Better luck this time

So remember when I thought I was sooo clever and turned the train table into a car table?

Yeah, that did not work out as well as I had hoped. Yes, the boys did play with it a ton at first, but slowly it just became a toy collector.

So the other day I decided to try switching it back to a train table. James is very into trains now so maybe, just maybe this would work. And with the table full of trains, surely it could not collect junk?

It is a moderate success! I got out the enormous Ziploc bag of train parts and put it together one afternoon when the boys were with the Walls. I followed the instructions and all the parts lined up perfectly, with the exception of the two bridges. There is only supposed to be one, but we have two so I had to get a bit creative with those tracks.

Anyway, Zach really liked it. He was excited when it saw it as was James. And I moved all the junk to three boxes hanging on the wall behind the table that are from Ikea.

I say it was a moderate success as it is starting to collect some junk again. But the bigger issue is my baby. He really likes to break apart the tracks and throw them on the ground. He loves the trains and wants to drive them...but he has thrown the tracks on the ground and can't drive on them which makes him mad. So he throws more tracks on the ground. You see where I am going with this....

I think the moral is that I have to keep mixing it up. I am going to take 10 minutes and put it all back together so they can play with it for 10 more minutes. Then in a few months when they are both over it I will switch it back to the car track. I will pull out the house with the people and so the cycle will continue.

I am thinking about screwing the track in place and/or gluing the track together so there would be no throwing of the track. Does anyone have thoughts on that? Good idea, bad idea? I am torn. I don't want to stifle creativity but having to put the track back together constantly gets a bit old. Plus the thought of a perfectly lined up track makes me entirely too excited.