Hello all - we are taking a combination plane and road trip next week with my 16 month old son. I know all the basics about flying with a toddler... But I am looking for specific ideas for things he could do while riding in the car or on the plane. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! (We got him his own seat so we should both have our hands free if that helps...thanks!)
Besides the usual dvd/crayons/etc suggestion, we found that looking through magazines in general and SkyMall in particular entertained our kid. We looked for stuff in the SkyMall (like, "Can you find the dog?")
In the car, we let him play with little toys (just be ready to have to pick them up all the time), books, etc. We also had a mini aquadoodle
coloring books, I spy books, flash cards with the alphabet, numbers, shapes. doodle pad
Just don't fall into the trap of getting movies on a dvd player and letting him watch them all trip long (even Baby Einstein is mezmorizing which is not a good thing). Socialize with him. Sing songs or play kid cd's that will get him moving to the beat. I know this is tiring, but you do not want to rely on the media to entertain your child. Good luck and enjoy him.
STICKERS! I usually pick up a few packages of stickers at Target and my son will spend hour sticking and resticking them to the tray table on the airplane.
We just returned yesterday from a plane trip with our 15-month-old. I had asked the same question on here and got some great ideas... some things that were the best for my son were a mini slinky (by far the thing that kept him entertained for the longest stretches of time), snacks and drinks. I had a bunch of other small toys that I think were good ideas, but didn't last him very long- but I think it all depends on your son. Other things I had were stickers, crayons, post-it notes, mini etch-a-sketch, matchbox cars, mini playdoh. Oh, I also gift-wrapped everything so it would take some extra time and seem exciting. I was all set with our portable DVD player, but there were not outlets on the plane, even though we were told by the airline that there were... if you have one with an external battery pack, that would be great, too. In addition to toys, we also did lots of little games like 'this little piggy', 'pat-a-cake', 'where is thumbkin' and good old tickling :) Have a great time, and good luck!
hmmm... he's pretty young still. I think at that age we used a magnadoodle, but maybe he's still too little for that. Also, problem with little toys is that he will drop them a hundred times. Do you have a portable DVD player? That might be good for the plane...
