The Wooden Toy Shop ~ Guest Post

Stand Clear of the Doors Please – A Trip along the Wooden Train Line

As the summer break stretches out before us and families begin to pack for their summer hols, little boys and girls are getting more and more excited about long train journeys to unknown and far flung destinations where new discoveries and hours of fun await. Parents who want to prepare their kids for a potentially draining trip on a busy train may find it useful to use toys to ‘rehearse’ the journey. Children, on the other hand, need no such excuse to play with one of the lovely wooden train sets at WoodenToyShop.co.uk.

Families planning a city break during the holidays will appreciate the John Crane City of London Train Set which is filled with buildings and monuments that will be very familiar to grownups, but could easily be quite daunting for children. This wooden toy is an excellent way to prepare the kids for the hustle and bustle and sights and sounds of the big city. While this particular train set features London landmarks such as the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace, the buildings and vehicles can easily serve to illustrate what the children can expect to experience in any big city.

Keeping children occupied on busy trains is often a challenge, so why not use your train set to prepare some games to play on the journey? The Bigjigs Town and Country Train Set is perfect for families travelling out of town to the countryside. Lay your train set out and then make a list of the things you might see from the train. The kids can spend the journey trying ticking off each item you have written down: level crossings; bridges; rural stations; village churches; boats on canals and rivers; emergency services vehicles; forests; and even cars of different colours.

Whether you are lucky enough to be holidaying this year or if you are staycationing, a wooden train set will always be a popular and useful addition to your children’s toy collection. Train sets offer so many wonderful possibilities for children to enjoy and on a practical level, they can always be enhanced with presents of all shapes, sizes and price ranges come birthdays and Christmas.

Family members and friends often struggle to find the right presents for children, but if they know your little boy or girl has a train set that he or she cherishes, they can always add something special like a new engine, a spectacular bridge or viaduct, a tunnel, a station or even simply a new pack of wooden train track. It’s surprising how easily children take to assembling track and creating new configurations. As well as helping them develop and improve hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills, train sets are wonderfully imaginative toys that inspire adventures and can help them improve their language skills if you take the time to ask where the train is going, who is travelling, where it will stop on the way and how many carriages the engine is pulling. You may have to help out with the buffet car though. Young train drivers can’t do everything you know!

I was given a toy voucher in return for this guest post