Tot-book (Freight Train)

Freight Train by Donald Crews is a classic concept book about a black steam engine and its colourful train of railway cars, moving through tunnels, going by cities, crossing trestles in darkness and daylight and finally gone from sight. From reading this book to Sophie and doing a tot-book with her, I learnt about the "anatomy" of a freight train. And I encourage anyone who loves trains to read the links I have provided.

I learnt about tot-book from Tot School and decided to try it out with Sophie using Freight Train. It is what some people call “book-based” learning. Even though I scaled it down to only ONE little booklet, it took me 2 days to prepare the materials and 1 full day (with Sophie) to complete it. Next time I would choose a more popular theme like Thomas and His Friends (templates available).

We started colouring the cars before Sophie's nap in the morning. At first, she was quite attentive and enthusiastic so I let do it in her playroom without strapping her to the highchair. I was glad that she did not run amok with the crayon... Phew!

yellow hopper car



red caboose

green cattle car

Sophie was clearly quite "done" with colouring by the third car (green). She started walking around more although she still held on to the crayon and the piece of drawing. I decided that we should stop and continue later, maybe after lunch she would be better. I was wrong... she was so restless that I had to put her in her highchair again. It does not help when Ah Gong kept distracting her... So, the last few cars were not done well enough and I had to keep bugging her to colour more.

orange tank car



blue gondola car



purple box car



black tender



I finished the rest of the work for Sophie, mainly cutting and pasting the pictures onto index cards and doing some touch-ups here and there. I think the end product looks pretty decent and Sophie seems to like it too. Maybe I ought to make a set of matching game cards as well... if I am not too tired.

I did my own template and kept a digital copy but I am not so sure about copyright issues so I guess it is still best if you try to customise your own template for personal use.