TRAINS!!! I love trains, in case you haven’t already guessed! My three year old son loves trains too and his little 10 month old shadow of a sister just loves whatever he loves.

Why do I love trains so much? They are incredibly versatile in nurturing childrens urges of play.  Train sets cover four particular play schemas; Trajectory, Transporting, Connecting and Rotational.  This is valuable, because children are constantly exploring various play schemas. Train sets can feed those different urges due to their versatility without you having to constantly chop and change the toys you have available for play.

A quick breakdown of two of these schemas:

Trajectory - have you noticed your little one repeatedly dropping food from their highchair, or your toddler throwing things about? Chances are they are exploring the trajectory schema.  As frustrating as it might be for you, they are actually doing their own science experiments!!  They are testing out whether things will break when they fall? Will it bounce? How long will it take to reach the ground? This will foster a foundation of trajectory development eventually leading onto throwing, catching, kicking, driving and maybe one day launching rockets into space!

Train set ups to help nurture these urges:

• Include battery operated locomotives which they can follow around the railway track.
• Sets with bridges and hills are great because your child can see how the train moves slower to go up and speeds up to travel back down.
• Non-battery operated trains are excellent as your child gets to physically move the locomotive around the track and explore their motion.

Connecting- Is your child into linking arms or holding hands with you, constructing towers, gluing and sticking things together?  They may be in the connecting schema, which also includes disconnecting!  Easy to spot with children who love to build towers to smash them down or even worse smash other children’s towers (I’m looking at my 10 month old daughter!) They are investigating how things join together and then come apart, learning about strength, gravity and forces.

Train set ups to help nurture this schema:

• Instead of building the railway for your child, leave the track pieces out for them to plan and complete their own railway line.
• Partially build a railway track and leave out the extra pieces of track for your child to problem solve and complete on their own.
• Include multiple carriages which connect to one another magnetically. Your child can then connect and disconnect them to the locomotive and also explore the concept of magnetic forces.
• Add a crane to your set and watch your child lift and load magnetic cargo onto the carriages over and over again.

As you can see, there are many valuable benefits of  train sets and I truly believe they are a staple in the playroom.  Here are my recommendations for some great sets to start your collection if you do not already own one:

• HAPE | Railway Bucket Builder Set
• BRIO | Starter Lift & Load Set A
• BRIO | Switching Travel Set

You will soon discover as you start your collection, that by adding different elements such as bridges, tunnels or cranes you can completely alter the play narrative and enhance your child’s imagination and creativity.