Here’s something that was recently posted on a mailing group I belong to.  As a group we travel a lot and as a fair amount of us have little kids it was really handy link!

And as I will be doing a 28 hour travel-a-thon in just under 6 weeks I am more than eager to see what I can do to make it as easy as possible.

Another great little travel secret for the little ones is the Trunki – a ride on suitcase for kids.  I’m often wheeling bubba boy thru airports on the back of my backpack with wheels, but this seems far more safe and fun for him – so of course we went ahead and forked about the $70 odd dollars for one.  Ouch, but reviews from those on my mailing group are very positive – and come on people 28 hours I think I’d pay in body organs just to keep him happy for some of the trip. (I can’t sleep on planes so it’s gunna be a LONG day!)

Anyway after those great tips I decided to look for more…

And I couldn’t find much together in any one place (and what I did find basically said get a DVD player) – so here’s a summary of the good stuff:

1. Lacing Cardboard – wrap the end of some colourful string or wool with some tape, punch some holes in some cardboard and let them have it.
2. Nuts and Bolts (the toy variety) to sort and assemble.
3. The old school paper doll and their paper clothes.
4. Fill a bag with cotton balls or shredded paper and add a few surprises (make sure they can all pass airport security – it wont be fun fishing in the bag at the security counter).
5. Coloured yarn and a piece of sandpaper – the yarn wil stick to the sandpaper and they can “draw” without you having to worry about the plane’s interior.
6. Stickers – take a page out of the sticker books and use a picture rather than a blank page for them to stick their stickers on.
7. Fishing – cut fish shapes out of paper,  put a paperclip on each, tie a small magnet on string to some sort of small ‘pole’ and chuck the fish on the floor (just in front of your seat – not in the isle or all over the plane).  Let them fish from their seat.
8. A line with pegs for each increment of travel (hours?) take a peg off each time – they can see it going by.
9. If your kids can be trusted with felt pens – cooking paper – the pens rub off so they can start again. Or just get a etch-a-sketch.
10. Baby wipes – give their dolls a wash on this long flight.
11. For the pre-reader a chart with the alphabet on it – and some letters  (same size) they can put the toy A on the A on the chart and so on – also do a numbers chart or a shapes chart.
12. with chasing cheerios there are finger puppets, but don’t forget hand puppets too, or even the homemade sock with googly eyes!
13. A mirror.
14. Apparently there are ‘colourwonder’ markers that only draw on special paper if they are really into their colouring and cant be trusted to not colour the whole plane, might be worth the money. They’re from Crayola.
15. Try the party favour isle and see what little bags and toys they have, usually inexpensive and small.
16. If you have a stopover – how about a beach ball or other blow-up toys.
17. photo album of the place you are going – or maybe of family members at home.
18. look for some little books, or even bath books to take along.
19. Character bandaids, bubba boy loves to stick them to himself  – I can get a pack of 10 or so at the 100yen store.
20. Smalls cars and a predrawn track on a piece of paper.  If you can make the paper the same size as the seat tray.  or bring the paper and pens and draw the track to fit the tray, include crazy and fun things, like your house and Disneyland…maybe something from where you are going and a few animals.

Some tips to make these bags better.

• make sure you have some new toys (some people suggest making all the bags a surprise so it adds to the fun).
• Don’t forget you can wrap some or all of the items to make them more fun that way too.

I’m thinking about taking photos of the ones we will need to make as the Chasing Cheerios page is very nice to look at.  So check back – I may post photos.

Also feel free to add any ideas of your own, there really isn’t much out there without wading thru so many pages of “pack some small toys”.  Anything to help us travel easier with the little ones right?