Trains

Both of the kids loved this activity and I have to admit I did too.  It's always fun to take the learning outside!  We started our activity by reading Donald Crews book Freight Train.  It is a short story so we read through it a couple times.  During the second reading I had the children help identify the colors of the train cars.  Afterwards we headed to our small near by city, parked the van, and walked the rails!  The children had a ball and, of course, were full of questions.  I loved that their brains were so engaged; we were just walking on a railroad track (does the train that goes close to our house come through here? What keeps the train on the track?).  Who knew!  We even got lucky and found a metal pin that is used on the tracks.  It was great to have an item to bring home and show dad from our "field trip."  Later, when we have more time, we're going to go up to Indianapolis so we can tour the train station and watch the trains come and go.  The kids have always been fascinated with trains, as most kids are.  Our house isn't to far from a railroad track and sometimes when we're outside we hear the distant sound of their horn blowing.  If time permits we run to the van, load up, drive to the track and watch the train go by.  We keep ear plugs in the car for the kids as it can be pretty loud.  We've always had wonderful luck with the conductors too.  They are always very friendly; waving and giving us some extra toots on the horn!  When we got home we read a couple more books with a train subject that I had picked up from the library.  Needless to say the kids had a lot to tell Dad when he got home in the evening!  This is definitly an activity that we'll repeat again next summer.