Preschool math games:
Here's how preschoolers gain math skills by playing with Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train sets
You might be curious why I put Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains in the category of "preschool math games". Afterall, Thomas doesn't teach counting or sorting or money skills the way typical preschool math games do.
Those are the kinds of math games and toys that children get bored with pretty quickly!
The way the Thomas train sets impart preschool math skills is more indirect, yet successful and enjoyable, for children.
What your child gains, when playing with a manipulative like these train sets and tracks, that's different traditional preschool math games are spatial-visualization skills along with a strong dose of fine motor skills, development...both of which are critical to doing later math work.
I am a huge fan of the Thomas the Tank Engine trains and really enjoyed playing with them together with my own children when they were younger.
Educational Value
As far as most preschool math games go, children play with the toy for a day or two, or a week at most, and then get bored and move on to something else. Most of these games do one job: the toy clock tells time, the cash register teaches about quarters and dimes, etc.
But with the train set, the toy gets used over and over.
Through repeated play, the child learns how to construct more and more elaborate tracks.
As children build their tracks, they're developing spatial planning skills, as they visualize when to begin curving the track, or which direction to curve it, or when they figure out how to get the track pieces around the couch or under a coffee table.
As children gain more spatial planning skills, through each time they play, their subsequent track set ups become more elaborate and exciting.
There are several fine motor activities involved with playing with these trains too:
- Fitting the track pieces together requires hard work on the part of the hand and finger muscles.
- Attaching the magnetic trains to each other requires solid hand-eye coordination skills, as well as fine motor skills... both are important when learning to copy and write numbers and words one day.
- Pushing a train of connected train-cars around the track uses the small hand muscles to keep the trains on the track without toppling it over. (This frequently happens when the train is too long.) Little fingers and hands will get a nice workout keeping the train steady as they move it around the track.
It doesn't take many trains and tracks to get started, but you'll quickly find you'll want to get more and more, as you see your child happily engaged in such a wholesome, educational activity.
When we started our Thomas trains set we bought this little oval track set (currently on sale for 15% off retail price from LearningThings.com) and over time we added more track pieces and trains to our collection.
Through birthday gifts from generous relatives and finding good deals on the web, and occasionally in thrift shops, we built up a huge collection with dozens of trains and a huge variety of tracks: long and short, curves and s-turns, hills and bridges, and even got the beauftiful roundhouse.
This variety of track pieces made the track even better and more exciting to use.
Why Thomas?
Personally, I think the Thomas characters have much nicer qualities that most action figures children play with. He has good values of being a loyal friend, a hard worker and honest. Those were the values author Rev W. Awdry
wanted to emphasize for his son when he wrote the Thomas and Friends stories.
After years of play. we found the trains themselves are well made, with no splinters or chipping paint, they are durable and hardy. As our train collection grew, we tried some knock-off varieties of the Thomas trains, but they weren't as durable as the Thomas-brand trains.
Above is a picture of the bin of trains we still have in the house. Our kids have mostly outgrown this activity, but we have too many fond memories of playing with it to get rid of it yet.
Of all the games, toys and manipulatives I see in my house right now, I have to say very few have enjoyed the longetivy, popularity, and developmental and educational value of these trains. I highly recommend them to any family!
Where to buy the Thomas trains?
Any store that sells educational toys other preschool math games should also carry the Thomas wooden train sets. However, I have found that buying in stores means paying retail prices. This is definitely the most expensive way to build up your train collection.
If you shop around online, you can find some good prices. I have purchased many Thomas trains and sets from Amazon.com because their prices are 15%-25% off retail, they have a large variety of trains and tracks, these items are eligible for free shipping and usually ship the next day. A hard deal to beat!
I also have found good deals on LearningThings.com, which also discounts the sets up to 15% off retail prices, offers a wide variety of the bigger sets, and also usually ships the next day.
Another way to find great prices on Thomas train is to visit thrift and second-hand stores and garage sales. We found many nice track pieces and bridges in this manner.
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