4-hour flight with 3 kids - help!

[mermaidwannabe]

We have one one-hour flight which will be fine, I think, but then (with about 20 minutes to get to our next flight) our next flight is from Salt Lake to Orlando. IT's four hours!! My DDs are 8, 5 and 2. What am I going to do to keep them entertained????? I know to take things to draw but how long will that last? Everyone will be kicking us off of the plane by the time we get to Orlando...any great plane entertainment ideas? Can game boys be used on the plane? I'm stressing.

 

[WDW-UK]

We are coming over at Easter and as we are coming from the UK will have the great delight of a 10 flight with a 5 year old asking "Are we there yet" every 10 minutes.


Help

 

[all4fun]

Yes, game boys can be used in flight. If you have a portable DVD player, bring that along too. On our last trip, we brought my 8 year old niece along and prior to the trip we went to the dollar store and picked up a lot of cheap "activities" she could do - stickers & book, coloring book and crayons or pens, to name a few things. They actually had quite a few things that were portable and fun for the kids. You might want to check that out if you have a Dollar store in your area. She also played with the game boy too.

hth,
Cheryl

 

[safetymom]

Just prepare your kids for the flight. There was a little boy in front of me I felt sorry for yesterday. He was afraid the plane was going to fall down. He screamed and didn't want to stay in his seat.

He did calm down but I felt so bad for him. He was continuing on another flight. Hopefully he was OK.

 

[4greatboys]

We love our portable DVD player. It really does help them pass the time watching a movie (or maybe 2 in your case ). Also take some snacks on board.

 

[Idahomom]

We flew from Spokane WA to Orlando w/4 kids. Does your flight from Salt Lake to Orlando have tv's in the seats? It was well worth the $5 per seat for the kids to be able to watch Nickelodeon and the Disney channel. I would bring plenty of snacks so you aren't waiting for the snack cart to come by. We also let our two younger dd's bring a favorite stuffed animal and a small fleece blanket. Each of our kids brought their own backpack filled with things they picked out-books, toys, travel games etc...

Since you are flying into Orlando chances are there is going to be A LOT of children on board. On our flight from Denver to Orlando there must have been at least 30-40 kids under the age of 12. And it was amazing-if you didn't know there was that many kids on board you would have never believed it! Nobody will want to kick you off! Oh and try to get window seats if you can-my kids loved watching out the window.

I would also give them gum while you are taking off and landing to help their little ears. That can be very uncomfortable for some people.

Have a great trip!

 

[safetymom]

Just an FYI. If you need gum for your kids they don't sell it at the airport in Orlando.

 

[Twende]

We had a Leap Pad with head phones that we used on our last trip with our little one. It was a huge success. I also took the usual coloring things and silly putty( I guess that would only work for your older two). I had a few of those little eye piece things that make everything look crazy when you look through it. One was like fly's eye view. It was pretty entertaining. A DVD player is a great idea.

I took some clean easy food snacks and gum. Yu could always gift wrap a few little things, really good with lots of tape , so it will take them a while to open things.

Try to relax and plan ahead as best you can.

 

[bigsis1970]

lolly pops or gum for take offs and landings, coloring items - they make neat little books now that have crayons right attached (spongebob, dora, hello kitty) gameboys, CD players w/ headphones, books ---- Drammine or benadryl (sp) should make them sleepy !! LOL.. I also let my DS (he is 8 now but 5 the first time we flew) bring 2 or 3 matchboxes to play with on the tray table & in the airport while waiting and my DD bring polly pockets and mini bratz.. Hope this helps some.. Michelle

 

[CEDmom]

We have only 1 child so having her outnumbered is a real asset . Anyway, she LOVES craft supplies (crayons, stickers, tape, colored paper, foam shapes, pipe cleaners etc) and puzzle books (word finds, find what's different etc) so before we go anywhere I stock up on all kinds of stuff that will keep her busy and be new. I also take individual packets of Crayola model magic and Crayola color wonder. LOTS of snacks are a must as well.

 

[suemac]

When our kids were young, we took several cross country trips (6 hours)

They each had a small back pack. In the back pack they had a ziplock for every hour. They have no idea what is in there until we take off! The surprise alone will fill time!
I would include everything from little peoples, small books, small snack, water or juice etc. But tried to mix it up so they had different activities from hour to hour.
The older ones would get a different game boy game every so often.
Print some disney coloring pages online
Instead of Game boy try the little pixters even for the 2 year old.
If you are relaxed they will be!

 

[jckdisneybound]

You got some great ideas. Let me add a few. I don't think you'd be giving your 2 y/o gum so a dosage of tylenol an hour before the flight will help with little ears. Definatly bring a good variety of snacks and juice boxes. It's amazing what they want to eat. And bring something special that they normally wouldn't get at home. New activities that they have never seen. When flying with my 2 y/o, We have the portable DVD player, her blanket snacks, some board books, color wonder markers, paper and crayons. A travel magnadoodle. And bring a small blanket to change the 2 y/o on, most likely you will have to do it on the floor, so at least you will have a cleaner serface to do it on.

Good luck and have fun. My DD has done several 6 hour flights from Albany to Vegas and it's amazing how well she did. You will be surprised.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Thank you everyone. Those are GREAT ideas!!! I'm going to start NOW to find some of these things. I know they'll be well worth it! I don't know what a pixter is but I'll find out. Anything!! Thanks for the great replies!!!

 

[G00fyDad]

One peice of advice.... take lots of Zanex.

 

[Schmeck]

4 measly hours? We drive to WDW, 22 hours on the road, have done it when the kids were really little...

(We drove out to Lake Powell from NE Massachusetts once too - kids were 10 and 7 at the time.)

But enough bragging, LOL!

Great things to take are those 'Yes and No' coloring books, as long as you don't lose the special marker that goes with it. The 8 yr old might like the ones with games in them.

My girls love beads. When they were little, we used the pony beads on shoelaces, but now we've graduated to seed beads. You need some tight lidded containers, etc, to keep them from spilling though!

Remember to check and make sure that if you bring kid's scissors, they are the very rounded tip type - there's a type of Fiskar scissors for kids that are not always allowed on an airplane.

Be thoughtful of the stewards/stewardesses and don't bring anything messy! No one wants to have to clean up playdoh, etc, off the seats and trays!

 

[dtsaos]

I recommend investing in a Leapster-an educational hand held game by Leap Frog. It's just a little bigger than a gameboy, but you don't have to feel guilty letting them play it because it's educational. Your 8 and 5 yr. old would both enjoy it as it has different games at diff. levels such as kindergarden - 5th grade. A lot of the games are characters like spiderman, spongebob, dora etc. It is kind of pricey-about $65.00 for the leapster with one cartridge and each game cartridge goes for about $20.00 but it's something they'll use for a long time after the trip too. And by the way, I have a hard time feeling sorry for you since we'll be driving from New Hampshire-about 23 hrs. in the car with a 5yr. old, 3yr. old and 8 mo. old! Not looking forward to it! Glad you started this thread, I got some great ideas from all the great posts!

 

[mum of two pirates]

My kids love the Crayola color wonder, If you havent heard of them, they are white coloring pages with black outlines of the pic. Then all the markers are clear white, but when you touch the marker to the page it turns it color, all the color is on the page not the marker, so when you child colors on the seat in front of her, it wont show up. for the older kids, one of the neatest gifts weve gotten was for my sons birthday. Walmart has these in the stationary dept. It is a purple pad of paper, and a purple pen with a light on it. You write on the page and you cant see it. You shine the (black) light on it and you can see what was written. It kept my kids busy everytime we we were in the car. $3.50 I think (We will be using the little backpacks from chadwicks.)

 

[digskat]

The leap pads are a good idea but kinda bulky. We did the 22hr drive and my kids enjoyed coloring and doing word search. The kids teacher's gave them some activity books, kinda like homework but not really and that way they weren't too far behind at school, they did them in the car. My kids are 5 and 7 so they are at the age were they still like school. Good luck. My Best friend flew and they took there game boys. I've also seen these Video now players that play movies they look kinda cool. Good luck, and have fun!

 

[digskat]

One peice of advice.... take lots of Zanex.

Do you mean Xanax?

 

[anditoo72]

I took 5 kids on a three hour flight and one was only the age ranges were from 6mos to 11 years for the four older ones my Mom got each kid a backpack and I helped her fill them with crayons Or markers, paper and coloring books, snacks, leap pad or game boy with at least two games, a reading book or picture book and I did get the ear phones so they could enjoy the movie. The kids were excellent, even the 6 month old. I think it was just such an experience for them (and I threatened them with bodily harm ) they didn't act up at all. Good luck though!!!