Trains and schemas
On the face of it, a train set is boring. Round and round, never deviating: the route is laid out in advance. So why are children of a certain age so mesmerised by them? The answer is schemas. Schemas are the mental models children have for various concepts like up, down, over, under and through. These ideas take many years to fully understand and the train set is the perfect way to do it.
In, out and through
Nested and stacking toys, such as rainbows, tunnels and mountains are perfect for exploring these basic concepts and they make the perfect scenery for your wooden railway small world.
A train table
What can you do with a train table? Run your trains around it, of course. But it can also be the setting for small world play, arts and crafts.
Better yet, combine all of the above by making junk model scenery for your railway small world.