Another Thomas Question re: creativity vs. reenactment

[new_mom_mry]

When you and your younger-ish toddler (mine is a little under 2) play with Thomas trains, sets, etc. do you try to reenact various Thomas stories from books/DVDs or do you make up your own ways to play, hence not really needing to know the story lines?? It's just a lot of the trains, props, sets are so specific to various Thomas stories, that I started wondering what others do...i.e., if you buy a specific train that's part of a specific Thomas story, but your LO has not been exposed to that story, do you also buy the DVD or expose him to the story somehow else? Sorry if this is an odd question!

[lizzywednesday]

I noticed the same thing but ... honestly, I don't think you have to worry about the exact scenario.

Your DC will play with the trains however your DC will play with the trains.

My DD has only seen a handful of Thomas episodes; she is very excited about the fact that they're trains, but it wouldn't occur to me to "encourage" her to play with her trains in any other way than the way she does.

She's only recently learned how to assemble the track pieces; I'd really be surprised if she had any idea that the show or stories were something she could also play at.

[wellyes]

I don't generally buy "playsets" designed to mimic a specific story, but when my kids play with that stuff, they always make their own stuff up. They do get to know the characters and refer to the trains by name (Percy, James, etc). But they don't stick to the rules of the tv show. It's not all about learning lessons in diligence from the cross Sir Topham Hatt.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Your DC will play with the trains however your DC will play with the trains.

And also to what wellyes said, about it not all being about lessons re: a cross Sir Topham Hatt (LOL!) My 2.5 yo DS became obsessed with Thomas and the characters around 17 months I believe, but he never really watched the show until he was over 2yo. Even now, he doesn't watch the show that often...maybe once a week, and it's usually the same 2-3 episodes that have been TiVoed. Many episodes (especially the old school ones that are not animated, and often show the trains with grumpy faces) tend to scare him still so he doesn't watch them at all. We read the books much more often (every night usually), and he is more interested in those and the storylines from those. So yeah, we don't encourage him to reenact stories but he does sometimes do it on his own.

My DS loves Thomas trains i think bc the trains have faces and names, and because he loves building tracks and setups....not because he's seen them on TV. IMO i don't think a child needs to know the story behind the characters to enjoy them

and IMO is a general summary of every Thomas episode (they are very similar): It was a beautiful day on the Island of Sodor. Sir Topham Hatt tells Thomas he must go to Knapford (or whatever) station right away to do some task. Thomas thinks he has a better idea ("suddenly an idea flies into Thomas's funnel!") and he doesn't listen to Sir Topham hatt's instructions and does something else. Then, something bad happens due to THomas screwing up and "Sir Topham was very cross!" and "Thomas felt terrible." Then Thomas fixes something or makes up for it, and then happy ending, show ends. LOL

[new_mom_mry]

Thanks everyone. This is helpful. I am a total Thomas novice. We don't yet own any Thomas books, but I will look into them. Ms Pacman, if you have any recommendations, that would be great! I think I only started wondering about this because when I look at Thomas products (e.g., sets/destinations) online, there is always some sort of a story in the product description with names, places and specific storyline descriptions. That got me wondering that I am clueless right now about all these stories since we only own one Thomas DVD (DS loves the theme song and made up a special dance to go with it I would prefer that DS exercise his own creativity, etc., but it does help me to be familiar with train names, etc. because at this age, he still wants me to play with him versus playing with them on his own.

[Momit]

DS was into his wooden trains way before he saw a Thomas movie. He just plays with the trains and honestly I don't think he's ever tried to recreate a storyline from one of the DVDs. They seem to be separate in his mind somehow.

If your DS loves the theme song you have to get the musical caboose, which plays the song.

And to add to Ms. Pacman's very accurate summary - the best episodes (in DS's mind anyway) are ones where one of the engines crashes into something (snow! jelly! cocoa powder!) and makes a mess.

[edurnemk]

No, we never followed a specific story line, DS would sometimes reenact episodes from Thomas but mostly made up his own stories. We don't have any sets though, we have a train table and tracks from Imaginarium and a TON of Thomas trains. I'd just let DC play freely, you don't have to give them a story line or feel as though they should follow a specific story. Free play helps them exercise creativity IMO. DS also played a lot on his own with his trains, not always with me.