Keeping amused?

[FizzyPop]

What sort of things do you take for your children to keep them amused on the plane ? I have a few things planned for them im just interested in everyone elses ideas

 

[wils]

How old are they?

 

[binkyboots]

the one time my sister took her dd (6) she took a couple of books, colouring things, small toys, a walkman with story tapes, her fingerknitting (wool which is knitted on two fingers to make long ropes) and a teddy.

she used her fingerknitting, watched the movies on the plane, listened to one story and never touched the other things.

virgin gave her a bag of things, she looked at that, enjoyed the scenery, slept a little, made countless trips to the loo.

 

[Miffy2003]

GameBoys, books, puzzles (written ones) have always kept my DDs entertained the whole trip (along with the seat back TVs)

We always buy a few comics each before we get on and they usually take uo the first hour or two

 

[FizzyPop]

Great suggestions

The ages are

DD age 12 (with learning dificulties and restricted use down one side of her body)
DD age 10
DS age 6
DS age 2 (also has restricted use down one side of his body)

 

[orlando novice]

I have a daughter aged 10, and two sons 8 and 6. We are travelling in 3 weeks and taking books and scoobie doos for DD along with travel connect 4 & Yu-gi-ho cards, word searches and gameboys for boys, oh and top trumps..........

 

[littlelaura]

on the other hand, if you get desperate, you can give them a dose of phenergan as a short term sedative. this will also help their little bodies adjust to the time difference a little easier depending on what time you fly out

 

[wils]

My DD 2 was delightful(?) on the flight by sleeping for 15 minutes in total on the way out!

We had packed

comics
sticker books
reusable sticker scene set - where you can use stickers on a background.
colouring
playdough
pez sweets
a new toy
Magazines/brochures
Mini Megasketcher

She loved being able to flick between channels on her TV without being told off.

 

[gbrchill]

on the other hand, if you get desperate, you can give them a dose of phenergan as a short term sedative. this will also help their little bodies adjust to the time difference a little easier depending on what time you fly out

Make sure you know how the child will react to phenergan before you fly. Some kids go the other way and would be bouncing around the plane.

Football sticker book with lots of stickers (or any kind of sticker book).

Chris.

 

[carolfoy]

Make sure you know how the child will react to phenergan before you fly.

Just to add its dangerous to take ANY sort of sedative before flying in case of emergency!

 

[littlelaura]

i didn't think of that, it was my mum who suggested it in the first place. maybe its not such a good idea after all.....

 

[FizzyPop]

Its not something I would do One of them is on tegretol For epilepsy and my little boy is on 3 different heart drugs, aspirin and tegretol. I like the idea of sticker books they all love them
I have colouring books and mini mandala designers at the moment.

 

[sbdorfner]

Both of my boys found tons of entertainment with a package of those flourescent colored "dots" (that people use for tag sales). We let them decorate notebooks, stuffed animals, themselves, us, whatever made them happy (aside from any part of the airplane) - you should hear the giggles when they see their "freckles" in my purse mirror.

Then you can make a game of collecting them all during the descent...

 

[wicket2005]

The first time we went the kids were 5 and 7, and I packed way too much. So since then have tried to travel a lot lighter. They have never been bored on any of their trips.

This year they used gameboys, ipods, magazines, and puzzle books as well as watching a film on the aeroplane.

 

[M1CKEY]

When we went away last year with our DD (who was 2 and a half at the time) we took sticker books, felt boards, colouring and we also took a portable dvd player so that she could watch what she wanted just to keep her entertained.

The DVD player was used for 2 minutes, she never watched the in-flight tv, played lots with her stickers and felt but she had the greatest fun going back and forward to the toilets with her pops(granddad).

I have to admit this year may be harder to keep her entertained as there is only 3 of us going this year. We'll toss a coin to see who's on toilet duty

 

[FizzyPop]

LOL the toilet duty is what I am dreading with all of them... Even though I know they cant go anywhere I still have to go with them just to make sure

 

[disneyholic family]

depends on the age....some ages are easy....some are hard....
you never know what's going to amuse them....
once when my son was 2 years old, the little damp washcloth (given out on the airline we fly right before meals) amused him for the longest time...
he used it to wipe down everything in sight....the windows, the tray tables, the armrests.....he started all over again when we got the next towel before the next meal...

i always had lots and lots of snack foods with us......

on one flight when my daughter was little, a bottle of peel off nail polish for little girls amused her for a while...

card games amused them at some point (though i can't remember when)..

for the life of me i can't figure out how we survived those 12 hour flights...
we tried to fly during the night so they'd sleep at least part of the way....

 

[gbrchill]

for the life of me i can't figure out how we survived those 12 hour flights... we tried to fly during the night so they'd sleep at least part of the way....

When we first started flying with DS he would manage to find vast resources of wakefulness and manage to stay away for ages - only to crash out as the plain started the descent. When woken from this power napp he would then get keep going again well after we were desperate to be asleep.

Chris.

 

[carolfoy]

Oh Chris, that made me smile, my DS will NOT go to sleep no matter how long the flight until we're just about landing, I then have to literally drag him through immigration when he's really grumpy then he'll wake up again when I'm ready to sleep!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We bought a portable DVD player a couple of years ago, with 2 batteries have over 8 hours worth of power, enough to just about keep our son happy.
Comes in really useful, although does add to the stuff we have to carry on board, books/cars etc - anything to get us through the flight though.

Our biggest problem is that despite usually getting bulkhead seats, our boy is finding the seats a bit uncomfortable (not wide enough basically).
Hence we will have to upgrade to Premium Economy next August...the £s just keep adding up.