Apr 20, 20195 min read

Travel Activities For A Toddler

Activities that kept our 23 month infant/toddler busy on a 24 hour trip.

Everyone dreads to travel far with a toddler, especially if your home country is 24 hours flight.

Everyone dreads to travel far with a toddler. How to keep them engaged is always a concern, especially if your home country is 24 hours flight. Sharing some pointers on, how we handle our yearly India trip, and what I carried to keep my Bubu entertained who is soon graduating to the title, toddler.

We have to take 2 flights with a layover to reach our hometown. We make sure to book the first flight close to or at sleep time. For eg: our Bubu sleep routine starts at 7:45 pm. So for us a flight that takes off between 7:30 -9 works like a charm as he doses off with the take off (mostly, nothing is 100% perfect).
I always pack 3-4 meals for my infant that I am sure are his favorites. Alu paratha and veggie fried rice or boiled pasta sans-sauce with sautéed veggies. All are easy to eat, finger food and non messy. He has never liked packaged baby food or now that he is a month shy of turning two, the “kid friendly meals”. So as a backup some food is great. I proudly say he enjoyed my adult meal instead, fish, rice, veggies. Sorry I do not mean to hurt anyone but eating whole foods is my approach to nutrition. With all organic products made for baby from soap to clothes, why is food such an ignored topic in USA. Chicken nuggets, pizza, burgers, potato chips, mac and cheese how as a society we mindlessly just give our kids heat and eat, heavily processed, fast food. Off topic but it really blows my mind.
Carry some toddler to-go formula. It's convenient to just open and pop and not deal with the hassle of measuring. These boxes are perfect for travel as they are lesser in net quality so it won’t be a year supply that you have to finish just coz you brought it. I never understood how to deal with milk and its storage to last a 24 hr flight, as it is such a temperature sensitive product. I am not sure if every flight serves fresh milk onboard, so this is my backup.
Last but not the least the Activities. These activities are inspired by the YouTuber Hidden Gem. She is an awesome mom, and a former Montessori teacher, I always learn so much from her videos. Check her video on why she chose these activities:- here.

You will find a lot of toys and products targeted for kids+travel, each costing $25-$40, which adds up quickly. The ones Hidden Gem recommends I brought almost everything she mentioned and a little more that caught my eye. All the items are from Diaso and few from Dollar Tree. It costed me a total of $25. It was very entertaining for my Bubu, looking forward to what your Bubu thinks.

My personal touch was how I organized it. I love to be organized and come up with systems that suit our personality and are practical. Hidden Gem recommends to put everything in a A3 zipper pouch and the tiny bits in a organization small box. My bubu will be more interested to see what else is in there, pulling out things and moving on quickly to the next activity as there is a treasure trove all buried in one bag.

Instead I bought 5 pencil pouches with 3 hole punch, added D clips to the hold it together and done. The pencil pouches have 2 zipper compartments so its more activities/organization contained in a small space. They are different colors so it's easier to remember what is in what instead of opening or guessing.

#1 Pouch (has 3 activities)

Etch-a-Sketch (recommended by a friend; thanks Arundhati)

Chalk-pen (less messy) and a magnetic flexible blackboard

A medicine container turned into color sorting and open-and-close-container most exciting for a infant/toddler

He loved all three, Etch-a-sketch was his favorite. Chalk and blackboard, medicine container also were a hit. He played with them several times. At this age 15-20 mins with each activity is the amount of attention span they will have. So keep patience.

#2 Pouch

Wheat dough clay + cutters + roller

The Daiso pack of clay had the cutters, molds, roller and 7 shades of clay. I looked through all the options to find molds and cutters Bubu would identity and like. Example cars, teddy are his favorite so that helped. I also brought a organizing box from Daiso, so it was easy to play and put back, as well as keeps it from drying especially as its wheat based. My box had only 6 compartments so I carried one color less. Bubu wasn't a very big fan of clay. Maybe because I avoided giving it to him until recently as he kept putting it his mouth (tried every month). But he did get engaged 2 times for a good 20 mins. I had to show and he would follow which generated some interest. I also made another game in which I would spell out the color lets make a red car, a yellow car. He got excited and then became the leader announcing which color and mold he wanted to use next and then made it. He didn't get creative or explore as much. Maybe your Bubu would, its a great Idea, definitely carry it.

#3 Pouch

Coloring book + stubby crayons

Just carried a return gift coloring book and brought the colors at Dollar Tree, luckily the book was small enough to fit inside the pouch. Again the book was trucks which he is obsessed with since last few weeks. The stubby colors were perfect as they don't break as easily, were just a dollar (so would not bother you if some get lost) and had a dual ended tip with a different color. Better than carrying honey sticks or some organic brand which would cost $20 or more.

#4 Pouch

All stick-it stuff - stickers, washi tape, post-it notes, post-it page markers and a notebook

Again brought things he likes example car, star and animals. These items can be dual purpose. I found this A-Z sticker sheet, just call out the letter as your Bubu will choose and stick. Bubu was repeating after me as he loves to try everything we say and alphabets are mostly easy to so he was excited. Or like some ideas Hidden Gem mentioned are on Post-it page markers and the Washi tape one. The post-it page markers can be used more interactively by calling out a color and your Bubu picking the color and sticking it. Washi tape can be used to stick in a book but also to stick loose items and your Bubu will pull it out it's really fun for them. He loved all of these activities and kept him most engaged almost stretches of 30 mins if lucky.

#5 Pouch

Velcro stuck on wooden sticks, silicone cupcake liners, used for stacking and pouring activities, pouring item.

Hidden gems uses buttons, I brought these monkey erasers (reason being they were cuter than a button, pun intended). These can be used as pouring item for the pouring activity. And also as color identification. And lastly tiny toy vehicles, it was this set of erasers with moving wheels and everything (again too cute to resist).

PS: On our way back I carried a toy auto rickshaw, scooter, taxi and a plane in the collection as Bubu was really excited to see life size ones and then delighted to own toy ones, and would be happy playing hours with them

Also carry 1 favorite book they adore at the moment. It is very comforting to have familiar objects.