The Letter Express
The Letter Express is a learning toy that allows for fun play while encouraging a child to learn simple words by sight
Impetus/Inspiration
The idea of the toy came from the parameters of something that could not only be fun to play with and could teach the child some basic skills but could also expand and grow as the child did. I picked a 2-5 age group. Initially, I came up with the idea of a centipede with a slot for a block to be placed.
The blocks would have letters on all sides, and depending on a letter selected (by a wheel, or a book) the child would match the “look’ of the word (four year olds can recognize up to 30 “sight” words) The idea would be a 2 or 3 year old would like to play with the blocks and pull the centipede, a 4 year old could assemble sight words with 4 blocks and the. help of an adult, and a 5 year old could spell out 4 and 5
Cad Design
Rather than traditional sketching, I “sketched” out the train in SolidWorks because I envisioned very basic stripped-down geometric shapes for the locomotive and its cars. This not only resulted in finished renders but infomed the physical building of the cars with wood
Handmade Construction
The construction required a lot of cutting shapes and then glueing layers on top of each other to achieve the shapes and cavities for the locomotice and the cars
The Locomotive
The locomotive required the most intricate woodwork, lots of glue, and cuts with the bandsaw. But locomotives are iconic, and it was vital to come up with a design and construction that captured the look perfectly
Painting the pieces
Painting the cars required a lot of masking and spray paint, and doing so in the wintertime also got help from the pellet stove to dry the pieces. Paint markers provided the perfect tool for the letters on the blocks, providing bright colors and bold strokes to convey letters clearly for young eyes.
Linking the train
Heavy-duty magnets were used to link the cars, rounded magnets that allowed for turns without losing their link.
All Aboard…
With the blocks, cars and locomotive all set, it’s time to try out our spelling with the train. 5 cars/letters or 4, the train rolls, links and spells great
