Traveling with a preschooler

Love Bug and I recently took a trip to Disney World with a friend and her daughter.

We flew there and I knew I'd have to keep her happy for our flight. Happily our flight there was a direct flight and we were only on the plane for a few hours. The trip home had a layover (which was delayed) and I was really glad we had a lot packed to do to keep her busy.

Love Bug is the youngest of eight...so after flying with a small fry a time or two I've learned a few things.  

Part of making travel with kids easier, especially young kids, is having lots of little things to do, and having them easy to get to. The other part is having enough to munch on- and keeping your cool.

Currently, you can have one carry-on item and one personal item (purse, small backpack, computer bag, etc) per person on most airlines. I pack a roller bag with my computer, dvd player, extra snacks and activities, a change of clothes for Love Bug (pajamas if it's an evening flight), and any items I need for myself. 

In a backpack, I have snacks, activities, head phones, etc. I put Love Bugs activities in a small bag which I place inside my backpack.  Before we board the plane, I pull the DVD player out of its case, put in the movie that we plan to watch, and put that in my backpack. We make sure anything we need to get to easily is in the backpack. Love Bug carries her own little backpack with some comfort items and a snack or two. Her backpack is really light, and has wheels on it so she isn't over burdened getting on and off the plane. 

When we get on the plane, we pull out the activity bag and put it under the seat in front of Love Bug's seat. We put the snack pack, and drinks in the seat pocket so they are ready to use. We also choose an activity to pull out that won't be a problem while the plane takes off (nothing that will "get away"). 

In preparation for the trips we have planned for the summer, I participated in a travel busy bag exchange. Busy bags are super popular right now...just google or pinterest "busy bags" or "activity bags" and you'll see tons of ideas!

We love busy bags, but I wanted some that were geared specifically for traveling with ease.

This is the bag we used this trip to put our activities in. It fit very well in my back pack and had enough space for lots of compact activities.

 Here is what was inside.

 A small magnetic whiteboard. This doubles as a drawing tool and a place to play with anything magnetic. I included Dry erase pens, erasers, and mini magnets. The board is only a few dollars at Walmart. 

 TIP: the pens that come with anything dry erase are usually not a very good quality and not only have high odor, but also don't erase well. We LOVE Expo dry erase pens. 





This alphabet board was used with Newman's Own ABC cookies and can also be used with other ABC cookies and crackers- such as Earth's Best Letter of the Day cookies. We printed it from here.
We also had a pouch with pipe cleaners- just for making fun things with and a pouch with Popsicle sticks that have velcro on them-- to make shapes, letters, etc. 

I printed coloring pages and had some crayons in a soap dish. I also made a "Woody's Round-up" game (we're are headed to Disney after all). I used a plastic plate found at the $ zone a Michael's to use as the "pasture",  and drew a fence on it.  I bought cube magnets at Staples and printed a picture of Woody riding Bullseye- which I laminated. Tape it to one cube, use the other on the bottom of the plate to move Woody and herd the white pom pom sheep around. 

More magnet fun. Nemo playset and a Robot Hang man game. Love Bug just played with the letters. 

The pouch on the left has a retractable measuring tape, calculator, water snake game and a few strips of bubble wrap. These are just fun to play with. The right pouch has scissors and paper. Lots of cutting went on!! Bring a ziploc to put the clippings in for easy clean up!

These are a princess memory game and then the green pouch has two collapsible cups, plastic tongs, mini pom poms and a little spoon. I included a paint pallet too. Love Bug poured the pom poms into the center of the paint pallet then used the tongs to move the pom poms around the pallet and into the cups.

Stickers are always a huge hit. We also love the play packs you can find pretty much anywhere now. They come with crayons and a small activity book and are less than a dollar. 

Lacing cards and beads. I printed and laminated Disney themed characters. Love Bug did this activity for a long time. 

Popsicle color matching game. Its made with felt and the sticks. One side has a color dot, the other side has the color spelled out. 

Peter pan and Wendy puzzle from here. I put magnets on the back of each piece to keep them from slipping around. 

In the same pouch were these cute Neverland clip cards from the same website. 

Pom Poms in action.

The sticker books had pages in the center to put the stickers on.

Using the cookie cards during our layover. :)

And our snack pack! We've used this lots of times. Its a simple craft container (like a tackle box) filled with little treats. Love Bug has her own buffet of treats and it makes it easier than having lots of little containers.

On the way up and down in a flight, it helps if your little one is chewing or sucking on something to help their ears with the pressure changes. Love Bug doesn't like drinking a lot- it can sometimes be a while getting up to altitude- and I found that sucking on other things works best. Love Bug enjoys these applesauce packs.

They did the trick and her ears were fine the whole trip.
My friend brought a package of wipes with her and they were something I missed having (now that we are past the diaper phase). So as she pointed out, wipes are great for lots of things. We used them for hands, spills on shirts, wiping off the trays, etc. Bring some diapers wipes along. Travel packs are perfect for that.

Hope your summer is filled with easy travels!!

Toddler on a plane - how to keep them entertained

The title of this post could have easily been changed to that of a popular movie title that struck fear and chaos into the hearts of passengers. Likewise, a toddler on a plane can and does cause parents to avoid travel all together until JR is a bit older, like on their way to college.

I had the ‘pleasure’ of traveling with my Love Bug (age 1.5) this week, and after my last traumatic experience with her in which she basically screamed/cried for 6 hours straight, I found myself wondering why I was glutton for punishment and putting myself through it all over again. But 7 months had passed and surly at 19 months, she could handle a plane ride again.

I scoured the Internet for new ideas and found a few tips that I hadn’t thought of or read before. After traveling countless times with seven other children over the years, the bag of tricks becomes pretty familiar.

I found some things that were helpful and thought I’d pass them along. I decided to do this in a series, so as not to have one gigantic post.

Part One- How to keep them entertained:

The "rule of thumb" for Toddler travel is pretty simple- lots of little activities, and lots of little snacks. The idea is to have enough short activities to add up to the length of your flight. Most activities can be stretched out with a bit of creative thinking, and most things can be repeated if you don't allow them to become too boring the first time around. Don't do all the really fun stuff first. You need to have some tricks for the end of the flight when the patience (on both parts) is long gone and there is still a bit of time left.

Snacks

Inspired by my bento box lunch craze:

 

I used a craft box with dividers (like a tackle box) and filled it with different snacks. It was absolutely fabulous. Love Bug had a blast nibbling on her little buffet and did so for almost the entire flight. She took them out and put them on her tray table, then sorted them back into the box. The crackers “walked” along the edge of the container, then hopped into her mouth. She placed fishes in my hand, and they would “disappear” until my hand opened back up and she would eat it quick. I liked that everything was separate so the Craisins which are moist didn’t slime up the yogurt space chips, etc. I folded a small piece of paper towel and put it under the grapes to catch juice and moisture. It was perfect. The flight attendants on every flight loved her “food tray” and I heard one of them telling another passenger traveling with little ones about it. The one warning: If your child is small like mine is, don’t let the container get too far away from you. We had a near tragedy on multiple occasions when she jerked it upward or pulled it away quickly. (ours was filled with goldfish pretzels, grapes, dehydrated strawberries & bananas, cheese crackers, chocolate and and graham cracker cookies, Craisins, and dehydrated yogurt)

We also used a large weekly pill keeper that has push button release to put extra special treats in, like yogos, dehydrated fruit, and fruit snacks. You could put small candy in it as well, but I was avoiding adding large quantities of sugar to the airplane experience.

In addition to my little snack trays, I had a few fruit snack packages, toddler fruit leather, and smarties (for emergencies near the end of the flight).

Activities

From this post I found a very original idea: Tape. Blue painters tape to be exact. Although I did try to find purple and green as well but ran out of time. Love Bug LOVED taking the pieces I tore off and sticking them to her shirt, her hands, the chair, the table, me, everything. She also loved unrolling it and trying to tear it. An older child would have this added experience, but her little hands weren’t strong enough. There is a book that is a tape book but I read comments that the tape was too hard for kids to tear, and why not just buy a roll?? Painters tape (a bit different than masking tape) doesn’t leave a sticky residue and it comes off super easy. We covered the DVD screen with tape and then pulled the pieces off one by one to see what was underneath. We covered the animals in her board book with tape. We used tape to make a road for her wheel pal toys to drive on. We covered pictures in the Skymall magazine with it. The possibilities are endless. Several passengers were very entertained watching her play with the tape, and were surprised at how long it held her interest. Who knew??

Retractable sewing measuring tape. Love Bug loves to play with it at home, so I thought it would be great on a plane- and it was! She pulled it out, measured something, and retracted: repeat 100 times.

Mini flashlight. Held her interest for a good 15 minutes each flight. I take what I can get.

Mini slinky. I bought a pack of party Slinky's. They were plastic and since she has had limited experience with slinky, it was a big hit.

Children’s bead necklaces. I picked some up from the dollar store. They look like Mardi Gras beads only they are actually meant for dress up. Love Bug put them on, took them off, put them in the seat pocket, snaked them around the chair, put them on her dolly, etc.

Disney Plug: Baby Einstein DVD’s. Love Bug just got some of these, unlike the rest of the gang at my house who were apparently deprived. She loves them! We watched Baby Neptune over and over. It was her favorite because she loves water. We talked about the fishes, the whales, the beach balls, etc. I would leave it going until she seemed board with it, then turn it off to save the battery. Then I would pull it out again later and it was all brand new to her! I'm sure whatever your little one is into will work too. What I liked about the movies I brought was that it allowed me to sit and discuss it with her, and it was really simple for her to understand since there is no storyline, which she's too young for.

 I found that she didn't need to have headphones on, because the volume turned up all the way on our DVD player was loud enough for her to hear, but didn't disrupt other passengers. She doesn't like headphones.

Digital Camera- Love Bug took pictures (turn the flash off so you don't disrupt those around you) and looked at pictures. She loved it!

Bubbles- I had leftover wedding bubbles, the tall slender containers. No problem with security. Love Bug was THRILLED that there were bubbles on the plane, and a few passengers were entertained as well.

New books. I had some mini board books I picked up at the $ store that she loved.

Buckle Bear- I saw a bear online at Amazon that has buckles attached. Love Bug LOVES buckles. I purchase an inexpensive bear and sewed my own ribbon and buckles on him. She had great time buckling and unbuckling her bear.

Craft items:

Pipe cleaners and pom poms were a hit with her as well. She loves bending pipe cleaners and pom poms disappear nicely into pockets, between seats, in hands, etc.

Ribbon on colorful beverage stirring wands. Lots of swirling goes on with these. Resist the temptation to add fun things like beads to the end of the ribbon. Its too close quarters for whips!

I also had some of her favorite toys with us. We brought her doll, wheel pals and a foam book that has a piece on each page you can take out like a puzzle.

I put the small items (wheel pals, necklaces, measuring tape, etc) in a lingerie bag to keep them in one place. Using more than one bag and separating items will allow you to pull out a bag now, and keep one new for later in the flight or your next leg.

Pulling out one item at a time helps keep things from getting too cluttered or rolling too far away, and picking a few items to have stashed in the seat pocket make it easy to get to something quick.

That was our entertainment!