Presents to encourage Thomas-obsessed 3yo to play with anything that isn't trains!

[stillfrazzled]

DS will happily play with his beloved Brio set all day, every day.

It makes my life v easy (he just gets on with it) but I'm (a) getting a bit twitchy and guilty and (b) thinking I'd love to expand his range a bit.

He also loves his soft cats and will spend ages playing with them. Wooden animals get a cursory few mins, occasionally. Utterly uninterested in colouring and drawing.

I also want to avoid expensive ornaments like last year's toy kitchen, which gathers dust unless we have small visitors.

Any ideas VERY GRATEFULLY received!

Not sure how easy it is to get stuff, but DS was tempted away from trains by Thunderbirds

Does he like fitting the track together? If so then maybe he'd like some jigsaws. Start him off with some Thomas ones to get him interested perhaps? My ds was mad on Thomas and still sometimes plays with his brio even now (ages almost 12).

We had a simple wooden Thomas fit the pieces in shape (actually I think we still have it somewhere). Then we had other wooden jogsaws (more hardwearing) and then he progressed to normal but easy jigsaws and then to more complicated ones.

wean him away gradually with a Thomas Aquadraw?

my ds who was mad on trains, now splits his time between them and his buzz and woody toys - you could get him into toy story for some variation?

What about an easel? You could get him some drawing/crafty things to do.

Duplo? You can get some Thomas sets

I am in the same situation. My ds will happily play with his thomas train track all day, everyday but I dont think its a bad thing really as we can get him extras to add on at xmas and birthdays and hes even asked for them this year again. I second the jigsaw idea as ds's key worker said hes great at them (which I think is because he likes putting tracks together) and we've recently got him some orchard ones which he loves.

This xmas we've got ds lots of duplo as its still building etc and we thought it was something else he could enjoy :)

Also we've noticed recently that the thomas stories we've been reading to ds hes been copying what happens on his train tracks its so cute so how about some train books I know it doesnt really help get them away from trains but Im sure he'd love them :)

Thanks for all the suggestions!

We already have Thomas jigsaws, many many Thomas books (which TBH I hate reading, most of them aren't that well written), Thomas talking books, you name it really.

We do also have Mega Blocks, which he plays with when he wants another tunnel or something...

Like the idea of more jigsaws, and may bite the bullet and get something like a Playmobil set (farm or similar) just to ring the changes a bit. But perhaps a set with a train might be safest, just to ease him into a brave new non-Brio world

I found these interesting site which all have great ideas
www.squidoo.com/Best-Christmas-Gifts-For-Boys
www.squidoo.com/Ben10Supplies
www.squidoo.com/ShopSuperWhy
Hope this helps!

God, I'd be delighted if my 3 yr old would play like that - with anything but especially his Brio which he largely ignores!

I'd agree with the Duplo and Playmobil suggestions, as both are brilliant. My ds also loves small plastic animals - Schleich are the best ones and we are building a collection as we get 20% off them in the zoo shop with our membership!

What about a remote controlled car? We are giving ds a Morphibian (you can get them in ELC) which is supposed to go through mud and puddles etc.

Or playdough? You can get a fab bucket from ELC with loads of different cutters, rollers etc.

Otherwise I'd say keep feeding that Brio obsession - it sounds like you're on to a winner!

a ride-on thomas?

or does he already have one?
a thomas spinning top

this xmas mine have a bath squirty toy in train form...

why does it matter, as long as he's happy?

Why do you want him to play with something else if he's content, leave him!

It's not like he's sat in front of a computer all day is it? He's using imagination, and moving bits around, making the track etc... I have to struggle to get mine off the 'intendo'.

I have found that mine will do drawing/ playdoh etc if I theme it to star wars, so I print off some colouring/ read star wars books/ make all the play doh into jedi coloured sludge..

Leave him to it. My DS was/is exactly the same. Loved his Thomas track more than anything and played with pretty much just that.

Now he loves his track, but plays with lego and marble runs and loves to make "inventions". I am sure this has all stemmed from being able to put together a simple track system at a very young age. I'd rather he plays with that than on the wii.

I think one of the reasons why Thomas stuff is so popular is because it allows them to combine construction and imaginative play in one go. So he is probably developing a lot of skills even though he seems to only be playing with one thing.

My sons both loved Thomas too. Ah! Happy memories (now 15 and 13)!

If you want to branch out a bit, they also loved anything to do with dinosaurs at that age and there is loads of dinosaur related stuff out there. The "Harry and his bucket of dinosaurs" books were lovely and I think they make toys to go with them now.

HTH

Thomas Duplo was the alternative for my Thomas mad ds.

I feel a bit mean now! I don't have a problem with DS being very happy playing with his railway, I just have that twitchy guilt thing that I'm basically leaving him to play with one thing and not encouraging him to do anything else.

The themed colouring and craft is a good idea, and he does quite like dinosaurs so there might be some mileage in that, as well.

Little plastic animals are good and could go with the track. He might like something you collect or something linked to a tv series.

Also Duplo and Playmobil.

Why do you feel the need to? ds was like this (I have had more than my moneys worth out of the wooden track). They grow out of it and move on...I see no need to force them

My son loved his Thomas brio along with his train lego, playmobile, later his thomas hornby along with his Thomas books, pyjamas, dvds, story tapes, clothes, bedroom accessorises - you get the picture

At 3 he also loved his garage and car mat with all his cars - same concept as the trains but a bit of variety

He also liked his farm where he could build all the buildings and sort out all the animals

At nursery loved the dolls house to organise all the small people and furniture

However I too loved the trains because of the hours of peace and quiet it gave me

What about duplo trains? It's still trains so going to be a hit, but also has the building element in it... All of mine love our Thomas duplo set - we have tonnes of duplo though so they don't just play with the train.

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about him liking to spend hours doing trains. My nephew learn all his colours and numbers really early through thomas. He used to call blue 1 for ages!! Maybe try playing with him for a bit to expand his imagination play (still with the trains though)

Something that goes alongside the trains maybe, like that road-layout rug, then he could move on to road traffic (and awarenness) and people play, my ds used to love building train station with platform and people, later there was a ticket office.
I recall he/we even built "Tower bridge" with lifting action (although he must have been about 5-6 then).