Ideas to keep 2.5 year old occupied on a plane

We are off on a holiday to Townsville next week and I'm after ideas to keep DS occupied on 2 2hr flights each way.

So far all I've got is some new books, sticker book and colouring pencils.

Any ideas would be appreciated :)

Take a few things, but not too much, sometimes carrying it is more of a pita.
Pencils (pencil sharpener), sticker book and books are all great. The only thing we add to that is portable DVD player, snacks and i put kids music on my ipod. I bought some kids headphones and she loves it.

Something i always do is fill either a bottle or a sippy cup with a drink, so that they can suck on it on the way up and down. I also have a chuppachup in case of emergency. I don't regularly give my girls lollies, but on a plane i tend to give DD1 a chuppachup. She is so stoked to get and it and it takes so long to suck, it keeps her occupied, and it helps clear the ears with the sucking action.

2 hours will fly, by the time you take off they serve a snack it will be about time to descend again. Have a great holiday!

Agree with all Junglemum suggests.... with any luck your DS will have a little kip while flying too :)

Have a great holiday!

Not sure if you've got one - but when we recently flew with our 2.5 year old, we put some kids shows off iTunes on DHs iPhone.
We also had a etcher sketch, lots of imaginative play toys. Colouring books, reading books. Snacks.
I can also recommend maybe making stuff out of pipe cleaners, reusable and not so much mess/space.

Have an awesome holiday!

just subbing cause we are flying from sydney to brisbane in Nov and needs some ideas too :D

I can tell you that thinking about flying with a toddler is worse than actually doing it - I flew in April on my own with a 25 month old and a four month old. The bub was easy (a few BFs and constant holding!) and for DS1 I got a few new books and a couple of small toys. Plus I took some food and his water bottle. But what kept him quieter than anything was chomping away on pringles chips. He wouldn't normally get them, but I figured it would be a good diversion. It was. The boys were terrific and the flight time, um, flew by, fairly quickly.
DS1 needed a little reassurance right on take-off and landing - I don't think he knew what to make of it - so we had a few cuddles (with DS2 squished on my lap) and I just talked to him about what was happening and tried to make a real adventure out of it. He was totally fine otherwise.
Good luck!

At the moment DD loves her Magnadoodle - I draw on it for her too and get her to pick out what the picture is, or she can draw on it.

We flew to Europe with a 2.5 year old and a 3 month old! 24 hours on a plane... The thinking and planning was a lot worse than the actual flight, both our kids were so so good. For DD we took lots of little "presents" which she could open every hour or so: mostly stickers, drawing stuff, little toys. We tried to avoid sugar as we didn't want her to get hypo. Try snacks like popcorn.
I had also bought our DD a cool book called "Amazing Aeroplanes" which we read all the time before we flew, and she loved that. Once we were on the plane she was so excited to be given food, and to hear the captain speaking etc.
We had deliberately not fully toilet trained her before then, so she was still happy to wear a nappy. Otherwise waiting for the toilet would have been the worst part.
You'll be fine!

I just made up a fun pack for a friend who was travelling to Sweden with a 4 year old, 2 year old and 8 month old... by herself :o

I put lots of things in it like

• pipe cleaners for making models
• lacing cards (picked up from officeworks)
• fuzzy felt (also from officeworks)
• colouring paged downloaded from crayola
• coloured bluetac (from officeworks again!) to use as playdough/plasticine but without the mess
• a roll of aluminium foil, again for model making (picked this idea up from website "momsminivan")
• a fishing game, with fish images printed onto cards, staples placed in them, rods made out of chopsticks with magnets on the end.
• a magnetic whiteboard in A5 size to use with dry erase markers and to play magnetic games with
  the magnetic games I made were
• dress up dolls printed onto magnetic paper (available at officeworks again!!!) download the doll image from "wee wonderful paper dolls"
• printed photos of family members in duplicate to play a game of match (or any other images would work)
• printed images of train tracks (found on google images) to make a train game from

Some great ideas here... I'm subbing so I can make notes! :lol:

Depends what engages your boy... A Wiggles DVD on the iPod would work wonders with mine (as would food :rolleyes: ) and us playing with him would work too... :dunno: Sorry I'm not much help!

Can I ask all of those who have been on a plane with a toddler...did you let them walk around the plane with you? My biggest concern is keeping DD on my lap for 4hrs (18mths when we travel). She wont have her own seat and I find it extremely difficult to keep her in the one place if she is not strapped in somewhere.

Jaycee- Sorry to hijack, just thought it might relate to your thread :)

Who are people flying with?

Ali - We took Jorja for walks up and down the isle :) They HAVE to be strapped to you for take off and landing but you can unstrap them at other times. We've been to NZ with Jorja a few times. Depending on the airline the host/ess were fantastic and really helpful too!

xx

I would absolutely not let DS wander on the plane.. but that's just me.

Nettie- I dont mean wondering unsupervised but I am just thinking the whole stircrazy aspect of sitting in a seat that long.

Sunshine- Thanks hun, that is good to know. We are going with V Australia. Have heard good things about them, so fingers crossed. Our travel agent has booked us a bassinette thingy but I know there is no way that DD will go in it.

Some great ideas here.

I'll add what has worked for us.
If I take pencils I only take 2 or 3 - nothing worse than having to fish around the floor for a whole heap of pencils that have been dropped - same for toys/things with little bits and pieces (but that's JMO)
with the exception of a magnet board and magnetic pieces. We have dolls you can dress but I'm going to have a go at some cars/trains type ones for DS next time on a white board.
Mini magna doodle is a great idea as the pencil is already attached.
take a new thing they have never seen before - a toy or activity of some sort.
Take some sort of food that's a treat for them
After the first trip reward them for being so good on the flight - usually results in great behaviour on the way back (not my preferred option for everything but flights aren't everyday things either)
If there is a meal served, make sure you let the airline know in advance that you want a kids meal - they don't do it automatically even if you have told them the child's age and booked a child ticket :rolleyes:
Be extra nice to the hosties.....trust me on this one they can either hate or help you.

Bella my DS has flown more time than all my siblings put together I think lol and DD way more - no I'm not a fan of them in the isle unless you're carrying them. Turbulence is unpredictable and other passengers can be idiots. She'll probably surprise you. Both mine now get on, get all excited for takeoff - and promptly fall asleep lol.

Thanks for the replies, some fantastic ideas here, I shall be going shopping tomorrow for supplies!

I didn't even know u could put DVDs on to iPods, that's so cool! Now to work out how to do it :)

Bella, if you're holding DD it should be ok walking the aisle a little, but I wouldn't let her walk up and down :)

Jaycee- Have you checked the airlines info page? I just checked out the V Australia website and it listed through all the entertainment available. They have a dedicated kids channel as well and each seat has its own tv so that is great and also tips for travelling with children/toddlers/babies as well.

Wow Bella, that sounds great, which website is it?

I've just flown with DS. He had a biro and paper, some books, the window (works wonders!) and me. He climbed off the chair and onto it quite a bit rather than walking around.

Other children on the flight had DVD players or computers, which kept them quiet.