"The Railway Children" Book Discussion

For one of our homeschool co-ops that we became a part of, we all took part in a children’s book club throughout the year. Every few months we would pick a different book, then have a meet-up afterwards which includes a discussion over any foods reminiscent of or mentioned in the story. We might also have some sort of craft and possibly games. Each family takes turns hosting, and when it was our turn I just couldn’t believe the book that had been chosen – for reasons that I am about to explain! See how we hosted “The Railway Children” Book Club Discussion.

“The Railway Children” by Edith Nesbit was our chosen book selection. The premise of the story is that three children who lived a very comfortable middle-class life move from London to a rough little cottage in the country that is near a railway, as their father is unexpectedly called away. It is a sweet story about kindness, friendship and bravery. We were about halfway through the book when a lightbulb went off as I considered how we would be the ones to host this discussion.

Our neighbor happens to be an avid train collector. He is a wealth of knowledge on the topic. I wondered if he would be interested in giving our homeschool group a tour of his collection. When we asked him, he was very excited to do it! This was going to be so special!

The Railway Children Book Club Food

One of the foods mentioned in the story was “cold apple pie for breakfast”, and the characters say that they prefer it to meat. My youngest daughter helped me make these easy mini GF almond flour apple tartlets.

The Railway Children book on table with apple pie tartlets

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Railway Children Book Club Train Tour

Our neighbor was SO very kind to invite us all over (a large group of us at that!) to tour some of his subway cars and cabooses that he collects. When we arrived he was wearing a conductor hat and gifted each child a baseball hat with his company’s logo named after a train that holds special meaning for him: “Daylight”. He told us the history behind each one of his trains, and taught us more about how they work and loads of interesting facts. He also let each child sit in the conductor’s seat and pull on some of the levers! What a cool and memorable experience for each one of these kids!

Kids were welcomed to ask as many questions as they liked and our neighbor so graciously let the kids explore and climb all around in his trains. After our tour he let them all take turns controlling his little model toy trains!

Kids sitting inside of an old subway car

Train conductor explaining things to children asking questions

Little girl stepping off of vintage train

“Girls are just as clever as boys, and don’t you forget it.” – Father (The Railway Children)

Railway Children Book Discussion Table Decor

I decided to host this book discussion in our barn. To fit our locomotive theme, I purchased this train track table runner. I placed our book on display with some faux flowers as the centerpiece. Next, I printed out some different train coloring pages for each table setting. I chose silver plates to look like wheels on top of red napkins.

I ordered these cute train toppers for our little apple tartlets.