Travel toys…what worked, what didn’t

I don’t know how many moms are reading this, but I felt like I should probably document what we brought to Japan to keep Catie entertained. Before our trip, I spent a lot of time trying to come up with new travel toys. I thought that writing this down may help someone else. I’ve rated our travel toys (purchased and homemade) based on how much entertainment they provided taking into account the weight and space they took up.

First, how we kept a 3-year old busy during a 13-hour flight…

Melissa & Doug box of puzzles: useful

We actually have 2 of these small sets of 4 puzzles (thanks, Katie!) and 1 large train set. Catie loves them! I love them too, since the box top tray allows for puzzle making in the car, plane, train, etc.

Sticky craft sticks: useful

Ok, lame name, but what do you call these things? I bought a pack of pre-colored craft sticks at Walmart and stuck Velcro dots to each end. The result is a set of building sticks you can use to make shapes or letters or just play with. It’s fun to watch how Catie uses her imagination to come up with new designs. My only regret is that I should have made more.

Coloring folder: very useful

Always a favorite for restaurants, this is a great way to entertain a kid on a plane. Fill it with crayons, markers, paper, and stickers.

I Pad: very useful

I know that you are supposed to limit your kid’s screen time to under 2 hours a day, but on a 13-hour flight, the sky’s the limit! I loaded the I-Pad up with TV shows (Sesame Street & Dora), Thomas movies, picture e-books from our library, and kid-friendly aps like Doodle Buddy, Amazing Shape Puzzles, Wheels on the Bus, and Letter School and let Catie go crazy. Andy’s extra charger gave us enough power to get through the flight and the train ride the next day. Awesome!!!

Quiet Book: somewhat useful

I worked hard to make Catie this quiet book for our trip to Spain last year. She still likes it, although I think she likes most of the other toys I’ve listed here even better. If I were to do this again, I’d simply make pellon (felt-like material) folders with different activities. The dress up doll, barn/garden, and mailbox pages are Catie’s favorites.

Silly kid card games: very useful

Over the summer I acquired 2 miraculous little games. The first is a set of Mickey Mouse color & shape cards from the dollar store. I did not have high hopes for these when I purchased them, but Catie loves playing with them! We started off by giving her 3 cards and having her match either the shape or the color as we “dealt” the rest of the deck. Now she likes to “deal” sometimes too. It’s literally provided hours of entertainment in all our travels this summer. The second game is a hot dog matching game we got free with a kids meal at A&W. It takes up zero space and is pretty entertaining. We just found a new Thomas matching card game at our local bookstore. The cards are plastic and it takes 2-3 cards to “build” each train. I expect it’s going to be a go-to travel toy for the next several months.

Books: very useful

Catie loves books, but books are big and heavy. There is no way I could carry enough of them to entertain her on a long trip. So last year before leaving for Spain I spent hours photocopying many of her favorite books. Some of the photo copies lasted the whole Camino and rest of the year. I copied a few more books for this trip and carry the whole mess in a big Ziploc. If you only have soft covered books, this might not be an issue for you, but we have a lot of hardcover and oversized favorites. Photocopying them was a life saver!

Portable DVD player: not so useful

Unless you have a DVD with amazing battery life (ours does not!), then I don't think these work that well for long flights. It's great here in Morioka, and is great in the car, but it was not worth it's weight and bulk on the plane.

Prepackaged activity books: eh, not that useful

I bought a few of these in various checkout lines but found we did better with full-sized coloring books or just plain paper. I think they are good in a pinch, but probably not worth the money.

Sticker books: mixed results

We have a few store-bought sticker books. To my surprise, Catie doesn’t spend much time with the free play books. Instead, she prefers activity-based books where she is supposed to match stickers to different parts of the books. We had 2 of these on the plane and it took us about an hour to complete all the activities in one of them.  

Magnet box: potentially very useful

I think this will be a more effective toy once Catie learns to read. Right now, it’s fun for singing the ABC song and playing with the dinosaur & animal magnets. I think you could make some really fun games for older kids with it. Maybe a tic-tac-toe board, something scrabble-like, or hangman would be fun. I’m open to suggestions on what else to do with it at age 3!

Magnadoodle: very useful at age 2, not so useful at 3

I think Catie must have outgrown this toy. It used to entertain her for a long time, but this trip, not so much. The little $3 version they sell in the cheap toy section at Walmart was our favorite.

Best travel toy we brought to Morioka: Thomas the Train travel box & track!

This thing has been the real winner in terms of entertainment and it doesn’t take up much space. I do not know what one retails for since we got ours secondhand, but it was definitely worth the $10 we spent on it! The flat cardboard puzzles and art supplies we brought are also getting a lot of use.

I'd love to hear ideas on how you keep your kids busy on a long flight. Best wishes to anyone taking a trip with a little one!