Tag Archives: Chuggington

Encouraging my little builder

The toddler has become obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and I don’t use the word obsessed lightly. His whole day seems to revolve around the little blue engine which means mine does too. His first words in the morning are Thomas and Gordon, his favourite engines, and the first toy out of his toy box is his Thomas track and engines. I totally blame my husband who wanted to wean him off Chuggington. Little did he know his passion for Chuggington would just become a passion for Thomas.

In a bid to reclaim my lounge floor and introduce a bit of balance back into our lives we bought a few pieces of Lego. We were both big Lego fans when we were younger and thought this was a toy which would provide lots of fun, could easily be added to and really would grow with his needs.

lego duplo fire station

Fortunately the toddler loves Lego so we’re having lots of fun building train sheds (!) and big tall towers. We were recently sent the Lego Duplo Fire Station which is a fun set as it includes figures, vehicles and lots of bricks. The toddler loves his ‘nee-naws’ so it’s great to watch his imagination really fired up (excuse the pun!). Unfortunately only daddy can remember how to construct the fire station so I just get to have fun reliving my youth. I can’t wait til the toddler progresses to Technical Lego!

Disclosure – we received this product from Idealo for the purpose of review

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A very Chuggington Christmas

Big Brother is turning into a typical boy and loves anything with wheels. His absolute favourite programme is Chuggington which he would watch pretty much all day if I let him. Before Christmas he had a couple of Chuggington books, engines and a board book which he loved. They’re all well-loved and splattered in food (before I introduced a ban on toys at the table!).

We knew what to get him for Christmas although I think we may have gone slightly overboard. It was all a bit Chugtastic and I only hope he doesn’t fall out of love with it any time soon. He received the Chuggington interactive train set, 5 new interactive engines, as well as colouring books, toiletries, pyjama’s and story books – basically anything I came across I bought.

This year was the first year he enjoyed opening his presents, which we spread over a couple of days as there were so many. On Christmas Eve we let him open new Chuggington pyjamas which he wore to bed. We had to go in and see him during the night and found him standing up in his cot pointing excitedly at Koko, Brewster and Wilson on his pyjama top!

On Christmas Day he opened the train set and engines and played with them all day long (after daddy had built the track). It’s a step up from his wooden Brio set and I think it will take him a while to learn how to put the track together without help. The trains all talk to each other so we’ve been getting used to hearing the phrases throughout the day.

We managed to make some decorations too. I bought a cracker kit from John Lewis and customised each cracker with Chuggington stickers and filled them with keyrings we made, more stickers and sweets.

The tree was also decorated with figures from the old dog-eared board book which we simply cut out using a scalpel and hung on the tree. Our Chuggington decorations were completed with a personalised Christmas card. Phew. Overboard or not, I’d better start gearing up for Christmas 2012!

 

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Playing – 19 months

As Edward’s playing habits seem to have plateaued for the time being we decided to try and improve the lounge which is where we spend a lot of our time. At 19 months his concentration is developing and he is able to play with certain toys for longer periods of time – a great improvement from when he just tipped all his toys on the floor!

A while ago we were given a fantastic Brio train set for him which we only recently got out. He absolutely loves it and spends hours setting up the track and watching the trains go round and round. He’s a huge Chuggington fan and I spotted these today which made me laugh:

Most of his toys are now housed in a small Expedit unit from Ikea and he has his own little chair which fits perfectly under our old coffee table – now a place where he can sit and colour or ‘read’ a book. I try to rotate his toys every week or two so he doesn’t get bored but his wooden work bench has pride of place. He has easy access to his books using the great bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox which we were recently sent.

I’m on the lookout for some Montessori activities we can do together indoors now the weather is finally turning colder to compliment his time at nursery. He starts this week, his name tag has been sewn inside his bag and he’s growing up fast!

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Filed under Montessori activities, nursery, playing