Nilo train table questions/activity table?

[marchmommy]

Hi--I'm wondering if anyone out there with a train table can advise me! I have an almost 18-month old who loves trains--he played with a train table at the toy store (very nice, or unobservant owner) for an hour and a half today. It was a Nilo table with a Thomas play board, with all Thomas trains and tracks. I like that the Nilo table is a multi-use table, but for those of you who have a Nilo table, do you ever take the trains off the table or is this a pain, and so you end up just using the table for trains (and not for Lego or arts and crafts etc). The Nilo seems like a great table, but I'm wondering if we'd/he'd be better off with a table just dedicated to trains, and then another table dedicated to say Lego, and then maybe another little cute table to do arts and crafts on, ie a table with chairs--because I think the Nilo table doesn't come with chairs, you're supposed to stand around it, right??????

[mattysmom]

I don't have the answer to all of your questions, but I can tell you that I just bought the Nilo table for my 18-month-old and LOVE it! (And he loves it too!) We don't even have any train tracks yet, but he plays with his LP cars and trucks and some other larger trains and he is TOTALLY happy! I love that he can stand around it rather than sit on the floor like some of the lower tables require. Now I want to get the storage bins for underneath too. And, I was at one of my friend's homes and she has the same table and her boys are now 3 1/2 and 5 and they still love it too!

My guess is that I still might get a small table/chair set to keep in the kitchen for eating, small art projects, etc.

[LBW]

We bought one a couple of months ago and love it. My son isn't two yet, and we don't have a huge collection of trains. So, it's pretty easy to break down the track and use the table for something else. We've used it for his Little People sets, play doh, and other toy activities. I plan on using it for Legos once he's old enough. I'm probably going to get the Nilo bench or storage units eventually so that we can put the trains away -- right now I have a Martha Stewart tackle box that I got at KMart. It holds a lot of his track and trains. You know, half the fun is putting them away and taking them out.

We do have a couple of inexensive Ikea tables and a chair that he uses for drawing and painting. I think that the edge of the Nilo table would make it hard to use for those kinds of activites. So, I think your idea of a seperate arts and crafts table is a good one.

[marchmommy]

which size table did you both get???

[LBW]

We got the multi activity table.
http://www.creativetrains.com/nilmultab.html