Thomas the tank engine toys are great for pretend play which is very important for children’s early development. They teach so much from sharing, motor skills, language skills and cognitive skills by promoting pretend play.

I first bought Thomas toys for my son, for his second B’day. I bought two gifts for him, a Thomas & Friends train set (set of tracks and few engines) and a bicycle. I had to return the bicycle because it was too early for him to learn how to pedal so he had no interest in it. But the Thomas train set became his favorite toy of all times. Now he just turned three, yet his favorite toy is Thomas and he pretend plays with it for hours.

Later I bought him some Thomas books and DVDs too. And now he knows and identifies each and every engine by its name and number. I believe that these engines helped him to learn and identify numbers at such an early age too, that now he can count up to 100.

What to buy:
You can either buy wooden trains (Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway) or the Die-cast (Take Along Thomas & Friends). Die-cast trains are smaller, durable and cheaper than the wooden trains. Keep in mind that Die cast train and Wooden Trains have different tracks (they are not inter changeable)

Wooden trains fit in to the standard railway sizes so you can even buy other railway track sets from other brands (such as Brio and Melissa and Doug) and use them with wooden Thomas trains.

Where to buy:
I have bought both brand new and used Thomas trains, from both ebay and shops, but I have realized that ebay prices are much less than the prices out side.

Another advantage with these toys is that even if you spend some money now you will be able to gain it back by selling it at a later date as a collection when your children have out grown them.

The Thomas DVDs which my son absolutely love, I first bought them from ebay and other shops, but you can also borrow them from your local libraries as they also carry a large collection of them. These DVDs helped my son to develop his language skills too. This is something I found recently: If you search ‘Thomas Trains’ in youtube.com you can find 100s of clips (isn’t this a nice way to save some money?)

Thomas books are of great value, because if your child loves Thomas trains he /she will absolutely love to read Thomas story books which are very interesting. These will absolutely help your child to develop their interest in reading books at a very early age. Check you local library.

Some thing else you kid would love:
I recently took my son to see “Thomas & Friends Live! On Stage” show and he absolutely loved it. I am also planning to take him to the “Day Out with Thomas” this summer.

I hope this guide will come handy to you when making the decision to introduce Thomas train engine toys to your child. If you do I hope your child will enjoy and learn from it, as much as my son does. If you feel that this guide was helpful please mark this as ‘helpful’.

Good luck!!!
Tina.

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