Trains Trains Trains!

FROM BECKY: Is your child interested in trains? Upon request from a lovely Mom. Here are 10 ideas that you can try to do with trains in your Son-Rise Program playroom.

1) Be a train! Make fun sound effects and invite your child to climb aboard for a ride.

2) Make a train. Bring some tissue boxes, string stickers and even a whistle into the playroom, have fun creating a train and even giving figurines rides around the room.

3) Train puzzle. Print out a picture of a train from Google Images, cut it into pieces and put them on the shelf of the playroom. Bring down the first couple of pieces and start the puzzle by sticking them on the wall. Once your child is motivated make a request (e.g. ask for eye contact, language or for them to help you with the puzzle).

4) Be a tickle/singing/squeeze/chase train. Depending on what your child is motivated for the most, model the game by giving your child lots of tickles, songs, etc as you Choo Choo into them for lots of fun.

5) Make your trains go to different places and work on imagination play (e.g. the park, the beach, the jungle, etc).

6) Make train tracks using Artist's Tape across the playroom floor for you to roll the trains down.

7) If your child also likes visual stimulation, tie things to the back of your train (e.g. balloons, balls, bells) and send them whizzing around the playroom.

8) Before your child enters the playroom, write different fun action words onto each train (e.g. shake, sneeze, giggle, etc). When your child asks for his.her trains, bring each one down doing the fun action.

9) Make each train have a different fun accent or voice as you play together.

10) If your child likes sensory stimulation, have the toy train ride all over his body for a train wheel massage.

Have fun!