Entertaining Children on a Flight
A lot of what we shared in this post still applies, but here are a few new tricks I’m applying for our upcoming 5 hour flight to Hawaii.
This cute pack of re-usable lacing cards
Mudpuppy magnetic dress-up box
Beautiful sea-creature Go Fish game
Water Wow’s never fail to entertain for long stretches
Model magic is a great alternative to playdoh, and the texture is not as messy for being on a plane or in the car
Our 4-year-old has been loving these Paint By Sticker books that increase with complexity
We also love this Spot the Difference Book for most ages
A few other essentials….
A pack of water wipes to clean anything and everything! Body parts, table trays, etc.
Downloaded audio books to listen to on the Libby app. Our girls love Fancy Nancy, Penny and King and Kayla books. In which case, you will need some child headphones.
Or tune them in to our Spotify Playlist for kids.
Pack some new books they’ve never seen.
An offering of small snacks throughout the trip.
Small notepad and pencils for drawing.
The lovely, Jennifer Shoop swears by these Polly Pocket sets for her daughter.
A few things to note:
Space out the time you share the activities. Let them use one and get bored for a little while before quickly taking something else out. They will also be inclined to absorb and observe their surroundings, allow them some quiet/dead time before trying to quickly entertain with the next thing.
Before taking any trip or family vacation, I usually advise parents not to talk about the trip with their children until a few days before. Prior to the age of 6, time is an abstract concept for young ones and it won’t be clear to them when the trip is happening (right now? today? tomorrow?). It is helpful to have a calendar as a visual or even just wait to tell them about it the day before. That way, they can be involved with packing and preparations in a timeline that will make sense for them.
