. It's a fun, ...
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. ...
Candy Train Game: Counting, Letter Recognition, and Reading Practice
The Little Engineer loves dark chocolate so much it's been very easy to convince him not to eat any other kinds of candy. During last year's round of trick-or-treating, I had to point out that we could use non-chocolate candies for craft projects. It was the only way that he would politely accept ...
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! ...
Building with Mini Light Boxes: Wooden Train Roller Coaster Tracks
The first time we used our DIY mini light boxes with wooden train tracks, the Little Engineer immediately saw the stacking potential (which I hadn't noticed yet). He put one light box on top of another and ran off to get our tallest ascending track to send a train rolling down from the top. We ...
DIY Wooden Toy Castles for Trains — Thomas & Friends King of the Railway
These DIY wooden toy castles look fantastic with our wooden train tracks, but they were so easy -- and inexpensive! -- to make. This is a fun project to do with a child, teaching them about measurement along the way, or to give as a gift to round out a train collection with a unique piece. And ...
DIY Troublesome Truck Face Stickers for Wooden Trains
So easy to make, these DIY face stickers for Troublesome Trucks are a great way to add some personality to a child's wooden trains. ...
“Dice Cars”: the Little Engineer’s Favorite Train Math Game
I have this theory that trains can be used to teach any subject. This seems especially true for math. I keep thinking up new train math games myself, finding new commercial train games with a math element, and running into new ideas online. But there is one and only one train math game that has ...
Snow Trains: Seven Ideas for Bringing Snow into Train Play
We haven't gotten any snow yet this year, much to the Little Engineer's disappointment. But that hasn't stopped us from playing trains in the snow all winter. We've combined snow and trains in our play off and on through every season. It's always a popular element. It taps into one of the ...
Organizing Wooden Trains and Track — The Play Trains! Ultimate Wooden Train Guide
I had a question over on the Play Trains! Facebook page as to how we store our trains. I had taken a few photos of our system a while back, intending to eventually post them, but this gave me the nudge I needed to take a couple more pictures get this up. By far, my favorite way to store our ...
Wooden Luke from Blue Mountain Mystery
If you have a young train fan who's been waiting for their very own Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway version of Luke, there's good news: he's finally available. In light of today's over-merchandized children's entertainment industry, I found it hard to believe that Blue Mountain Mystery, last ...
Damage-Free Decorating for Wooden Train Layouts
In my post about our Valentine's Day in Vicarstown train layout yesterday, I promised I'd share my secret way to stick things to our wooden trains and buildings without worrying about ruining them. Well, it's not my secret, really. My husband showed me how to do it. Originally, he came up with ...
United Northwest Model Railroad Club’s Annual Model Railroad Show
If you live in the Seattle area, you might want to make plans to visit the United Northwest Model Railroad Club's annual model railroad show this coming weekend. The show runs February 2-3, 2013, at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. In addition to the cool model train layouts, the ...
The Pacific Science Center’s 39th Annual Model Railroad Show
We spent two exciting days at the 39th Annual Model Railroad Show at Seattle's Pacific Science Center last weekend. Exciting and exhausting for us adults, but completely worth it. Given that we already have a membership to the Science Center, I wasn't going to let the Little Engineer miss out on ...
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 ...
Our Latest Wooden Train Layout
Every few weeks, we disassemble the tracks that take up the majority of the open floor space in our living room, vacuum the play mats, and start anew. The last time this happened, we got off to a bit of a false start. I deemed my original plan too dangerous due to the likelihood that the Little ...
Cut the Rope + Wooden Trains = the Candy Train!
The Little Engineer loves Cut the Rope. Months ago, before he figured it out himself, he used to watch Dada play. When the candy would fall off the screen instead of into the adorable green monster's mouth, he'd make Om Nom's sad noise and do a sign he made up that combined the signs for "cry" and ...
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.