Flying with kids is always an adventure but thing about Emma which can make travelling more interesting and even frustrating sometimes, is that she is very active and hands on. She hates TV and movies and much prefers to be playing and interacting with people. We see this is a blessing because she’s always learning and growing in her imagination. Yet, at the same time, we’d love to be able to sit her down for an hour or so and watch a movie. We are the people on the plane saying “No, you are going to play on your iPad for at least 10 minutes before we play!” This has led us to become creative in the activities we bring on trips to keep her entertained. We have heard many comments over the years from airline crew and even other passengers about how much fun she’s having or “that’s a great idea!”
Sticker Book Activities
Sticker books are one of our favorite ways to keep Emma busy. She LOVES to have the tray table down but obviously when flying there are times the tray table can’t be down. The sticker books are an easy activity to do on a lap. She especially loves the look and find sticker books. We love the Melissa and Doug look and find books. The stickers are placed in areas that make sense. For example, the leaf sticker will be placed someplace a leaf would be. Compared to the Highlights Look and Find sticker books, where the stickers are placed in what we call, silly places. For example, a cup sticker might be part of the sleeve of a shirt. These are more challenging for Emma, so we like to have a variety of each type of book on hand to give her options. The Highlights books are smaller and easier and pack and they work really well at restaurants too.
On one of our most recent trips, I was trying to see if there was another type of sticker book that might interest Emma and I came across Cupkin sticker books. These are great because there is one page of stickers and then a separate page to color. There is also a wide variety of books to choose from our favorite has been the occupation stickers. Sometimes she loves coloring the pages more than the actual stickers. These work great for road trips as well!
Games
Playing games has been one of our favorite activities while flying. We are a game loving family! This usually requires the tray tables down and can be a little tricky with cards falling (we’ve had a few times we’ve had to ask the people behind us for a card that dropped) but it’s still a great way to help the flights go by quicker. We have tried the travel version of games such as sorry, battleship, etc. But they just weren’t the same – she didn’t like the travel smaller versions and they really weren’t as much fun. Which is why we have stuck with mainly card games.
A plus for card games is they take up MUCH less space in the back pack stuffed with activities. Our favorites have been Uno, Sleeping Queens (which is a favorite game at home as well) I Found it (we like the Disney version but they also have Marvel version.) and Guess Who (which she loves because there is an Emma card.)When she was younger, we also played Go Fish, Old Maid and a small Matching game.
Hands On / Sensory Activities
Emma is very hands on and loves sensory activities. One activity we used to do every flight was Playdoh. I’d have a ziploc bag full of playdoh, tools and little extras such as googley eyes and pipe cleaners. We used to love to make monsters, faces, etc. with the playdoh tools. We’ve even made clothes for her dolls (LOL dolls, smaller Disney Princess figures, Peppa, etc.) out of playdoh and pipe cleaners. As she has gotten older though, she doesn’t play with playdoh much anymore. I’ve had to find other items to use instead.
We have used playdoh slime – but it became a sticky mess which was quickly put away. This last flight I used a clay I found at target and it worked really well. She enjoyed making sculptures and mixing the colors to create new colors. The containers they came in are also amazing for storing the clay! I also decided to try a puddy I found at Hobby Lobby. It didn’t get sticky or gooey. It was actually just perfect for the flight. She really enjoyed taking her Shopkins and playing with them in the puddy.
Crafts
Emma has also really been into crafts but this has been a hard one to do on flights. I’ve done a Melissa and Doug felt craft book but it didn’t last long for her. The best luck I have had, is picking up small crafts from Target. Mondo Llama makes some great themed seasonal crafts that are inexpensive, small but fun! This flight we did Easter animal crafts. It was good because everything was a sticker so I didn’t have to worry about glue (except when I gave her the glitter glue that didn’t dry the whole flight and Andy stuck his finger in not knowing it wasn’t dry) and they had clear instructions on how to make them.
TIP: BRING A ZIPLOC if you are buying a craft set. I didn’t think about this for the Easter craft and ended up putting all the extra pieces and finished animals in a throw up bag from the seat in front of me. It worked but would be less creepy with a ziploc.
These are just a highlight of some of our favorite activities while flying. Who knows what she might be interested in for our next flight and what new and exciting things I might find! All part of the fun and adventure of travelling with Emma!