Traveling with my little darlings - Just in time for the season!

Our learning week (colors – stay tuned) has been broken into two parts – the reason being: an amazing trip to see our cousin for his big second birthday!  In the interim, I figure I could commiserate with other mothers traveling with children alone – proffer advice if it’s your first time and perhaps wax philosophical about whether it was all done correctly. 

There are few things that terrify me more than the prospect of traveling with my two-and-a-half year old and one-year old.  That being said: my family lives far from me, and when my husband is working, I travel with the kids by myself.   It is one of those experiences where other mothers look at you with sympathy, and other non-mothers/parents look at you with the “please do not sit near me” stare of horror.

I remember when I traveling with H alone, having the, “I don’t need any help” attitude.  I can do it all on my own; carry a child, juggle luggage, car seats, snacks, and dodge oncoming carts in the airport.  Now a days, if you are one of the unfortunate individuals boarding my flight with nothing in your hands, you’ve just been recruited into my ‘help me get these children onboard club’.  Congratulations.

I try, especially while at home, to limit screen time for the kids and engage in meaningful interaction and play (provided the coffee IV is flowing).  I do recall in my innocent (or was it oblivious), first child years, when I looked at parents with their children blissfully playing away on an iPad thinking, I’ll never need an iPad to travel.  Let me tell you… I would marry my iPad.  It has an unparalleled ability to occupy H on an airplane which allows me to pay attention to Ness.   

That being said, I pack busy bags (plural… PLURAL) to entertain both children for as long as humanly possible.  Here is a rundown of some of the bags and apps we have used whilst traveling with my little darlings:  Keep in mind – these are packed for “to” and “from” flights.  I don’t introduce all busy bags on the “to” ride. 

Busy Bags:

Gel clings – Yes, gel clings.  Both kids love them.  H plasters them on the window and Ness uses the tray table or my face; whichever is more fun at the moment.

Stickers – Stickers entertain both of them phenomenally.  Recently the dollar store started carrying “create a farm, castle, town…” which are fantastic.

Coloring books/crayons – Ness, more than H, really enjoys coloring.  I pack busy bags based on what they enjoy.  This is a nice quiet activity for any child who enjoys coloring.

Flash cards – Again, the dollar store has great flash cards (as does the Target dollar section) – we have animals, shapes, numbers, and colors.  We all work on them together.  For added fun, when we do animals, the kids make animal noises; something I’m sure my neighbors appreciate. Mooo.

Decorate a … - Every time we have traveled, I take foam shapes (pumpkins, turkeys, hearts, Christmas trees, eggs) from either the dollar store or target as well.  I take stickers, sticky eyeballs, gems, and jewels, whatever to decorate.  H enjoys giving them to the stewardesses upon our exit from the plane because he’s a ham. 

Figurines – For H, I take cars or dinosaurs.  For Ness I take Calico Critters.  These are small (and generally new) items for the kids.  In my experience, new items hold their attention longer and thus I try to introduce figurines when we get on the plane.

Play dough - This can be messy, but so are the goldfish crackers that are flung to and fro in the plane.  Both kids enjoy play dough – Ness just squishes but H will make snakes, balls, etc.

Books – Ness loves, loves, loves to read.  I pack a few books to read.  I also always pack a “search” book.  Both of the kids enjoy trying to find and count items.  Traditionally I bring either our 1000 Animals book or “I-Spy” books.

Mini-Puzzles – We have a box of four puzzles in a box from Melissa and Doug that H really enjoys.  He puts them together countless times.

I-spy bags – Fill a bag with colored rice, little toys, etc and have the kids find the items inside the bag.  You can refer to the Halloween squishy bags for ideas/directions.

iPad –

AppMates (free)- This is a great app if your children like to play with cars.  It is a Disney Car’s themed app that allows the children to drive cars down streets, race, chase cows.  H can easily play with this app for an hour.  You can purchase cars that are made for this app on Amazon or use a toy car from the house. 

PicCollage  (free)– I use this when creating my blogs, but it also is something both kids enjoy because they can drag pictures of themselves around, adjusting size, adding stickers, etc. 

Dino Puzzles (free) – Pretty self-explanatory, but H puts dinosaur puzzles together that move and have popping bubbles and stars once complete.

Starfall Learning ($2.99) – This app introduces letters, sounds, and small words together. 

ABBY – Basic Preschool Skills ($1.99)– This app have a number of different activities: pattern recognition, letters, counting/numbers, and shadow matching. 

Shapes (free) – Introduces and tests shapes for the kids.  This one is probably H’s least favorite, but he will still play for about 15 minutes.

I think the best advice I could provide is when planning is this: try to pack something that is new, always pack snacks, understand what will or will not entertain your child – but I’ve never known a toddler who could turn down a sticker or gel-cling – but mostly, try not to stress (too much).  Because ultimately, I take this approach: if you have ever traveled with children, you know what I’m going through.  If you haven’t traveled with children, the door to the airplane is right there (I believe there are usually two exits; one of which is an over the wing) and if necessary, you may see yourself out. 

Helpful travel paraphernalia:

JL Childress Ultimate Car Seat Travel Bag – turns your car seat into a backpack.  Awesome.  Because I have to travel with two car seats, I wear one on my back and strap (using a large buckle strap found at Target) the other onto my luggage to drag with me. 

I also saw an awesome travel backpack on pinterest – Amazon hasn’t had it, but it looks great (Kids TrayKit Backpack and Travel Tray).

I’m sure, there have been others who travel with greater ease, less stress, and perhaps fewer lost hairs than I, but in the end, we made it to our destinations (and back for that matter)!  Given the fact that the holiday travel season is upon us, I hope this may provide some insight or inspiration and a bit of hope that you will be able to travel, successfully this season!