entertainment on plane for 4 y.o.

[AlisonR80]

ok, he's almost 5, but immature for his age. He doesn't like to color for more than a minute, he can't read...what would you suggest to keep him entertained? I should add that he is an extremely active boy and has trouble sitting still. I keep reading on here about bringing a portable DVD player (or laptop?) to watch a movie. He will watch a movie pretty well, we don't have a portable DVD player but my dad has a nice laptop and it might play movies, i don't know for sure. If it doesn't would you buy a portable dvd player?
Any activity suggestions are welcome

 

[squirrel]

Does he have any smallish toys that he will play with for a long time?

How about silly putty? The Color Wonder books are a bit different as they only color on the page.

 

[AlisonR80]

Does he have any smallish toys that he will play with for a long time?

How about silly putty? The Color Wonder books are a bit different as they only color on the page.

he likes hot wheels, small transformers (McD ones) and playing cards, to name a few things. We do have some color wonder, maybe i could buy a few new books of those.

 

[zoemurr]

are pretty happy with their leapsters. I would not spend the $$ for a DVD, but that's just me. I'm cheap.

I would go to the Dollar Tree and spend $5 on new toys, and give them out every half hour or so.

They have lots of plastic animals, and my son likes to bring a big handful of pipecleaners to build with. Maybe some colorforms or stickers? a magnetic toy, magnadoodle, play uno with you..

have fun. We leave tomorrow!

 

[AlisonR80]

we also have a leapster, but the batteries die so fast in it. What kind of batteries do you put in yours?

 

[zoemurr]

It makes the Leapster last quite a long time. We pack it and recharge them before we get home. For at home we also bought a power adapter. They don't mind sitting next to the wall with it plugged in if they want to play.

 

[carj]

How long is your flight? Ours was only about 2 and a half hours. About the first 30 minutes was interesting because of take-off and another 30 minutes was interesting because of landing. 30 minutes was taken up with getting a drink and a snack and of couse checking out the airplane bathroom!

That left us with an hour to fill. My DS7 brought his DS and DD4 played with a sticker book. I would not buy a portable DVD player for the plane, unless you know that you will use it other places.

You could try Wiki Sticks, those are not messy and interesting.

 

[AlisonR80]

It makes the Leapster last quite a long time. We pack it and recharge them before we get home. For at home we also bought a power adapter. They don't mind sitting next to the wall with it plugged in if they want to play.

if i can find one in stores before we go, otherwise i'll just buy more batteries.

How long is your flight? Ours was only about 2 and a half hours. About the first 30 minutes was interesting because of take-off and another 30 minutes was interesting because of landing. 30 minutes was taken up with getting a drink and a snack and of couse checking out the airplane bathroom!

That left us with an hour to fill. My DS7 brought his DS and DD4 played with a sticker book. I would not buy a portable DVD player for the plane, unless you know that you will use it other places.

You could try Wiki Sticks, those are not messy and interesting.

it's 2 hours 42 minutes. My older son will be bringing his DS too, and sometimes Z likes to watch him play.

 

[Mommy2SabrinaJeremy]

he likes hot wheels, small transformers (McD ones) and playing cards, to name a few things. We do have some color wonder, maybe i could buy a few new books of those.

I just purchased some Disney cards at Dollar Tree yesterday. Mine are Go Fish and something else I can't remember. They had several different types with different characters...Mickey, Pooh, etc.

 

[Bethmomof6]

I am packing all sorts of trinkets in back packs for my girls that I have been buying over the last couple months. They don't get to open the back packs until the plane takes off. I have crayons and coloring books, pipe cleaners (someone told me to pack those, LOL!), little etch a sketches, toys from the dollar store, snacks, a magnetic set, playing cards, etc, etc. Those Wiki sticks are so neat! I looked at something similar at Dollar Tree and wish I would have bought some... oh well! Oh and we are taking a portable DVD player but we already had one.

Have a fun trip!

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

We were so worried about that with our 4 year old twin boy on our trip in May. But they were perfect, they did not even move a muscle practically. they love the take off and landing. We went out and bough two portable DVD players just for the trip (our old one had just broke) and they each watched a movie. We brought their Pokemon cards and they played those for a while too.
Oh yeah, they loved listening to the music on the plane with the earbuds. they dont normally like listenign to music, but that was something fun for them to do on the plane too.

Have a great trip!!!

 

[Miss LD]

I would totally go with a portable dvd player. We have a hyper 4 year old and we rely on it for stuff like long car rides and plane rides. Maybe ask some friends. I'm always happy to lend mine out to people who are travelling.

The other thing that worked for us was bringing a new little lego kit and surprising him with it. The pieces were kind of a pain, but he loves lego and we dumped it all in a ziploc bag and we were fine. It kept him busy for about 25 minutes.

The other thing was that we told him he was not allowed to walk around the plane. He was allowed a bathroom trip, but that was it. We explained it's just like our van. No walking around and keep your seatbelt on. I expected an argument, but there was none.

Oh, and he loved the booklet in the seat pocket that says what to do in an emergency. He called it his treasure map.

 

[twinmom2]

We always fly with two portable DVD players for our girls. One movie can take up the entire trip. It makes it a very enjoyable flight for us.

 

[yellowtink]

When I was that age i played with Oscar(my imagineary friend) he got pretend meals. It is fun to play with the table in front of you. It is fun but the person in front of you gets annoyed. They have cheap stamps wiht ink on them if u are not to worried about him gettin messy or you could explain about messes.

 

[brymolmom]

I don't know about you - but the most difficult part of the trip for me is sometimes the time when you sit in your seat until you're in the air and can get all the 'stuff' out. Especially when you are waiting in line for takeoff for a long time. Anyway, what I do is start a chapter book a day or two before and read a few chapters to the kids. They LOVE hearing them and always ask for more chapters. Maybe you could do something like this and look for a book from the library that would interest him - a subject area he would like?

Other than that - once we're in the air - I don't need this too much now but I used to bring a 'goodie bag' filled with a bunch of stuff that they could go through and take things out and look at them/play with them. A lot of dollar store stuff would go in the bag - maybe a Disney mini stuffed animals or disney mini figurines (I find all I can at garage sales). We also like playing 'I spy' or 'guess what I'm eating' (kind of like 20 questions but just limited to food items). And just lately my kids have been totally into the game Sorry - if your son is - look for a travel version. That would distract him for quite a while - I would recommend it.

We also do the DVD player but don't always use it (depends on flight length and any delays). Make sure he's used to wearing headphones for it.

 

[Perditamarie]

Headphones work great w/the Leapster too. Also, an MP3 player loaded music and stories are great for kids to listen to as they play.

 

[dino mom]

I have DD9, DD7, DS5. We have flown to Hawaii, Massachusetts, and are going to Orlando in September from CA. The DVD player has been a real help. We also use it in the car and we drove from Sacramento to Vegas (8 hours) and only stopped once. I usually buy new movies starting a month or so before the trip and they can't watch them until we go. It has been the best $90 I have ever spent.

 

[richmond282]

We took a DVD player for my DD to watch, which she did a little. Honestly, she really just wanted to look out the window. Our flight was only 1 1/2 hours, though.

The DVD player came in handy when we were sitting in the airport waiting to board the plane. It kept her quiet and made the time go faster.

 

[AlisonR80]

I went to target and bought a color wonder set, a travel etch a sketch, travel magna doodle, sticker book, and mickey mouse surprize ink game book. I couldn't find wiki sticks or Sorry travel version. As far as the leapster goes i will just buy more batteries because it's kinda on its last leg and not worth it to buy the recharger.

So i'm guessing i should save some of this for the trip home? How do i keep him from getting into the stuff before getting on the plane?

 

[natnelliesmom]

We just bought Leap Frog Tags for our girls. They are so cool! I am not a fan of "plugging in" your children- but these are not video games so I feel a little better about them.
I like them for two reasons- you can use them with headphones- and they utilize real children's literature and not just cartoon character stories.
They were great on the plane and didn't take up much carry-on space. They entertained both my 3 and 5 y/o.
We also brought along color wonder markers, finger paints and workbooks. The finger paints were fun- and only showed up on the paper- so no mess.
My younger daughter enjoyed a new set of Little Mermaid plastic characters and my older daughter loved all the snacks we packed that she doesn't normally get to eat. I.e. fruit snacks and Pringles chips.
Enjoy the trip!