Since Christmas is coming soon, I've been thinking about toys, although I haven't been buying any yet.

My kids have gotten tons of mileage out of wooden train pieces. We don't buy the Brio or Thomas trains, because they're expensive. instead, we get the cheap brands that fit with those. Target always has some very cool pieces - like bridges or train stations - for $10 - $30. We have picked up huge sets of over 100 pieces for $20 at Mervyn's and Costco in the past. Take a look at the discount stores.

They're really great because you can keep adding on to them later. Lots of creativity and even some fun math concepts.

The other day my 6 year old son showed me how two curved pieces next to one another look like their different sizes. But the straight pieces don't do that. I think I didn't learn about that until high school geometry...