Author: Gauri Kshirsagar
As it is, a trip requires a lot of planning, so additionally travelling with a toddler requires that the toddler doesn’t get bored and has lot many things to occupy his/her time. Guess what? It doesn’t have to be painful. A little planning and prep can go a long way in making the journey as enjoyable for your little one as the destination. Providing Screen-Free alternatives for kids is one thing that I love to do, and while we totally bust out the phone/tablet for a movie on a long flight or road trip, I like to have lots of other technology-free ways to entertain the kiddos. The following is a simple collection of cost efficient trinkets which I usually collect for my 3 year old twins. Most of my travel consist of air travel to my native home and takes about 1.5 hours in-flight and another hour at the airport. Hence you can decide on how long is your travel and can add some more stuff, for example if you are travelling by road it’s a good idea to burn a CD with their favorite songs and some books by their favorite author.
Some of the points to keep in mind before making a activity kit:
- Noise free toys: For the benefit of fellow travelers, try to avoid things like whistles, horns, musical toys etc
- Add new stuff: When putting together your travel activity kit, think outside the box! Throw in a few items or activities that are new to your child (like pipe cleaners that can be sorted by color or bent into animal shapes). The point is to create interest in the kids, so if you give them toys which have been already played with, they will have lesser interest.
- Non messy toys: Try to avoid messy toys like water colors, liquid paints, toys with small pieces, puzzles etc., which will add on work of cleaning or finding the missing parts.
- Same set toys for siblings: If your kids are more inclined not to share toys, its more advisable to get two sets of each toys.
- Packing is very important; it should be very attractive and interesting. You can even wrap each toy separately if you have the time, unwrapping in itself is lot of fun.
- If you’re taking a plane to get to your final destination, you’ll probably be focused on packing as light as possible. If it’s a road trip you are planning for, consider something that is easily accessible – something that can be put on the floor in front of your child or between two car seats.
As for now, the following is very simple activity kit, will add some more ideas in the future as and when my kids grow, have new interests and we can make longer travel plans 🙂
- Bright and attractive bag (I have used drawstring gift bag)
- Funky foldable goggles
- Stickers
- Soft ball with world map
- Crayons
- Stencils
- Mini sketch/coloring book
- Miniature aquatic animals
- Spinning top
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Raising Twins™ 