Keeping a 3.5 Year Old Occupied on a Plane

[Mrs. M. Mouse]

we flew 7 hours with dd's 7 and 3 at the time. they watched movies, we brought little animals to play with and daddy made the girls a special activity book with disney pictures in it as a surprise for the trip. they were facinated with it and spent most of the trip looking through the book and glancing at their movie.

hope that helps

 

[musclemouse]

My 7 and 4 yr old will be flying for the first time next week. They have DSs and I have a PSP with some new favorite movies for the PSP. This will be enough for my boys.

 

[THicks863]

These are all great suggestions (except for the Benadryl ) unless your doctor says DD3.5 is sick! But here's a couple of things that have worked for me in the past. Take a map of the US (or use the one in the back of the airline magazine) and see if you/she can figure out approximately where you are, in relation to Boston and Orlando. Also, buy her a disposable camera (or 2 or 3) (the non-flash kind would be thoughtful of your fellow plane riders) and let her document her trip.

Good luck, and have a great time!

Tim, Angie, Matt & Parker
SSR March '09

 

[tam626]

We took our 3 yr old son in October & it was a 2 hour flight. the portable dvd player was the best! He is not one to sit still for long but this worked great.

 

[annhjk]

in addition to those things...

color wonders marker sets
wet wipes
fruit snack for take off and landing for her ears - they work great in place of gum for little kids.

My dr. actually recommends that I give my kids a little cold med. before we fly because it helps their ears adjust to the pressure.

 

[geogirl0626]

I am taking my niece to WDW in March. We are flying about 3 hours from Boston and I would love any suggestions you may have how to keep her busy on the plane ride! We are bringing coloring books and crayons and my iPod with movies downloaded, but not sure these will be enough. We are traveling in the middle of the day, and with everything new on the plane, not sure she will be up for a nap!

We just did a 4.5 hour flight a couple months ago with a 3.5 year old and a 10month old. For my 3.5 year old, we brought coloring books with crayons, books, a portable DVD player, lots of snacks and some lollipops. She was fantastic on the plane, besides wanting to go to the potty a lot because she thought it was neat! Neither of my kids slept at all, but we all survived and it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating.

Good luck!

 

[dvcdisney]

I guess it depends on what she likes to do. When we travel, we usually bring 2-3 books, 2 colouring books, crayons, lots of stickers and one or two favourite stuff toy. However, we are always prepared with the laptop and disney movies.

 

[LexisAuntieLala]

Thanks to all for your great suggestions! I should be able to keep her occupied through the plane ride, the airport, waiting to take off, sitting on the tarmac and any potential flight delays!!!!

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

All these are things I was going to recommend. (except the meds) What we do is wrap up all the little items like presents. Everything goes in a gallon size ziploc. Make sure all kids have the same # of little presents and then you can space out the opening of the presents by the length of time and # of items you have.

Last year we had loads of stuff from the Dollar store. Tinker bell & Pooh stamp sets, pens and paper sets, stickers, tic tacs, dried fruit snacks, Silly putty, small deck of cards, wind up jumping monkey(a favorite), glittery chap stick. all of it went in the bags at the end of the trip and was pulled out on the flight home.

This year I shopped at a teacher supply store and found lots of little reward items. Mini water color set (2" x1"), a single crayon with all the colors fitting into it's side. Freeze dried fruit. Etc...

All of this gets wrapped and every 15 minutes of so they can open a new present. By the time they tire of the first item it's time for the second and so on....

 

[kjbrown]

If you're not averse to a little sugar, dum dum lollipops.

We brought a DVD player and movies, which were great. A family across the aisle had one, but their battery died, so their little girl watched ours with our kids. My kids started getting a little whiny and my 18 month old started crying. The other mom whipped out dum dums and handed them out. LIFESAVER!!! They were great for getting the ears popping and entertaining the kids, who were movied out.

 

[lntsmom]

pipe cleaners, those tiny containers of playdough, a bag of buttons, some colored macaroni, feathers, leather strips (from the craft store...for necklaces), pony beads in interesting shapes

My boys have flown since they were small and I've never had a problem with them because I take along the stuff I mentioned above. I found that toy-toys were good for about 10 minutes, but craft supplies keep them busy the whole way!

If she gets bored, have her make a necklace to wear, make Mickey faces out the various items, build a hat out of pipecleaners. The important thing is, don't make any suggestions until she's explored everything and run out of ideas of her own.

 

[Fabinva]

Does she have a Leapster? my daughter played with hers when we traveled and she was extra quiet the whole flight.