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hi! I am tavia & I have flown over 100 flights with my 2 kids! We’ve got loads of tips and experience on long flights and long roadtrips! If you’re looking for the best toddler activities on a plane or the best car activities for a toddler, you’re in the right place. There are many ways to entertain toddlers on a plane without putting them in front of an iPad, so I have tried and tested many of these travel activities for toddlers on my own kids. We've traveled with a toddler. Actually, we travel with TWO toddlers now. We consider ourselves master toddler entertainers. HA! But seriously, we have conquered toddler boredom time and time again. OH, and while we do love a good movie, we don’t always resort to screen time to entertain our two. We’ve compiled a list of the best toys for travel, the best books, and games that will entertain our toddlers while traveling around the world with them. How to keep a toddler busy on a plane should be the last thing you’re worried about when planning your next trip, we’ve done the testing for you! So, grab a few of these and head out the door! Check out my guide to the 100+ Best Road Trip Snacks ideas. Never have boring snacks when you travel again! 1) Dinosaur Pack
Get your regular sized pack HERE. Get your mini pack HERE. You can find dinosaurs of all sizes on Amazon, but the TWO we love the most are the Medium and Small sizes. The small ones are TEENY, so we recommend constant supervision with these. We normally bring 3-4 of each size and they fit nicely in the side pocket of our diaper bag or in our designated toy packing cube inside of the diaper bag. These toys are cheap, they entertain the kids for long periods of time AND they are so good to bring along to Airbnbs for entertaining toddlers through imaginative play! Let’s be honest, we will lose toys while traveling with toddlers and babies, and losing one of these will not cause a meltdown for me or the kids! My son brings this particular dinosaur on all of our travels - so now we have jurrasic park photos of 2) Tegu Magnetic Blocks
Get yours Tegu Blocks HERE! These Tegu blogs are the best toys to keep a toddler entertained on a plane! (or in a car!) These things are genius. Each blog has a magnet inside, so when you stack them together they stick! We have carried these on international flights, to countless Airbnbs and all over the United States. We have 2 sets and of all the places they have gone, we’ve only lost the travel bag — probably because it isn’t magnetic! Both kids love playing with these blocks. They stack them and watch them attract and repel each other. These blocks are small enough to add to the diaper bag too! Tegu Blocks are a family travel must have! 3) Melissa & Doug Water Wow BooksGet yours HERE.
Can we get a heck yea for mess-less coloring? And a second heck yea for reusable pages? Melissa & Doug have made just that. These books use water to change the color of their pages as your child colors. As they dry, the pages return to black and white. These books are genius the perfect way to entertain a toddler in the car or entertaining a toddler on a plane — mess-free & reusable! These Melissa & Doug water wow books are compact too, so it makes it easy to pack light with a toddler in tow! We have several of these books and have used them since our children were young toddlers all the way through elementary school! They really are great travel entertainment for kids! 4) Stacking Cups
Get yours HERE. It’s always the simplest toys that get the most attention, so stacking cups are one of the best things to keep toddlers entertained on a plane! (or in a car!) My kids have always loved cups. As a matter of fact, I used to ask for empty cups on airplanes just to entertain my kids. BUT, bringing a small set of stacking cups on your adventures is GENIUS. Here are a few ways your kids can get a ton of use from these cups:
So many ways to use these bad boys and definitely worth adding to the travel toy repertoire for entertaining toddlers in the car or on the plane. 5) Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker Book.
Get yours HERE! Toddlers LOVE stickers! Reusable stickers are a fantastic way to quietly entertain toddlers in the car for a long period of time. These books offer different scenes to apply and reapply for as long as their imaginations allow! If you’re considering putting together toddler busy bags for airplane travel or a long road trip with toddlers, these stickers will be a great addition! 6) Travel Train SetGet your Travel Train Set HERE. One of our followers suggested a train set to entertain a toddler while traveling. At first, I thought, “no way! That’s going to be too bulky to travel with!” BUT I did a little research. This train set is only 17.5 inches or 450mm in diameter. The average tray table on a plane is 16.5 inches. You may be able to squeeze it on! BUT the more I thought about it, I decided to include this set, and here’s why. You can bring the train and accessories onto a plane easily (without the track), but pack the track into your bag for use when you arrive. (Plus, you can easily buy extra tracks to expand the set when you are home.) For road trips or flights, this toy would actually be very fun for toddlers to have at where ever the destination is. ALSO - this train set would be AMAZING for train travel, especially if you sit at one of the quad seats with the large table! I have a feeling my kids are getting one of these for Christmas! 7) PlayDough Travel Set:Get yours HERE: Talk about a fun way to pass the time! PlayDough is not only amazing for helping develop fine motor skills, but it also engages little ones’ minds and creativity. This set comes with a convenient travel bag, containers of PlayDough, and all the basics to get started creating a masterpiece! This set is something I would bring along on trips for the time we spend in the hotel or Airbnb. It is a perfect way to pack light with a toddler but also brings great entertainment when traveling with a toddler. PRO TIP: If you’re worried about leaving a mess on a tray table or Airbnb Coffee Table, you can get a reusable silicone table mat HERE or disposable ones HERE. 8) Felt Play BooksGet yours HERE! This super quiet felt book is great for entertaining toddlers on a flight by giving growing minds the chance to use their imaginations! Your child can place farm animals around the farm! They will get the chance to see each animal and see where it fits on the farm. This book is very easy to pack, provides some quiet entertainment, and encourages learning! These types of books were perfect when I was traveling with a baby and toddler. I could help move animals around with the toddler and the baby would be engaged with the colorful photos! 9) Melissa & Doug Water Reveal Activity Cards
Get yours HERE: Much like the Water Wow coloring books, these splash cards use a water pen and the cards are reusable. Each card features a letter of the alphabet, with upper- and lowercase letters to trace and a magic-reveal animal picture to illustrate the letter sound. Not only will your child love to color, but also be exposed to the alphabet! 10) Gel Window ClingsGet your gel window clings HERE or pick some up from your local Target Dollar Spot. Before we fly we pick up several packs of gel window clings. The kids go nuts for these on the airplane. They can stick them to the window, peel them off, stick them again. Or in my son’s case — rip the clings to shreds. We always pick ours up from the Target Dollar Spot for $1 a pack. Since each pack is cheap, I don’t mind tossing the pack after each flight. We flew in early december from san fran to washington dc and my kids loved these santa window clings! I love to buy the seasonal ones! 11) Keep Em’ Quiet Travel Packs
Get yours HERE! Use code: social for 10% off your purchase! Keep Em’ Quiet Travel Packs are pre-packaged bags of entertainment for your little ones. You can choose between a girl or boy bags AND you can choose which age range. (1-3, 3-5, or 5-10 years) This means your kid is going to get age-appropriate toys and entertainment to last the duration of your trip! These bags are an absolutely perfect (and easy) way to keep your child entertained and busy without using screen time! Bags include “toys, activities, crafts, educational items, books, learning activity workbooks, puzzles, games, collectibles, healthy snacks & more - all crammed into our bespoke child-friendly rucksacks that kids love to wear!” 12) Leslie Patricelli Board BooksGet yours HERE: While a book is not necessarily a toy, they are great for entertaining a toddler on a flight or entertaining toddlers in the car. We have almost every book Leslie Patricelli has written for kids. Both of our toddlers are obsessed with these books. We have at least 150 kids’ books in our house, but somehow these are the ONLY books our kids constantly ask us to read. They are obsessed with the stories and the illustrations. Each book has a fun story or lesson. Often our kids want to “read” these books by themselves. I highly recommend adding a few of these books to your toddler travel entertainment collection!
13) Color Wonder Stow & Go
Get yours HERE! This is for all the toddlers out there who love to color & draw! This kit may be a tad bulky for plane travel, but if you have a large bag it could work! However, for a long car ride, this kit is amazing. It comes with a coloring book & 4 mess free markers. What makes this particular set so toddler friendly is that the markers only color on the special color wonder paper! This means if your child goes rogue and starts coloring all over their carseat or on the airplane tray — no harm is done! I love that this set is self contained. You can buy additional blank pages for free coloring or other color wonder coloring books to stash inside the kit! 14) Clip Connect
Get yours HERE! We haven’t used these personally, but they come highly recommended. (I am thinking Santa may bring a bag of these to our house) - Link together pieces while improving independent play, hand-eye coordination, spatial skills, and dexterity. Great for sensory development, occupational therapy, and autistic individuals. Comes with a reusable travel bag & 100 pieces. This means if you lose a couple along your travels, no sweat! It also means you can pack 10-20 pieces instead of all of them to help you pack light with a toddler in tow. 15) KindleGet yours HERE: I would be kidding myself if I tried to pretend our kids never watch movies or play electronic games when we travel. I absolutely love that it’s indestructible and if they break it, it gets replaced. You can load movies, games, or apps onto it. You do not need the internet to access your stuff either. Easy-to-use parental controls allow parents to personalize screen time limits, set educational goals, filter age-appropriate content and also manage web browsing and content usage. There are so many ideas for entertaining toddlers while traveling, but these are some of the best tried and true things we’ve found. What I love about all of the toddler activities listed above is that they are also some of the best toys to keep toddler busy at home too! This means you can pack them for the flight and use them at the hotel! As always, we love your feedback!! What are your go to Toddler Entertainment ideas for travel? DON'T FORGET! If you buy one of these awesome toddler entertainers, be sure to tag Big Brave Nomad in your Instagram Stories & Post or on Facebook so we can see your kids staying busy! Having a baby? Register for these awesome travel products PLUS get a completion discount! Your family and friends will thank you for making it a one-stop shop! (AND if your family has Amazon Prime, they won't have to foot the bill for expensive shipping, which means more money to spend on your new baby!) AMAZON AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: There are links on this site that can be defined as “affiliate links”. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you subscribe or purchase something through the links provided. Big Brave Nomad is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. How do you entertain a one year old on a long flight?12+ Easy ways to entertain a 1 year old on a plane. Tips for Flying with a Lap Toddler.. Box of Tissues.. Get Real Toys.. An Empty Container with Bottle Caps.. 1 year old travel activities.. Post-Its.. Window clings.. Water cup and Napkin.. Is it hard to fly with a 1 year old?Having flown with babies and toddlers, I can say without a doubt the age between 12 months to 18 months is the most difficult. Flying with a toddler takes patience and setting the right expectations.
Where should a 1 year old sit on a plane?The back of the plane, where many young families like to sit. I personally prefer to sit up front as it's easier to get on/off the aircraft with carry-on luggage and the front seats may come with extra legroom.
What do I need for a 1 year old on a plane?The Essential Packing Checklist for Flying with an Infant. Diapers: In your carry-on, you'll need one for each hour of transit, plus extras. ... . Diaper cream.. Changing pad.. Baby wipes for diaper changes and messes.. Sanitizing wipes for cleaning tray tables and other surfaces.. Plastic bags for wet or dirty clothes and diapers.. |
How do I keep my 1 year old busy on a long flight?
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