I have a trip coming up where I’m taking both children on a plane to visit my family on the other side of the continent. I’m both excited and filled with anxiety.

On the one hand it’s been absolutely ages since my oldest has been back to where he was born. While my mom and dad have both seen the kids recently, others whom I care a great deal about have not, and I don’t like that.

Since the kids are both older I feel like the trip will hopefully be better than those past, i.e. not quite so much work. (Although I recognize I might be overly-hopeful in that department, but I am choosing optimism here.) We tried to work it out where hubby could come too, i.e. help on the plane, but in the end it’s just me and the boys. It’s going to be better that way for many reasons, but OH MY GOD THE PLANE. You can sense the panic rising, yes?

So I’ve been plotting and planning in an effort to stem the tide of anxiety. Here are my current ideas for entertaining a preschooler and a toddler on a 4+ hour flight across the flippin’ country:

• Felt finger puppets designed to go with to nursey rhymes
  i.e. the three little bigs, billy goats gruff, jack and the beanstalk, hansel & gretl, ugly duckling, etc. Are there others that would be good? Here’s where I admit that I don’t know many nursery rhymes and I certainly don’t know all of those listed above. This would be homework for me not only in stitching finger puppets (I keep telling myself how hard can it be?) but in memorizing the stories!
• “Finger play” book, like Eentsy Weentsy Spider: Fingerplays and Action Rhymes
  I wish I could remember where I ran across this suggestion, but I know it had to do with a recent change to airplane rules where you are not allowed to get up or do anything for the last hour. Expecting children to behave themselves for an hour in the incredibly unnatural setting of an airplane is folly at best, but if that rumor is true, and if I can get my memory to work, maybe I can teach some of these types of “action rhymes” to the kids to pass the time. It’s worth a shot.
• I Spy bags, first seen here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/aebaby
  I love that this shop sells both completed versions and DIY kits. I will of course attempt to do it all myself first (although I’ve never purchased sewable clear vinyl before.. where does one get such a thing? And where do you get tiny crap?) but as time passes, I may well buy some. We’ll see. The I Spy books are suddenly popular around here so I think this will go over well throughout the trip. I wonder if one could design them to have different stuff added as time goes by? I guess you’d risk spilling ten tons of rice around if you did that!
• Crayon/pencil rolls with paper/sketch books
  I have scoffed at pencil and crayon rolls in the past as unnecessary, but now I understand the wisdom. You can keep track of said crayons/pencils. An excellent idea both for when on an airplane and travelling in general. Of course I will attempt to make these myself, but if pressed for time, they can be ordered. Yay! I am as yet undecided on whether both kids get crayons or if elder gets pencils, whether to use plain paper (or staple them into books) or get real sketch books, or just tiny books that can be included with the roll, or some combination thereof. Must think more.
• Quiet book for toddler
  This is a project that I’ve had in mind for a long time, in fact since my preschooler was a toddler, and I know I’ve written about it before, but of course have yet to make it. I did get as far as setting aside some baby clothes with intriguing closures to make into a book, so I could, if I had the gumption, square them off and make a quiet book of zips, buttons, snaps, etc. We’ll see. This is probably the least likely project to get done, which is ironic because it’s for the child who is going to be the hardest to occupy for that length of time. Perhaps I should revisit my priorities! I’m just not sure how to go about making the actual book.
• Car playset
  I usually bring a “car playset” that folds up compactly but opens up into this little 3D playset for Matchbox-sized cars. The kids think it’s pretty cool, I usually have cars anyway, but I’m undecided if it is value-for-space if you know what I mean.
• And of course, don’t forget the usual suspects!
  • Favorite and/or new books including one about airplanes for the new-experience-toddler
  • DVD player (FULLY CHARGED!), with reliable and favorite (and possibly new) cartoons or movie
  • music (possibly videos) on the iPod, possibly kid-friendly games on the iPod (but then possibly not because I don’t want it broken but as a last resort?)
  • …and then headphones (maybe two sets? Will they be able to share? Do I need a splitter?).
  • Actually the drawing materials and paper and books are “usual suspects” as well, but the rolls are new so I did those in a separate listing.
  • Workbooks for eldest (Mazes, coloring, math, dot-to-dot, stuff he likes doing anyway)
  • Coloring books
  • Mama’s Little Book of Tricks
  • Sticker books (although I’m annoyed at them now because the stickers always come off??? But we have several so might as well.)
  • Leapster for the eldest, but do I need to bring the Gameboy so the toddler has something to copy with? This is what we do at home to distract the younger, and hey sometimes I even get in some Tetris play, but do I really want to do this on the plane? Hmm.
  • Cars. Of course. Maybe even trains.
• Random idea: Paper dolls
  I have a set of paper dolls that have been floating around because I pulled them out of some kid’s catalog ages ago. Might as well bring them along, no?

As for when we’re there.. Obviously I don’t want to pack a ton of toys. The preschooler is actually at an age where it doesn’t take a lot to “entertain”. He can do a lot of things with me — cook, go for walks, watch a variety of shows with us, read books, play on the computer, draw, take pictures (CAMERA! Must take the camera) etc. I’m really not that worried about him. I will probably back some card games like Uno and Go Fish and that might be it.

The younger though… ay yi yi. So much energy with such a short attention span! He loves to do stuff with me too but that attention span means he won’t do it as long. There are a number of things we can purchase while there, like bubbles, and of course the grandparents have a random sampling of child-friendly items as well. He also is quite keen on wandering houses picking up random objects, so strategically placed tupperware type containers will work well. In addition to the plane items though, I’ve thought about making this kitchen playmat to play with while making dinner with regular kitchen objects, or bringing even more books. I prefer light and easily packed, which the mat fulfills, but books not so much, so I dunno. Maybe I can convince my Dad to cut up some 2×4s while we’re there for blocks. We’ll see.

I’m sure there are more things I haven’t thought of that I might add at some point. But for now… this is what I am thinking. I wonder if it’s too much? Perhaps I am overly-anxious? It will be fine, right? Right.

I heard someone ask once what the big deal was with travelling with kids; they thought travelling with children was wonderful! I had to force myself not to snort with derision. Maybe your children are blissful travelling companions, but so far mine have proved challenging at best, and I’m often more exhausted on coming home than I was leaving, and that’s saying something! On the bright side, it’s almost always gone better than I anticipated, so at least there’s that.

In the end, I am the sort of person who packs enough food and diapers in case we get stuck in traffic for six hours on the way home (seriously, it’s happened to me before!) so I may be overdoing it. But it’s got to be better than not being prepared. I hope.

To finish things off, here’s my theoretical craft priority list for airplane travel:

• Felt finger puppets/play sets (think houses for three little pigs, etc.)
• I Spy bags (Need to collect random teensy stuff! Plus vinyl for windows.)
• Crayon and pencil rolls, possibly with pockets for paper. Fold out books might work better?
• Kitchen playmat
• Quiet book

Shopping list:

• Teensy stuff for I Spy bags
• Vinyl for I Spy bags
• Paper for plane — books? Sheets?
• Fingerplay book mentioned above

Best get started!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 12:45 am and is filed under Parenthood, Thoughts, Etc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.