If you’re traveling with children, it’s always a good idea to have a few ways to entertain them on the flight and in the airport. If not, your children may end up making your travel experience a nightmare with their questions and whining about how much time is left until you get there. The following are the best ways to keep your children occupied and your sanity intact.
Magnetic-Board Games
Magnetic-board games fit perfectly in a carry-on and will sit nicely on the airplane trays. You can purchase classic board games such as chess, checkers, tic-tac-toe and Chutes and Ladders. Since all the pieces are magnetized, they stay on the board, which means minimal clean up and no lost pieces.
Activity Books
Before you leave for your trip, visit the bookstore to pick up activity books. These books contain puzzles and coloring pages your children can keep busy with for hours. It’s best to purchase one for each of your children because sharing doesn’t go over so well with these types of books.
Reading Books
If your children enjoy reading, why not purchase some reading material to keep them occupied? For older children, chapter books are the best type because it will take them more time to read the entire book. If you haveyounger children, picture books will work just as well to keep their questions at bay. Instead of buying hard-copy books, you could buy an e-reader and download e-books for your children; however, you can’t download them on the flight, so be sure to download them while at the airport waiting for your flight.
DVD Player and Movies
Since movies last for at least an hour and a half, be sure to bring a few movies and a DVD player for your children. They will be thrilled to watch movies on the plane and you’ll have a moment of peace for at least a few hours. You could also bring a tablet if you don’t own a portable DVD player. Check iTunes if you have an iPad or iPod or check the Android store if you have an Android-operating system to download movies.
Gaming System and Games
Children love to play video games. Bring along their portable gaming system and their favorite games to keep them thoroughly entertained. It’s also a good idea to buy a couple new ones for them to start playing.
Crafts
If you’re going to be up in the air for a while, why not teach your children some new crafts? While you can’t bring large craft projects, you can bring the supplies to make smaller items such as bracelets, necklaces and rings. You can also bring yarn to crochet or knit small items.
Travel Games
Children love playing travel games with their parents. Play the alphabet game with your children by starting with the letter “A” and having everyone think of one word that starts with that letter. Going through the entire alphabet will take up a lot of time. You can also play I-Spy. Start by saying, “I spy with my little eye…” and then name a color of an object you see. The object of the game is to have the children identify what you are spying. Have each child take turns spying something to really pass the time.
Educational Flash Cards
You could also use travel time to teach your children something valuable. Bring a few different packs of flashcards to quiz them on different subjects. You can usually find math, word and spelling flashcards at the airport shops. Travel time doesn’t have to be a bore for you or your children. If you bring along classic board games, video games, books, movies, crafts, flash cards or play classic travel games such as the alphabet game or I-Spy, the time will pass more quickly and be entertaining at the same time. By having many different options, your children will have no trouble occupying themselves for hours.
Image from Flickr’s Creative Commons
About the Author: Stacy Fogwood is a mother of three who relies on cheap airline tickets because she often travels overseas to visit her parents. She always brings plenty of options for entertainment for her children on long flights.
Great ideas! Traveling with kids is not easy, but these tips will help
Love these tips! We also found taking our son’s carseat on the plane kept him from wanting to run around. We made it seem like he was in a car and had to be seated at all times. It worked like a charm and he even napped!
These are all great ideas! I really like the idea of crafts on longer trips. My girls would really enjoy that. I also like the idea of magnetic board games. I have seen where some people make personalized activity books for their children where they print coloring pages of their favorite characters online and include blank pages, stickers, etc. and put them into a personalized binder.
It’s always so stressful, isn’t it? I remember those days well. But with some of the suggestions you have and some common sense, it can be a success.
Great tips! We go on a lot of road trips in the summer and just got our girls some Leap Pads for Christmas to give us another option while we’re going on those trips!
These are wonderful tips! We usually use books and DVDs to entertain in the car.
Great ideas! It’s always hard for children to sit still for a long period of time. We always take long road trips in the summer and found that books,dvd’s and a good old fashion sing along really helps.
Reading books never seem to work when I have my nephews but all the others do
thanks for sharing great tips 🙂
now she looks comfy and set for the trip! Traveling is hard with little children, but with some help with electronics etc it can be much easier!
Great ideas!
My mom always created the best travel boxes for my sister and I. She would fill up a shoebox with crayons stickers, coloring pages, crosswords. This was back in the 80’s
DVD player/ipad is a big hit in our car
xo
thanks for the great ideas. i do some of them, but it is always nice to mix it up.
We are considering a coast to coast flight (WA -> NY) to visit my family with a 2yr old and an 8mth old. Thanks for the ideas.
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a
coworker who had been doing a little homework on this.
And he in fact bought me lunch because I found it for him…
lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
But yeah, thanx for spending time to talk about this issue here on your web page.