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Home › Articles › Play Time › On the Fast Track

On the Fast Track

The Appeal of Wooden Train Play

By John W. Lee

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The non-violent nature of wooden train play is critical when you consider that even kids as young as 2 years of age can and do play with wooden trains. Train play is open-ended, yet unlike other open-ended toys such as blocks or play dough, train play has a variety of stimulating, challenging potential activities for kids to discover within a structured world.

Oh, the Possibilities!
Wooden train play also offers an unending number of levels upon which children can enjoy the play patterns. When they're young, they can find great pleasure in moving a single engine or two around a track. As your kids age, they can discover more and more complex ways to interact with the train and track world – it's a building toy, then it's a thinking toy. It grows and changes with kids.

Train play is also so very engaging because it is not just one activity – it is a multitude of activities. Unlike most toys, train play feeds an almost unending circle of curiosity to confidence, no matter what the child's age. Train play allows for exploration and discovery. This pleasure leads to repetition of experiences, and experience leads to mastery. This is the basic pattern of all learning as set forth by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., in his "positive cycle of learning" model. Mastery leads to confidence that in turn leads to the willingness to engage curiosity in another area. In this regard, wooden trains are almost perfect toys.


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