airplane activity ideas

we're going to be flying to NJ soon ( ) ... our portable dvd player doesn't work anymore without being permanently plugged in. my netbook doesn't have a thing for dvd's. so we need some activities. it's just a few hours, but still. here's what i have so far:

1. leappads (i'll buy new games that i'll give them ON the plane, so they'll be brand new)
2. crayons/paper
3. some barbie stencil fashion set (they love the big one they got for their bday, so i got a small one for their backpack)
what else can we do to keep busy?

 

Activity books (the kind with mazes etc.), mini games (we have a little travel "Hungry Hungry Hippos", and there are also lots of games that come as a set of cards you play with), Airplane Bingo (you could make that one up yourself, with stuff they might see on the plane), "Search and Find" books, kids magazines... those are my main ideas!

 

Stickers. We have a magnetic bingo set for the car(not that we've used it for that, lol). I believe we got it at target. You could find a bunch of travel games there I am sure. I agree with Search and Find. Anthony could do those forever. Oh-and hungry hungry hippos is great-and we just got them the regular version, vs travel size-but I'm not sure the people surrounding you would appreciate the game as much! Maybe travel guess who would be better. :laughing:

 

Sticker books, the bigger, the better. And lollipops, especially those ring pops. Helps their ears & takes a LONG time to eat, which is a bonus!

 

Magna doodle (or something similar), special new set of colouring pencils/crayons and books (bought for the plane that they haven't seen before), check craigslist or similar for a portable dvd player (they go really cheap now) and what about those books you get that you can dress up the cut out figures?

 

Do you have a smart phone or i-pad? My son played games on my phone this spring when we flew to Florida (turn the phone/data portion off). I downloaded a few new ones that they hadn't played and that kept him entertained.

 

great ideas! thanks, everyone!

 

You can also download a movie to your netbook from amazon and play it through the video player. I did that onto my kindle and it worked great. Amazon has 24 hour rentals so you don't have to buy the movie.

 

no...way!!!! i didn't know this!!! awesome! thank you!

 

^^ This!

 

My girls love doing workbook like the brain quest or homework helpers.

 

I bring balloons for at the airport to play with.
Butt we have to check in 3 hours before departure. Holland to the .

and I give all 3 kids a nintendo ds to play with.
stickers are always good

have a good flight

 

We just flew last week and didn't use the iPads at all! I got my girls new coloring books with stickers and crayola twist-up colored pencils and they were very busy. Good luck with your move!

 

Mine usually watch a movie or something on my iPad (downloaded ahead of time), but they get bored after an hour or so.

Mostly they color or write (now that they're learning to read/write). The biggest hit for our last trip was these Scratch and Sketch books -- especially this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593599722/?tag=mytwins02-20

There are a bunch of them -- some have pictures you can trace and color in (which my kids prefer) and some are just blank pages with suggestions for what to draw. But they utterly love scratch magic stuff in just about any form. The only downside is all the black gunk that gets all over them, but it's a small price to pay.

They also enjoy playing twenty questions. It requires my participation to start the game and guide them, but it keeps them entertained and requires no materials whatsoever. We use it in doctor's offices a lot.

If your kids have any grasp of spelling, hangman is fun too. And there's always tic tac toe, which just requires a pen and a cocktail napkin.

 

Small things you can just keep bringing out. That way there is alot of new things. The girls at that age also liked to be read to.

 

thanks so much for all the ideas!!! i may just read a few chapters to them to pass some time! (they're really into the ramona quimby series)

 

Mine just watch movies for 12 hours straight ... They're disappointed when an aircraft doesn't have an on-demand entertainment system, but all airplanes have at least the old version here, so always something to watch. They're fine reading a book too, or a little bit of coloring. iPhone / iPad apps were wonders too. They're very very good travelers, they don't know any better. I always order child meals as well (even for 2 hour flights) but I don't think in the US that's still part of the service these days ;(.