According to Special Days in August the 25th is the birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen, one of the best known toy train manufacturers of all time.  A couple of years ago, we made Cowen and toy trains a Special Day study. Below are the web links we followed as we learned.

Biography of Inventor Joshua Lionel Cowen  http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/cowen.htm#ON%20THE%20WEB:

Vintage films on Youtube

Inside Lionel’s Train Factory  Part 1

Inside Lionel’s Train Factory Part 2

Showroom Layouts, Part 1  –

Showroom Layouts,  Part 2  –

Play Interactive Train Games  http://www.trainarcade.com/

Read Train Stories, Play Train Games and Watch Train Videos  http://trc.trains.com/Trains%204%20Kids.aspx

Classic railroad songs playlist from the Smithsonian  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUSRfoOcUe4bjeu8QIfbrejTyT0hYVncE

And we couldn’t build an electric train, but had fun making a toy train out of recyclables!  This ended up as a bank.  Perhaps Z will start saving for a Lionel of his own?

Do you keep a timeline for your studies?  This “Timeline Add-on : Toys” is currently on sale for only $ 0.22!  http://www.currclick.com/product/36820/Timeline-AddOns-Toys?term=toys+timeline&test_epoch=0&it=1

This was one of several history studies that the kids deemed “Not Boring”!

betty jo